FANS will still not be admitted to playing venues once the PBA Governors Cup kicks off on Dec. 8, but the pro league has lined up some treats to its live gate audiences once they are allowed back in.
Commissioner Willie Marcial yesterday said they are ready to cut ticket prices by as much as 50 percent as the league’s way of giving something back to the fans, who are expected to be given the green light to personally watch the games live, perhaps by the second week of action.
“Babawasan ko ticket, ibababa ko presyo at tinitingnan ko mga 50 percent,” Marcial told Malaya-Business Insight. “Ma-feel lang muna ng dahan-dahan iyung balik nila sa mga playing venues natin.”
There’s more. The PBA also plans to give away free tickets to the Christmas Day game, which would most likely feature a Ginebra-Magnolia match and tentatively set to be played at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“Pinag-aaralan pa namin kung ilan ang ipamimigay namin, kasi iba ang capacity ng Araneta sa ibang venues natin,” Marcial said.
The former Big Dome has a capacity of 17,000, but only about 4,000 fans would most likely be allowed due to the strict health and safety protocols the PBA, coliseum and Quezon City officials are set to put in place.
“Two seats ang distansya sa pagitan ng fans and then additional na mga 14,000 pa ang mawawala kasi bawal ang standing at gallery na mga tig-7,000,” explained Marcial.
Due to the pandemic, fans have been barred from games in both the Philippine Cup bubble last year and in the same tournament’s semi-bubble set-up this year.
The latest guidelines from the national government’s pandemic task force say that local government units will have the final say on the hosting of contact sports, including allowing the fans to watch the games live at the venues.
That is something Marcial has been working on, having written to the LGUs of the venues the PBA usually plays its games on, like Pasay, Pasig and the cities of Antipolo and Quezon.
