Seville tickets for Gilas on sale

MANILA, Philippines - Venue passes for the bracket where the US is playing in the FIBA World Cup preliminary round are now sold out but the good news is tickets for the Philippines’ group in Seville are still available at a 20 percent discount.

A venue pass provides access to all the games in a city. In the preliminaries, the 24 teams are split into four brackets playing in the 7,100-seat Palacio Municipal de Deportes in Seville, the 16,700-seat Bizkaia Arena in Bilbao, the 8,500-seat Palacio Municipal de Deportes in Granada and the 9,400-seat Gran Canaria Arena in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Host Spain will play in Group A in Granada with France, Serbia, Brazil, Egypt and Iran. The Philippines is bracketed in Group B in Seville with Argentina, Greece, Croatia, Puerto Rico and Senegal. The US is in Group C in Bilbao with Turkey, Ukraine, New Zealand, Dominican Republic and Finland. Lithuania, Korea, Slovenia, Mexico, Australia and Angola are in Group D in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

FIBA World Cup communications coordinator Jalinka Michaux said the other day that venue passes in the five price categories are sold out for Bilbao. The prices range from the equivalent of P900 for category E to P5,400 for category A. Venue passes in Granada where Spain is playing are sold out in categories B and C. All passes are still available for the games in Seville and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

A venue pass entitles the holder to watch 15 games in the preliminaries and seven playoff games, including the finals in Madrid. The package includes one semifinal, two quarterfinal and four round-of-16 games. Organizers are offering a venue pass at 20 percent off the official retail price of a ticket. Venue passes and the first wave of finals passes went on sale last Feb. 18. Michaux said the first wave of finals passes has sold out and a second wave is now in process.

FIBA is also selling day passes and session tickets. A day pass will allow access to all the games in a specific venue on a given day. Michaux said day passes will go on sale starting May 5. A session ticket will allow access only for a specific game. Session tickets go on sale starting July 1. “This will allow you to attend only the games you are interested in,” said FIBA. “However, only a small number of session tickets will probably remain available at this stage of the ticket sales.”

Organizers are making available a secondary market window for venue pass holders who are not interested to watch games after the countries they are cheering for have been eliminated. “If you purchased a ticket or a pass and do not wish to attend one of more of the sessions, you will have the opportunity to use the official secondary market to resell the ticket or tickets you do not plan to use,” said FIBA. “Your ticket or tickets will be put up for sale on the official platform so that other interested fans can purchase them. If your ticket is sold, you will receive 100% of the value you paid for that specific ticket. If it remains unsold, you can still get it back up to a few hours before the game and go enjoy the action.”

In the preliminaries, every day will feature three games. In the round-of-16, there will be four knockout games over two days in Barcelona and Madrid. In the eight-team quarterfinals, there will be two games on Sept. 9 in Barcelona and two games on Sept. 10 in Madrid. One semifinal game will be played in Barcelona on Sept. 11 and the other in Madrid on Sept. 12. The bronze medal game will be staged in Madrid on Sept. 13 and the championship match, also in Madrid, the next day.

The Philippines will open its World Cup campaign against Croatia on Aug. 30 then Gilas battles Greece on Aug. 31, Argentina on Sept. 1, Puerto Rico on Sept. 3 and Senegal on Sept. 4. Two wins in the preliminaries will elevate the Philippines to the round-of-16.

FIBA is providing travel packages for visitors from abroad to facilitate their trips. The “FanM2014Package” was created exclusively by Halconviajes.com, the World Cup’s official travel agency, to consist of travel, accommodation and game tickets. The travel agency’s email address is [email protected].

Philippine Ambassador to Spain Carlos Salinas said recently he hopes to galvanize support from Filipinos in Spain for Gilas and will coordinate plans to transport fans to Seville. On the day the Philippine team arrives from Manila in Madrid, Salinas intends to organize a clinic for Filipino kids before the players travel to Vitoria to set up training camp. Salinas said he will watch Gilas’ five preliminary games in Seville. If Gilas advances to the round-of-16, it will play the knockout game in Madrid.