Four members of the Harlem Globetrotters will take turns dribbling and spinning basketballs during a 7.7 mile walk from the Inner Harbor to Towson University's new arena Monday morning.
The Globetrotters -- who, according to a Reuters report, are up for sale -- will be the first sports team to play in the new 5,200-seat arena when they open a three-game set on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
Eric Nemeth, the 87-year-old organization's senior director of event publicity, said the team -- which makes an annual stop at 1st Mariner Arena around Christmas -- wanted to mark the opening of the arena with a unique event.
"We don't like to just show up," he said. "We like to arrive. We've done things along these lines before, but nothing exactly like this."
Bull Bullard, Handles Franklin, Moose Weekes and Baltimore native Too Tall Hall will make the long walk, which, full disclosure, is a charity effort in conjunction with the Baltimore Sun's Insider program. For every tenth of a mile walked, Sun Insider will donate two tickets to the Globetrotter's games at Tiger Arena to local charities such as Big Brothers, Big Sisters of the Chesapeake. That's 154 tickets.
The march toward Towson arena will begin at 10:30 at the corner of Light Street and East Pratt Street, and will eventually head up York Road with a police escort. The players should arrive at Tiger Arena at about 1:15 p.m.
Tickets are available to all three of the Globetrotters' games (Thursday's and Friday's games are also at 7 p.m.) through www.ticketmaster.com, by calling 800-735-3000 or on the day of the game at the Tiger Arena Box Office.