The fans are certainly buying in: they filled the Coliseum with its first opening night sellout in four years, many arriving three hours before game time to tailgate in the parking lot and partake in outdoor festivities that included a live band along with assorted games and contests.
In 1993 Chief Executive Millard Drexler rolled the dice with Old Navy, since opening 450 big, boisterous stores filled with cheap, almost disposable clothes.
Mr. Hurt's capacity for silence, alas, was not matched by that of the opening-night audience, which filled too many of his long pauses with unwelcome coughs.