The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Robert Andaya
The event: the 9th FIBA World Basketball Championship.
The date: October 1-14, 1978.
The venues: Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City and Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila.
President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos formally declared the opening of the 14-nation basketball showcase.
Yugoslavia, led by Dražen Dalipagic, defeated Soviet Union, 82-81, in overtime to capture the championship before an adoring crowd of 10,000 at the Araneta Coliseum.
Fast forward to 2023 and the Philippines is co-hosting the FIBA World Cup with Japan and Indonesia on Aug. 25-Sept.10 with the world’s biggest basketball-playing countries and their top players coming.
Specifically, Angola, China, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Lithuania, Mexico, Montenegro, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Serbia, South Sudan, and the USA are coming to provide world-class entertainment for the Filipinos in the group phase.
Interestingly, two of the participants this year – host Philippines and Dominican Republic – also saw action in the 1978 edition
Both countries also went winless during the two-week long competition held in Manila exactly 45 years ago.
As host country, the Philippines was seeded to the semifinal round outright, along with defending champion Soviet Union.
The Filipinos, however, lost all their seven games in the semis before bowing to Australia in the classification phase to finish in eighth place overall.
The Dominican Republic, currently ranked No. 23 in the world, dropped all of its three assignments in the elimination round against the United States, Australia and Czechoslovakia.
The John Calipari-mentored Caribbean nation went 2-3 in the classification round, winning over Senegal and South Korea and losing to Czechoslovakia, Puerto Rico and Senegal.
Now, the Filipinos and the Dominicans get the chance to meet again after 45 long years when they battle each other in the mainer of an interesting doubleheader at the 55,000-seater Philippine Arena in Bulacan at 8 p.m.
World No. 10 Italy will meet African team Angola in the opener starting at 4 p.m.
There are other highlights to accompany the highly-anticipated opening day games.
Aside from the celebrities who will be in attendance, FIBA and the organizing the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas are preparing a show comprised of top local musical acts, booths set up by both local and global event partners, and other gimmicks that will give fans a truly world-class experience aside from a chance to be part of FIBA World Cup record-breaking attendance history.
Based on official announcement, ticket holders for the opening day games at the Philippine Arena can avail of free shuttle services from major transportation hubs, as there will be 400 buses deployed for this purpose.
Fans can enjoy all of the above for as low as P999 for two games per single day pass.
Tickets are already on sale at https://philippines-ticketing.worldcup.basketball/,with several packages and day passes from which to choose.