The Navy has given the final approval for the Carrier Classic, a basketball game between Michigan State and North Carolina which will take place on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson on Veterans Day.
This will serve as the first NCAA basketball game on an active flat top.
According to Rear Admiral Dennis Moynihan, the Navy’s chief spokesman, and Mike Whalen, director of the Morale Entertainment Foundation, the organization putting on the event, the game itself will go on without any cost to tax payers and without operational issues that would adversely affect the Navy.
We think that the game is going to be a celebration of service to all veterans. We’re excited about that,” Moynihan said Friday.
The USS Carl Vinson is most known for being the aircraft carrier in which Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden’s body was taken too after his death at hands of U.S. Navy Seals in Pakistan.
There will be no public sale of tickets however the game will be televised on ESPN. Most tickets will go to military personnel, with each school getting 750 tickets. Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson are expected to be the honorary team captains.
Source: Associated Press