Watching the Otago Nuggets this season has been one of the simple joys in my life.
Having been a fan since dad took me along to one of the barely attended games in 2013 or 2014, I can’t help but jump out of my seat every time we score a crucial bucket to lock down a win.
While the success of the Nuggets has been impressive of late, a bucketful of praise must also be heaped on the Nuggets marketing team who have regularly managed to fill the cavernous Edgar Centre.
And yet it was not too long ago that the Otago Nuggets did not exist.
At the end of 2014, the Nuggets were pulled out of the NBL by league officials, with the franchise not making its grand return until 2020!
Even as a 10-year-old I remember being astounded by how good our seats were.
Now the Nuggets have roared into life, with championships in the 2020 and 2022 seasons to boot.
Yet something else stirs . . . Through a combination of good results and excellent management, it seems to me that the Otago Nuggets franchise has managed to develop a culture threatening to match even that of the Highlanders!
Student tickets to the Nuggets work out at $3 a game if you buy a season pass. $3!!!
This is an astounding price particularly when considering tickets to the Highlanders Zoo sit in the $20 region. This bargain of a price has seen students flock to the Edgar Centre in search of dizzyingly cheap entertainment.
The West stand of the Edgar Centre has become something of a Zoo in recent months as the Nuggets franchise has looked to replicate the Highlanders' success in drawing a student crowd.
Though student presence is mixed with other spectators, the fact that tickets to the stand are so cheap, engenders a form of unruliness which any proper student would applaud.
Frenzied children run up and down the wings, old codgers shout good tidings, and giant Todd Withers and Sam Timmins faces are promenaded to the delight of players.
After bringing my dad along to the stand this season, I was delighted to hear him chanting ‘Defence’ completely out of time with spectators in all of the other stands.
Through this small act of rebellion, he inadvertently championed the spirit of the West wing which has been formed in earnest this season.
Die-hard fan that I am, I’m just happy to see the Nuggets winning. Yet even I can’t help but involve myself in the antics of the crowd when JaQuori McLaughlin drains a three-pointer to secure the win in the dying moments of the game.
By combining spectacle and experience, the Nuggets franchise has left myself and many other spectators begging for more action.
Is this the start of a Nuggets franchise takeover in Dunedin? It’s probably too soon to tell, but the rise of the team over these past few years has been enough in itself to warrant the praise which the franchise is now rightfully receiving.
- Hugh Askerud (19) is a politics and religious studies student at the University of Otago
