DCU Center officials say that while they were forced to cut short a pre-season Boston Celtics game Friday because of a freak weather occurrence, they will consider a new dehumidification system in an upgrade of the aging arena.
Friday’s near sell-out game against the New Jersey Nets was suspended at halftime for safety reasons after basketball players were slipping because of moisture from a combination of ice and abnormally high humidity in the 25-year-old arena.
[Arena general manager Sandy] Dunn said the insulation between the basketball floor and ice used for Worcester Sharks hockey games usually prevents such condensation.
But unusually warm temperatures and high moisture in the air, plus the thousands of fans who had been drenched by heavy rains before entering the arena, spiked humidity inside the center to the point at which the wood floor was unplayable, she said.
"There's a technique for keeping humidity in the building down and that is running the heating and air-conditioning at the same time. We did that throughout the day," Ms. Dunn said.
"Between 5 and 6 p.m. everything was fine. Then we opened up the doors and changed the environment when 10,000 patrons came in and they were wet.
"You immediately take the humidity up. That's a law of physics."
... Some spectators got even more frustrated when they went to retrieve their vehicles from parking lots, some of which were charging as much as $20 for the event.
Peter Branagan, a senior custodian for the Worcester public school system, and a friend had paid $30 each for a pair of tickets. He said he was unable to get a partial refund or even a receipt from parking attendants at the old outlet mall lot near the DCU Center.
He said he planned to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
"Twenty dollars is greedy to begin with, and it’s a lot for two hours of parking," Mr. Branagan said.
Barbara Smith-Bacon, a spokeswoman for Berkley Investments, which owns the mall parking and leases its management to a subcontractor, said refunds would be unlikely unless the DCU Center wanted to reimburse the company.
One final parting shot:
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