All-Star Mass Appeal

This past weekend, the city of Orlando hosted the NBA All-Star weekend for the second time after 20 years. From February 24-26, there was a list of different events and parties to account for the thousands of people who would be attending. A guide of the different events was available at http://www.orlandoallstarweekend.com/ .This was definitely a weekend of spending and Orlando profited greatly. Considering that many of the seat tickets ranged from $25 to upwards of $500 for actual NBA All-Star events, there were parties downtown going for much more. Many prominent artists came for this big event and even hosted, for example Drake, Chris Brown, Rick Ross, R. Kelly, and many more. I actually attended two events and luckily for me, I only spent a total of $5 (that was my weekend highlight). On Thursday night I attended a party hosted by DJ Kid Cupri and DJ Biz Markie. I registered on a complimentary guest list a week before so I didn’t pay a dime since I got there right before 11pm. On Friday I attended the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge at the new Amway Center that featured the Rookie and Sophomore Classes battling it out. I saw Blake Griffin of the Clippers do what he does best, dunk. I saw Jeremy Lin of the Knicks, who became a star overnight essentially and even artist Wale as a spectator on the sidelines.

                              *My friend and I with Blake Griffin inside the Amway Center (really a cut-out of Blake)*


This past weekend is an example of something that appealed to the masses. Sports is something that brings people together and all over the world there were those anticipating this weekend. In my first post I stated that I wasn’t a sport fanatic but the collective energy brought about by an event like this made me enjoy it. With the amount of people that traveled and met in a centralized location, the crowd control provided by Orlando’s police was exceptional. For events such as these, the security and safety of the special guests and the patrons are of high importance. In this WFTV article, the project manager explained its importance in the weekend’s preparation. The structure of a huge project like this requires a huge team that can maintain control.