MOA Arena to give fans NBA experience

"Am I in the Philippines?"

That was a question I asked myself upon entering the spanking Mall of Asia Arena last Wednesday in a tour for online media organized by UAAP Season 75 hosts, National University.

To say the least, I was dumbfounded at the sight of the arena’s main hall. It was something very familiar to this NBA 2K12 addict.

UAAP President Nilo Ocampo said that the concept of the MOA Arena is a mixture of ideas from different NBA arenas in the United States, notable of which are Los Angeles’ Staples Center, Miami’s American Airlines Arena and Atlanta’s Philips Arena.

“We took in the best (concepts) and made it better,” Ocampo told a throng of writers assembled at the modern-looking lobby that dwarfs those of the coliseums and astrodomes we currently boast of in Metro Manila.

Video by Cris Cayanan

The MOA Arena can seat around 15, 000 people comfortably, with its velvet red seats giving patrons a classy feel while watching. Even the fifth-floor general admission section has individual chairs for fans and gives them virtually a bird’s eye view of what’s happening below.

Food stalls are also bountiful inside the venue, giving fans a wide variety of choices they can choose from without the hassle of walking to the Mall of Asia.

Dugouts for players are at least twice the size of those at the Smart Araneta Coliseum and boast of at least 10 cubicles and spacious areas while dressing rooms for artists are awe-inspiring when it comes to amenities.

NU patron and SM Group’s Hans Sy toured the group inside the dressing room used by popular American performer Lady Gaga during her controversial two-night stint that served as the MOA Arena’s soft opening.

“She had the whole place draped in white,” Sy said, noting the artist’s penchant for ‘weird stuff.’ “The only different color was a bowl of blue M&M’s at the center table.”

And if you have millions of pesos to spare, you can go rent out one of the VIP suites that are replete with everything you need to satisfy your whims and caprices.

All told, the MOA Arena raises the bar really high when it comes to providing a world-class atmosphere for entertainment venues in the country. The Sy’s have become trailblazers of sorts in many aspects of Philippine society, whether it’s building malls in the provinces, developing property all around or creating the largest networks of banks in the country.

And in the MOA Arena, they have a new baby that easily takes the top spot when we look for the best entertainment venue we have today.

Looks expensive, you might say, but Ocampo has one assurance for all college sports fans: ticket prices will relatively be the same as they were last year.

At the end of the day, that might be the state-of-the-art MOA Arena's best feature.