The Brighton Bulldogs and Pinckney Pirates boys’ basketball teams will be playing in the largest and most impressive venue they’ve ever played in today when they take on each other at the Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit.

Brighton Athletic Director John Thompson says he, along with the Brighton Bulldogs team members, are going to be “a little wide-eyed” upon entering the spacious arena. Thompson tells WHMI the Pistons organization extended an invitation to Brighton to play at the LCA later this afternoon after the game between the Pistons and the Charlotte Hornets. He was able to secure Pinckney as the opponent, making it an all-Livingston County contest.

But why invite high school teams to play at the new, state-of-the-art arena? The Pistons club may have invited Brighton in part to shore up attendance figures because parents and fans of the high school teams will buy tickets to see the games. Since the LCA opened in the fall, the over 20,000 seat arena has seen less-than-spectacular crowds, although there have been a lot of no-shows — those who bought tickets but didn’t show up. In addition, the Pistons and the Red Wings, who also make the LCA their home court, say it’s hard to tell how many are at the games because large numbers of people are on the concourse, where there are huge screens showing the games as they are being played. And the concourse has a lot of distractions, like plenty of food, beverages and socializing with friends.

The Pistons-Hornets game starts at 12:30 , so given a break between the two games, the Brighton-Pinckney game should start at about 4 p.m. (TT)