After all the hype and all the still continuing fighting between Pro Tigers and Pro United fans it was finally time for Melbourne United to show NBL fans what they had for the competition, their opponents for the match were the Cairns Taipans and the Taipans bit United hard early and by the end of the afternoon killed them with a convincing 89 to 61 win, United simply had no answers against the Taipans making United seem to be unable to walk their walk and talk their talk.

Hisense Arena was not sold out with a reported crowd of 5,704 people watching the game (including free ticket users), spectators and TV viewers reported that sections of the Arena were empty with TV making it glaring obvious play by play, reports on crowd atmosphere vary with some saying the game had a good atmosphere while others report that the crowd were lacking energy and were never into the game, the next couple of games will be interesting to see if crowd levels raise, hold or fall with Victorians thirst for competitive teams set to dictate terms for if United wins crowds will rise and losses will send crowds spiraling putting United’s owner’s aspirations into a deep hole.