MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas can expect the full support of basketball fans when the national team returns to action for the second window of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers against the visiting New Zealand on November 21 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas executive director Erika Dy said tickets for the game against New Zealand have sold about “80-90 percent” already.
“Ticket sales are doing very well specifically for the New Zealand game, where 80-90 percent have been sold out already,” Dy told sportswriters during Wednesday’s Gilas press conference held at the Cignal Customer Experience Center Studio, Launchpad Bldg. in Mandaluyong City.
The amiable SBP team official said knowing that Pinoy cage fans are expected to be in full force to cheer for Gilas in its bid to defend the home court against the Tall Blacks, they have allotted 80 percent of the general admission tickets to the paying public as well come game day.
“We are reserving 80 percent of our general admission tickets to be sold on game day. This is to make way for walk-ins which we realized in the past windows, this is a big market for the Gilas fans,” he added.
Gilas coach Tim Cone also encouraged Filipino basketball fans to troop to the Mall of Asia Arena, the famed sports venue that can accommodate a full-house capacity of 20,000 paying fans.
“We’ve said from the beginning, we wanna compete at the international level, but we want to win in Asia. New Zealand is part of Asia and Hong Kong obviously is part of Asia,” Cone said.
“This (game against New Zealand) is really important for us, and again, hopefully everybody shows up. This is important for us, and we hope it’s important for you,” he added.
Gilas enters the game 0-4 in its head-to-head versus New Zealand, dating back to the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, which was incidentally played at the Mall of Asia Arena as well.
Gilas, then coached by Tab Baldwin, lost that one, 89-80, while their last three meetings saw New Zealand dominate the Philippines by an average winning margin of 29.6 points.
