Record Crowd of Nearly 10,000 Will Pack Spark Arena Sunday

The all-time attendance record for a basketball game at Spark Arena, which has stood for 10 years, will be smashed on Sunday.
 
The black curtain which covers the eastern wall at Breakers' games at Spark Arena is being removed, revealing hundreds more seats for Game Four in the Championship Series against the Sydney Kings.
 
It means capacity will be at 9740, significantly higher than the 8903 who crammed into Spark two days ago for Game Two against the defending champions.
 
More importantly, the new capacity far exceeds the previous record of 9330 set on 7 April 2013 in Game One of the Grand Final Series against the Perth Wildcats.

Back then, there were fewer rows courtside for the game than there will be on Sunday.
 
"It's going to look incredible in the stadium with the crowd now surrounding the court the full 360 degrees," says Breakers Chief Operating Officer Lisa Edser.
 
Edser says the new seating means repositioning the Monstavision screen in the arena, which is the biggest action replay screen in the league.
 
"We will now have two big screens in the arena, so no one attending the game will miss out on the full gameday experience," she says.
 
To illustrate just how far the Breakers' organisation has come in the last 12 months, you only have to pull up the official NBL attendance statistics from last season.
 
Forced to play all their games in Australia because of border closures due to COVID, they played many of their NBL22 games in Hobart behind closed doors.  They finished the season bottom of the league.
 
Records show that on 14 January last year, just one fan was in attendance to watch the Breakers play Melbourne United at MyState Arena.

The statistics also show two games in Hobart, almost 12 months ago to the day, had zero fans.
 
The series is locked at one-all going into Game Three in Sydney on Friday.  
 
For Friday's victor, it means they will travel to Auckland knowing they can lift the trophy with a win at Spark Arena on Sunday.
 
The Breakers have beaten the Kings on their previous two visits to Sydney, so there is a genuine possibility that Mody Maor's players will play for the championship in front of their home fans on Sunday.
 
However, there is a warning for fans yet to buy their tickets.
 
Fewer than 2000 remain, even with the increased capacity at the arena.