WITH just 10 days to go before tip-off, the country’s top basketball official and the deputy head of the FIBA World Cup local organizing committee are confident the country will set a new gate attendance record when the global basketball showcase unfolds on Aug. 25 at the 55,000-seat Philippine Arena in Bulacan.
“We are really keen on breaking the previous attendance in a FIBA World Cup match. We are actually hiring 400 buses to bring the fans to the Philippine Arena to support Gilas on Aug. 25,” Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas President Al Panlilio said yesterday during a special Philippine Sportswriters Association
Forum at the Meralco conference hall.
The previous mark was 32,216 in 1994 during the championship match between a US squad featuring NBA stars Shaquille O’Neal, Reggie Miller and Shawn Kemp which clobbered Russia 137-91 in Toronto, Canada.
“I do believe that we will be able to surpass the previous attendance which is actually 32,216,” said FIBA World Cup 2023 deputy event director Erika Dy, revealing that ticket sales had reached the 28,000-mark as of yesterday.
Panlilio also said that President Marcos Jr. has accepted the invitation to grace the opening rites and do the ceremonial tip-off in the game between Gilas Pilipinas and the Dominican Republic.
“In an earlier session with President Bongbong, we showed him a picture of his late father and President Ferdinand Sr. doing the ceremonial (toss) the last time we hosted the world basketball championship in 1978 (at the Araneta Coliseum),” he said, “so it has now come full circle.
“We are glad that the President has accepted the SBP invitation to do the ceremonial toss.”
During the public sports program backed by the Philippine Olympic Committee, Philippine Sports Commission, San Miguel Corp., Milo, and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., Dy said a new crowd milestone would be set “even if the set-up required by FIBA limits the seating capacity to 46,000.”
“We are primed to reach a new record because we will be recording every warm body on game day and we still have 10 days to sell tickets, which we only began doing last weekend,” she said.
As an added come-on during the opening day, she noted that “the most important thing at this point is that the ticket buyers for this day will get to watch two games and the opening ceremony show, unlike others where there will be (only) one ticket to one game.”
Fans can take rides to the Philippine Arena on Aug. 25 at the following locations: Cloverleaf Ayala mall (in Quezon City), One Ayala (Makati), Trinoma (QC, PITX (Paranaque), Mall of Asia (Pasay), Araneta City (Cubao), SM Clark, Market Market (Taguig), SM North EDSA (QC), SM Megamall (Mandaluyong), SM Baliwag (Bulacan) and SM Pampanga.
