Why is the military hosting a basketball game on an aircraft carrier?

[rebewranger]

Why is the military hosting a basketball game on an aircraft carrier?
Nicholas Slayton - Yesterday 5:20 PM
 

Aircraft carriers are good for a lot of things. First and foremost there’s launching fighter jets into combat. Then there’s the force projection a carrier and its escort fleet bring to geopolitics. They’re even great for triumphant handshakes between rival fighter pilots after going into combat against “the enemy.” But basketball?
 
Seriously, who would even think about holding a college basketball game on top of an aircraft carrier?

Apparently the Pentagon would think about holding a college basketball game on top of an aircraft carrier. The service is officially reviving the Armed Forces Classic after skipping 2020 and 2021, with Gonzaga and Michigan State’s men’s basketball teams facing off onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln for Veterans Day. 

The Nov. 11 game is the first one to be held on an aircraft carrier deck in a decade. Gonzaga and Michigan State will be only the sixth ever college basketball game played on such a ship. The Armed Forces Classic only started in 2012. A similar match up, the Carrier Classic, hosted games on carriers in 2011 (the inaugural event on the USS Carl Vinson) and 2012, but ended after that year, and until 2022, so did games on carriers.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/why-is-the-military-hosting-a-basketball-game-on-an-aircraft-carrier/ar-AAZEDe6?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=b9cc1cae72364960b5c89aaa9c283154

[sneakypete]

Why NOT do it?

It is no doubt great for recruiting new enlistees,and it doesn't hurt the carrier a bit.

[Cyber Liberty]

I don't have a problem with it.  As @sneakypete says, it's good PR.

[txradioguy]

They've been doing this for a few years now.

It's good PR from a recruiting perspective. It gives those sailors a chance to watch a game they might not normally have.

This is no different than the celebrities Bob Hope would take to visit the troops on USO tours.