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

Pasig Pasig, officially the City of Pasig (), is a 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 eastern border of Metro Mani ...

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila ( ), commonly shortened to Metro Manila and formally the National Capital Region (NCR; ), is the capital region and largest List of metropolitan areas in the Philippines, metropolitan area of the Philippines. Located ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

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

Philippine Sports Commission The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC; ) is an agency of the Philippine government that tackles matters concerning sports in the country. The sports agency is independent from the Philippine Olympic Committee, a privately-ran organization that e ...

. 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 Franchising, franchise teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia ...

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), also shortened as Metroball, was a professional basketball league in the Philippines that ran for five seasons from 1998 until 2002. The MBA was established to rival the Philippine Basketball Asso ...

in 1998 and the San Juan Knights 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 arena, sports arena that is part of the Araneta City in the Quezon City#Cubao, Cubao area of Quezon City, Philippines. ...

. 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 Cuneta Astrodome, also known as Pasay Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, is an indoor arena located in Pasay, Philippines. The arena has hosted Philippine Basketball Association games from 1993 to 1999 and again from 2001 onwards, and also cur ...

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 is a leading Philippine media and content company. It serves as the flagship media brand of ABS-CBN Corporation, a subsidiary of Lopez Holdings Corporation. Once the country's largest free-to-air television network, ABS-CBN has since ...

game show ''

Wowowee ''Wowowee'' () was a Television in the Philippines, Philippine television variety show broadcast by ABS-CBN, Hosted by Willie Revillame, the show was aired from February 5, 2005 to February 4, 2006 replacing ''MTB (TV program), MTB'' (then name ...

'' on February 4, 2006, during its first anniversary but became the site of a deadly stampede that killed 73 people and injured 400 others. 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 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 (), commonly known simply as Al Riyadi, is a multi-sports club team based in Manara, a district in Beirut, Lebanon. Founded in 1934, the multi-sports club, which is mainly known for their basketball program, also plays p ...

in the final.

Smart Gilas The Philippines men's national basketball team (), commonly known as Gilas Pilipinas, is the basketball team representing the Philippines. The team is managed by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (Basketball Federation of the Philippines or s ...

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 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, were the 30th edition of the SEA Games, Southeast Asian Games, a biennial regional multi-sport ...

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

Notable events

1981 Southeast Asian Games The 1981 Southeast Asian Games, officially known as the 11th Southeast Asian Games, were a multi-sport event held in Manila, Philippines from 6 to 15 December 1981. This was the first time that the Philippines hosted the Games since its first p ...

* 1991 Southeast Asian Games * 2000 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix *

2005 Southeast Asian Games The 2005 Southeast Asian Games, officially known as the 23rd Southeast Asian Games, were a Southeast Asian multi-sport event held in Manila, Philippines. This was the third time the Philippines hosted the games and its first time since 1991. ...

* 2009 Nike Asia Tour *

* 2015 Asian U23 Women's Volleyball Championship * 2015 Spike For Peace International Beach Volleyball Tournament *

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 ...

* 2024 ASEAN Women's Futsal Championship * 2025 AVC Women's Volleyball Champions League

References

External links

*
Philippine Sports Commission
– official website {{navboxes, list= {{Ortigas Center {{Philippine Basketball Association arenas {{Sports venues in the Greater Manila Area 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 Philippine Sports Commission Philippine Basketball Association venues

History

Notable events

See also

References

External links