The Philippine Institute of Sports Multi-Purpose Arena or PhilSports Arena is an indoor sporting arena located inside the

PhilSports Complex The Philippine Institute of Sports Complex (also known as the PhilSports Complex) is a national sports complex of the Philippines. It is located in Meralco Avenue in Pasig, Metro Manila, Philippines. It is where the offices of the Philippine Sp ...

Pasig Pasig, officially the City of Pasig ( fil, Lungsod ng Pasig), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 803,159 people. It is located along the ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. It was formerly known as the University of Life Theater and Recreational Arena or the ULTRA. The arena is part of the

which is maintained by the

Philippine Sports Commission The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC, ) is an agency of the Philippine government which tackles matters concerning sports in the country. The sports agency is independent from the Philippine Olympic Committee which enjoys autonomy from the gov ...

. It was the site of the majority of the games of the

Philippine Basketball Association The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines composed of twelve company-branded franchised teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia and is the se ...

from 1985 to 1992 and from 1999 to 2002. The league still occasionally comes back to play at the arena. The arena was also the home court of the Pasig-Rizal Pirates in the

Metropolitan Basketball Association The Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA), or Metroball, was a professional basketball league in the Philippines that ran from March 7, 1998, to July 26, 2002. History The MBA played its first game on March 7, 1998, at the Don Narciso Ramos ...

in 1998 and the

San Juan Knights The San Juan Kings, previously known as the San Juan Knights, are a professional basketball team representing San Juan, Metro Manila. They played in the Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA) from 1999 to 2001, the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketba ...

in 1999.

History

When the arena was opened in 1985, the

became the main tenants of the arena after nine years at the

Araneta Coliseum The Araneta Coliseum, also currently known by naming rights sponsorship as Smart Araneta Coliseum, is an indoor multi-purpose sports arena that is part of the Araneta City in the Cubao area of Quezon City, Philippines. Nicknamed as "the Big Dom ...

. The venue attracted standing-room only crowds during their stay. The league stayed for seven years until they moved to the newly built

Cuneta Astrodome The Cuneta Astrodome is an indoor arena that is located in Pasay, Philippines. Since the 1993 PBA season, it was better known as the home of the Philippine Basketball Association. when it left the PhilSports Arena (that was then known as ULTRA), ...

in 1993, citing the venue's lack of maintenance. The arena was supposed to be the staging site of the now-defunct early afternoon

ABS-CBN ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast broadcast network, network tha ...

game show ''

Wowowee ''Wowowee'' () is a Philippine noontime variety show that was broadcast by ABS-CBN from 2005 to 2010. The show premiered on February 5, 2005, and aired live on weekdays and Saturdays. The show was also broadcast worldwide through ABS-CBN's The ...

'' on February 4, 2006, during its first anniversary but became the site of a deadly stampede that killed 74 people and injured hundreds. Crowds of people from middle class to mostly lower class camped outside the stadium for days to win the large prizes given out during the show. At the time the gates opened, the crowd grew impatient, started shoving, making the gates give way and crushing people in the front of the queue. As of today, the cause of the stampede is still being determined pending investigation. When

Tropical Storm Ondoy Typhoon Ketsana, known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Ondoy, was the second-most devastating tropical cyclone of the 2009 Pacific typhoon season, causing $1.15 billion in damages and 921 fatalities, only behind Morakot earlier in the se ...

and Typhoon Pepeng struck the Philippines in 2009, some evacuees took shelter in the arena. The

2011 FIBA Asia Champions Cup The FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2011 was the 22nd staging of the FIBA Asia Champions Cup, the basketball club tournament of FIBA Asia. The tournament was held in Pasig, Philippines from May 28 to June 5, 2011. The event is co-organized by the Samahang ...

was held in the arena, where Mahram Tehran defeated

Sporting Al Riyadi Beirut Al Riyadi Club Beirut ( ar, نادي الرياضي بيروت, lit=Sporting Club Beirut) is a multi-sports club based in Manara, a district in Beirut, Lebanon. Founded in 1934, the basketball team competes in the Lebanese Basketball League. T ...

in the final.

Smart Gilas The Philippines men's national basketball team ( fil, Pambansang koponan ng basketbol ng Pilipinas), commonly known as Gilas Pilipinas, is the basketball team representing the Philippines. The team is managed by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipi ...

finished fourth in the tournament, losing to Mahram in the semifinals. It is also the host venue of the

2015 Asian U23 Women's Volleyball Championship The 2015 Asian Women's U23 Volleyball Championship was held on 1 to 9 May 2015 in Pasig, Philippines. It was the inaugural edition of the tournament. The tournament served as the Asian qualifiers for the 2015 FIVB Volleyball Women's U23 World Cham ...

held last May 1–9, 2015. The arena was renovated and given a major facelift in time for the

2019 Southeast Asian Games The 2019 Southeast Asian Games, officially known as the 30th Southeast Asian Games, or the 30th SEA Games, and commonly known as Philippines 2019, was the 30th edition of the Southeast Asian Games, a biennial regional multi-sport event which ...

as the designated venue for the men's and women's volleyball competition.

Notable events at the PhilSports Arena

* 2009 Nike Asia Tour *

2015 Spike For Peace International Beach Volleyball Tournament The 2015 Spike For Peace International Beach Volleyball Tournament was an international women's beach volleyball tournament hosted in Pasig, Metro Manila, Philippines from November 29 to December 3, 2015. The tournament staged by the Philippine S ...

2022 Asian Women's Volleyball Cup The 2022 Asian Women's Volleyball Cup, so-called 2022 AVC Cup for Women was the seventh edition of the Asian Cup, a biennial international volleyball tournament organised by the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) with Philippine National Voll ...

References

External links

Philippine Sports Commission website
{{Ortigas Center Sports venues in Metro Manila Indoor arenas in the Philippines Basketball venues in the Philippines ASEAN Basketball League venues Buildings and structures in Pasig Volleyball venues in the Philippines

History

Notable events at the PhilSports Arena

See also

References

External links