Haphazard and thrown together was an apt description. The "meet and greet" portion of the event was the season ticket holders sitting or milling around the room where pregame reception was held, with no structure or planned remarks, witih the only refreshments being small bowls of M & Ms on the table. And they weren't even the buff and blue M and Ms that we get at the games. The one positive, and it was a big positive, was that the men's and women's coaches mingled with the crowd and was williong to answer any question presented to him by the individuals. (That is where I asked CC about the status of Jabari West and got the answer we suspected but were hoping against, namely injured and out indefinitely). During this time, a hand full of players were shooting around with the children in the crowd, and a few adults. Then the event moved to the arena, where there was an introduction of each player on both teams, after which the players mostly sat by themselves with the exception of Bishop, Adams, a couple of the women's players and the respective coaches. This portion, which occurred about 1 hour after the scheduled start time, was the first time a microphone was used. Softball questions were asked of all, first by Tanya then by members of the crowd. (I did ask what changes in style we can atncipate). Someone asked for suggestions for the new team name and Bishop responded the Generals. CC then pointed out that the Washington Generals never won any games. We then got instructions on how to cheer from I believe one of the members of the cheer squad. (It was at this point that Wisconsin Colonial and I left). I am happy to have attended (I wasn't planning on it until we learned that the coach had a change of plans and would atttend), mainly because being in the Smitty, hearing the pep band, seeing the cheer teams, etc. has gotten me more excited about the rapidly approaching season. still, at least from my perspective, the prior years events, whereby we would witness an open practice, a short scrimmage then mingling with the players and coaches afterwards, wth a nice meal served, would have been my preferable event. FYI...I asked about when we may expect invoices for the season tickets. Apparently, the holdup is (I believe) due to the transition to Ticketmaster. It looks like paper tickets have gone the way of the VCR and are now obsolete.
One other thing...I asked the coach who he thought we would be most pleasantly surprised at. I will give you the opportunity to take some guesses before I reveal his answer.