THE presence of Australian basketball superstar Andrew Bogut is expected to attract a sell-out crowd to Newcastle Entertainment Centre for Saturday’s night NBL pre-season trial between the Sydney Kings and Illawarra Hawks.
A Kings spokesperson said on Friday only “a couple of hundred” tickets remained unsold for what was tipped to be a crowd of more than 4000. Fans still hoping to attend were advised to book on ticketek.com.au, rather than take a chance on a walk-up purchase.
It will be the first match between two NBL teams staged in Newcastle since the demise of the Hunter Pirates at the end of 2005-06.
Bogut, after a 13-year NBA career with Milwaukee, Golden State, Dallas Mavericks, Cleveland and LA Lakers, has signed with Sydney for the next two seasons.
Saturday will be his fourth pre-season appearance for his new team, who are hoping to challenge for their first championship since 2008.
Sydney players attended a meet-and-greet with fans at Broadmeadow on Friday.
