Expensive Manila World Cup tickets affected attendance, says FIBA

MANILA, Philippines – Basketball governing body FIBA revealed that high ticket prices played a key role in the less-than expected crowds drawn to the 2023 FIBA World Cup games held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum and the Mall of Asia Arena here.

After breaking the FIBA attendance record in Gilas Pilipinas’ opener against the Dominican Republic at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue with more than 38,000 fans in attendance, crowds grew thin in the various games hosted by the Philippines.

In retrospect, FIBA Secretary-General Andreas Zagklis said they could’ve offered more budget-friendly options for the fans here to allow more to experience the game live at the arena.

“The pricing of the tickets, which was determined by the local [organizing committee] but reviewed by FIBA so we have our share in this, of course, and we were part of this process. For some categories, it was unsuccessful,” Zagklis said during a press conference on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

“I can say that this is one of the major debriefing points we’ll have. Several times in the venue, where the fourth and fifth tiers were full, the first tier was full, the second and third were not. So that’s where you see immediately the impact of pricing. This happened several times. So we can say the second and the third tier were higher priced than would have been the market acceptable price,” he added.

For reference, ticket prices during the group phase at the Mall of Asia Arena went as high as Php27,299 — for Team USA’s clash with Greece. Other games had Category 1 prices around Php14,599 and Php11,099. Prices only went up for the final phase.

With Filipino fans unable to shell out for most of the ball games, and also some games coinciding with Gilas games, attendance numbers took a hit.

“That said, when the local team is playing, it’s difficult to fill up the other venue that is playing at the same time. Because those who are not in the venue will watch their national team on TV or on their phone,” said Zagklis.

“We did have here, if I’m not mistaken, 50-50 plus games to fill in the venues. Indeed we would like to have had a little bit higher attendance here in Manila,” he continued.

Still, there was no denying the level of interest for the event in Manila, as fans even braved storms and uncontrollable weather during some of the game days.

“Overall, we are happy with how it worked, considering also that in some cases, we may have had a big storm just before the game that’s really caused a traffic jam and we had the venue half empty at the beginning and only 75% full at halftime, where some people might have bought a ticket then not arrive, or decided not to come,” said the basketball executive.

Moving forward, achieving more affordable pricing will be a focus, especially for the next FIBA World Cup in Doha, Qatar. They’re also more optimistic as the tournament shifts back to a single host country.

“You’re right, in some pricing categories, we were not right in our judgment before the tournament and this is something for sure to review for Doha because there, all 92 games are in the same city, of course, there, people will be able to buy their tickets from the moment that their team is qualified, you know where they will play,” Zagklis said.

“Here, we had the additional element, you had to wait until the draw to see where your team was playing and that changed the plans of several of our traveling fans.”