THE local organizing committee of the Fiba Basketball World Cup 2023 is keen on addressing issues surrounding the movement of people to and from the Philippine Arena on August 25 following complaints about the venue over the past few days.
World Cup LOC eager to avoid same complaints during Bruno Mars concert
The most recent one was during the Bruno Mars concert over the weekend where complaints of heavy traffic caused fans to reach the venue late.
Deputy event director Erika Dy said the LOC is definitely aware of the recent sentiments especially with the bid to break the Fiba Basketball World Cup attendance record on August 25 where the opening ceremony and the first game of Gilas Pilipinas will be held.
Dy said a meeting was held between the LOC and Philippine Arena management to discuss possible ways of resolving those issues.
Dy said even David Crocker, the executive director of the Fiba Basketball World Cup 2023, saw for himself the issues during the Bruno Mars concert.
“Nung Sunday, no less than David Crocker attended the concert and he was telling me that it took him an hour just to get out of the parking lot to the street and another hour to get to the exit to NLEX. And then from there to Sofitel, which is the VIP hotel, he wanted to test that out, I think an hour and a half. So three and a half hours just to get out,” said Dy.
“But the good news is we sat down with Philippine Arena management this morning to address those issues. A lot of solutions were on the table,” said Dy.
Dy said the plan is to execute the possible solutions on August 13 where another big concert is happening at the Philippine Arena.
“We will try to test it para pagdating ng August 25, mas okay na,” Dy said.
A system already in place is to encourage the use of P2P buses that will be on duty for the August 25 game.
“The other big solution we have already put in place is hiring at least 400 buses to shuttle people to Philippine Arena and back to P2P destinations. I think malaking tulong ‘yun kung mabawasan natin ‘yung private vehicles na nandoon sa Philippine Arena,” said Dy.
As for the players, Dy said several test runs have already been made and will continue to be made in transporting them to the Philippine Arena.
“Ang pinakatinututukan namin right now sa Philippine Arena is ‘yung transportation time from the Grand Hyatt (players’ hotel) to the Philippine Arena. Fiba requires that it should be 30 minutes and maximum of 15-minute extension. We have to get the players there within 45 minutes,” said Dy.
“We did some test runs yesterday. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get them there on time. The ‘teams’ that were on the buses. Nasa 52 minutes kami ngayon. 51 at best. There are a lot of bottlenecks we have to improve on. We used the bus lanes and we did have police escorts. We are hoping to shave about 10 more minutes,” said Dy.
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