Not one of the US players originally used to promote the game came to Australia. Photo / Supplied
Not one of the US players originally used to promote the game came to Australia. Photo / Supplied
It was the sporting equivalent of what some people's lives look like on Instagram versus reality.
The farcical scenes at Thursday night's Boomers-Team USA basketball game at Melbourne's Marvel Stadium are only made worse when you see what fans were promised when they bought tickets from anywhere from $150 to$1500.
In what will be remembered as a promotional disaster — and could prompt action from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) — the event misled fans from the start.
When tickets first went on sale the American line-up heading Down Under was a modern-day Dream Team, featuring NBA MVPs Kevin Durant and James Harden and headline LA-based duo Anthony Davis and Paul George.
Those stars were never coming and even when they were officially ruled out it was only after persistent reporting the misleading images, displayed by Ticketmaster and Marvel Stadium, were altered.
"It's a bit like going to a Rolling Stones concert and they say 'sorry Mick Jagger's not available'," Ben Fordham told Today. "There's some misleading advertising going on."
If fans were already unhappy with the lack of star power, they were furious at the seating arrangements at the 50,000-seat stadium.
The World Cup warm-up match, which will be followed by game two on Saturday afternoon, was played on a drop-in raised floor to accommodate viewers seated well back from the court.
While it was a spectacular sight from the raised seats, those who were at floor-level, who paid hundreds of dollars for their seats, had limited views.
Those in the back rows at the AFL/soccer stadium were also so far from the action they had to rely on big screens hanging over the court to make out the player numbers.
Many took to social media to vent their anger with some comparing the match to the ill-fated Fyre Festival, a fraudulent luxury music festival in the Bahamas.
Again, the promotional images told a much different story to the reality.
How Marvel Stadium was supposed to look. Photo / Supplied
How it actually looked on Thursday night. Photo / Supplied
The ACCC announced last week that it was in talks with the promoter TEG Live.
According to reports, the ACCC announced on Thursday night it was "aware of refunds being made to consumers for the USA Basketball games … in Melbourne and Sydney on 22, 24 and 26 August".
Despite this many ticketholders on social media remained frustrated — including some big names.
Film star Russell Crowe voiced his dismay over the seating fiasco with a video of his view being completely obstructed by fans in front of him.
"The only thing achieved tonight by Basketball Australia was joining with the promoters in ripping off well meaning lovers of the sport," Crowe tweeted. "It was a farce."
"Jokes on me," he added. "If you weren't among 50,000 there and you chose to watch it on TV at home, good decision."
