NBA, MOA: 'Rockets-Pacers preseason ticket prices designed for all'

MANILA, Philippines – A few hundreds of average Pinoys out of the 16,000 expected crowd could watch the first ever NBA preseason game to be held at the SM Mall of Asia Arena on October 10 at considerably cheap price of Php550 or more or less a hundred bucks above the minimum wage rate.  

But those who want to be up close and perhaps get the chance to exchange high fives with James Harden, Jeremy Lin or Paul George or be hit by a hustling Tyler Hansbrough on the courtside would need to shell out a manager's salary. 

The ticket price scheme, according to NBA Philippines country manager Carlo Singson, was designed to give a chance to people of different levels to experience the whole NBA entertainment without the need to fly to the United States.

“It’s a collaborative process [between the NBA and SM] and we based it on similar events in the Philippines and, obviously, we have in mind our fans, as well,” Singson told Philstar.com/ph.nba.com.

Singson singled out the cost of bringing the two NBA teams, officials and their entourage as 'quite significant' as the biggest factor in coming up with the ticket price scheme.

“We tried to make the prices as wide so that a lot of fans of different levels can come and watch,” Singson added.   â€œAnd we have a lot more plans to be able to make sure that people who will not be able to watch will still be part of the NBA preseason game.”

For SM Mall of Asia Arena’s part, they have already lowered the cost against the earlier speculations.  

“When we announce the event last March, people were speculating that that ballpark figure would go as high as Php50,000. We really tried to do the numbers right. We also wanted to make sure that we added value to the tickets by providing limited edition official NBA Global Games merchandise,” said Mall of Asia Arena and SM Tickets marketing and sponsorship head Nicole Deato.    

Other seats to easily the most anticipated sporting event this year will go for Php4,200 (Section D), Php8,400 (Section C), Php27,000 (Premium B) and Php32,300 (Premium A). Section C and D, and Premium A and B tickets come with free limited NBA Global Games merchandise.

“The principle, really, is that we don’t intend to earn from this. We just want to break even. What’s important is we don’t lose money,” Deato said. “A lot of groups, I think, have tried to bring an NBA preseason game here but it’s really expensive. And not a lot of people will gamble and spend as much capital that’s why SM took the lead to venture on this project as a gift to our basketball fans.”

Since the announcement, the interest from fans all over the country and even abroad has hit the roof.

“We have received inquiries from as far as Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Davao, Cebu and other areas outside Metro Manila that’s why we decided to open it to all our branches and online,” Deato told Philstar.com/ph.nba.com.

On June 16 at 10 a.m., SM Tickets, the ticketing network of the Mall of Asia Arena, is expecting a huge deluge of fans wanting to get hold of the most sought after tickets.  And that includes scalpers, who would like to milk more money out of this once-in-a-blue-moon gig.

“We actually made rules that each person can only buy two tickets. Somehow, that will eliminate scalping hopefully,” Deato said.  â€œIt’s on a first come, first served basis. It will really depend on who will go online or fall inline first at our branches will get the best seats.”

The organizers did their study and are bracing for the worst, which for them, would be a much welcome problem.

“We’re anticipating campouts and we’re ready for that. We wanted everyone to be on equal footing that’s why we pegged at 10am so that our branches in malls will be open by then.”

More information can be found at NBA.com, www.mallofasia-arena.com, and via social media on Facebook.com/philsnba and on Twitter @NBA_Philippines. Enquiries can also be directed to the SM Customer Care Hotline at +63 2 470-2222.