Event & Arena News

COLUMBUS, OH – The NBA comes to Columbus when the Cleveland Cavaliers, led by LeBron James and new head coach Mike Brown, host the Toronto Raptors in a pre-season game at Nationwide Arena on Sunday, October 23 at 6 p.m. Tickets go on sale Saturday, August 27 at 10 a.m. at the Nationwide Arena Ticket Office and through Ticketmaster.

As the home team in this neutral site contest, the Cleveland Cavaliers play the seventh of their eight-game pre-season schedule before their regular season home opener November 2 against the New Orleans Hornets. NBA All-Star LeBron James enters his third season with the Cavs after becoming just the fifth player in league history to average 27 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for an entire season during the 2004-05 campaign. James finished the year ranked third in the league in scoring and steals and sixth in assists. The Cavaliers have had an active off-season with the hiring of first-year head coach Mike Brown, the re-signing of NBA All-Star center Zydrunas Ilgauskas and the recent additions of high-powered free agents Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall.

The Toronto Raptors are paced by third-year forward Chris Bosh, who was second on the team in scoring (16.8 ppg) and tops in rebounding (8.9 rpg) last season while former University of Michigan star and 11-year NBA veteran Jalen Rose was the team's top scorer at 18.5 points per game. New faces on the Raps’ roster for the 2005-06 season include a pair of first-round draft picks with Connecticut's Charlie Villanueva (7th overall) and Oklahoma State's Joey Graham (16th overall). The Raptors are led by second-year head coach Sam Mitchell who spent 13 seasons as a player in the NBA splitting his career between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Indiana Pacers.

Tickets are $12, $17, $27, $37, $52 and $77 along with a limited number of VIP courtside seats. Tickets may be purchased at the Nationwide Arena Ticket Office, at all Ticketmaster Ticket Centers, online at ticketmaster.com or by phone at (614) 431-3600. Tickets are also available at the Blue Jackets Zones located at Chiller Dublin, Chiller Easton and Chiller North. All tickets are subject to service charges and facility fees.

For more information about upcoming events at Nationwide Arena, visit www.NationwideArena.com or call (614) 246-2000. Nationwide Arena, home of the NHL Columbus Blue Jackets and the AFL Columbus Destroyers, is an SMG-managed facility. Headquartered in Philadelphia, SMG provides facility services to 170 venues controlling over 1.46 million entertainment seats worldwide.