Bill Shanks: The best sports ticket in town

Macon is not really known as the mecca of sports in Georgia. The city has lost more franchises than we care to remember. But there is one team that has completely captured Macon's attention.

The Mercer men's basketball team.

On Saturday, Mercer hosted Wofford. It was a great basketball game as the teams went into overtime before the Bears won 70-69. But the score was really secondary to what is becoming a regular event at Hawkins Arena.

Yes, an event. It's no longer just a game when the Bears are at home. It's an event. Gone are the days when just a handful would struggle to get to old Porter Gym to watch Mercer play. Now it's a sold out arena with a feeling, an energy likely we've never seen before in Macon.

The official attendance Saturday was a record of 4,502. But if you were there, you know that was probably a low number. The place was packed. It was 10-deep at the top of the seats with people standing and cheering. It was loud. It was electric. And then when the Bears won, the crowd went nuts.

That's what any team wants in a home-court advantage, and after a lot of work, that's exactly what Mercer has at Hawkins Arena.

"We talked about and dreamed about having crowds like we had on Saturday when we first got here," head coach Bob Hoffman said. "It took a lot of work from people all over Middle Georgia, including our administration, students, assistant coaches and our players to make it happen. Winning a little bit never hurts, either."

Well, the Bears are winning more than just a little bit. They are 14-4 this season and are enjoying their best long-term stretch in 45 years. Since the start of the 2011-12 season, Mercer is 111-52, a .681 winning percentage. The last time Mercer was this good was between 1970 and 1974, when the Bears also won 68 percent of their games.

But it's the home record that has been most impressive. The Bears are 8-0 at Hawkins Arena this season and were 12-4 last year. In the past five years, they are 67-9 (.881 winning percentage) at home and 95-26 (.785) overall in Hoffman's seven-plus years as the head coach.

"The support has been great and has really helped us win games, especially over the last few seasons," Hoffman said. "Our players and coaching staff are very active and involved in the Middle Georgia area with schools and charities, which has helped develop and build relationships within the community."

Hoffman deserves most of the credit. He has reached out to people in Macon and simply asked them to come watch his team play. He asked for patience when he first got here, and now that the team is winning, it's easy to get people in the doors.

Mercer does anything possible to get people in the building. Many of the tickets are given away for free, just to make sure the place is packed. And it helps, as was obvious Saturday when the Mercer fans made Wofford know full well it was not in friendly territory.

Mercer basketball has become the thing to do. It has become a planned family outing or the place to be. People might think Macon doesn't have many things to do for fun, but those have likely never gone to a Mercer basketball game.

Mercer is on the road this week, but the Bears will be home Jan. 28 and Jan. 30. You might want to get to Hawkins Arena. It's the best sports ticket in town.

Listen to "The Bill Shanks Show" from 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WPLA Fox Sports 1670 AM in Macon and online at www.foxsports1670.com. Follow Bill at twitter.com/BillShanks and email him at thebillshanksshow@yahoo.com.

This story was originally published January 19, 2016 at 3:27 PM with the headline "Bill Shanks: The best sports ticket in town ."