Some internationally recognized acts have already booked time at the yet-unfinished Chaifetz Arena.
The Harlem Globetrotters are scheduled to perform in the new stadium’s first basketball game on Friday, April 11, bringing the game’s tricks and theatrics into Midtown St. Louis.
The Globetrotters’ 2008 “Magic As Ever” world tour will showcase some of the group’s famous basketball spinning, tricky handling skills and awesome dunking-moves that are not often seen on a conventional court.
“It’s an exposition as opposed to a super-competitive game,” said Jeff Fowler, associate vice president of marketing and communication at Saint Louis University.
The show features red- and-white-peppermint-striped- uniforms, team members who cheer and whistle and Globie, the team’s playful mascot.
The Globetrotters’ show will be among the first of many diverse events held in the Chaifetz Arena between the building’s opening in April and the SLU basketball team’s first game there in the fall.
Fowler said that concerts and high school basketball games are some of the other possible events to be held in the arena.
On the court, the team aims to entertain family audiences, but Fowler said he hopes that the show will draw a student crowd.
“I would hope that if students are basketball fans, they come to the performance as well,” Fowler said.
The Globetrotters have visited six continents and 118 countries since they were founded in 1927.
According to the Globetrotters’ official website, the team has performed for international dignitaries such as popes Pius XII and John XXIII and the Soviet Union General Secretary Nikita Kruschev.
In 1956, Peru suspended fighting for a few hours during a civil war so the Globetrotters could perform their world-renowned act.
The Globetrotters played their 20,000th game in January of 1998, surpassing every other leading professional sports team. In that same year, the Cubs reached only their 17,978th game, the Green Bay Packers reached their 1,045th.
The Globetrotters’ Chaifetz Arena performance will be at 7 p.m. on April 11.
Tickets for the event will range from $25 to $100 and can be purchased beginning Saturday, Feb. 9.
To order tickets by phone, call (314) 534-1111 or (800) 293-5949.
