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    LOOK: PBA double-header lures biggest league turnout in pandemic

    Big crowd is back in the PBA
    Mar 6, 2022
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    A crowd of 6,500 fans turned up at the Big Dome for Sunday's double-header.

    THE PBA on Sunday enjoyed its biggest attendance yet since opening its doors to fans at 100 percent capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Attendance at the Smart Araneta Coliseum during the Governors’ Cup doubleheader that featured Barangay Ginebra against Rain or Shine was at 6,502 - the biggest for a league game amid the worldwide heath crisis.

    A crowd of 6,500 fans turned up at the Big Dome for Sunday's double-header.

    An added treat was the jersey retirement of Sonny Thoss at halftime of the Magnolia-Alaska encounter which the league-leading Hotshots won.

    The big turnout comes just two playdates after the league announced crowd will finally be allowed at 100 percent capacity after NCR Plus was finally placed at Alert Level 1 starting this month.

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      The last time the league enjoyed a huge crowd with full capacity was March 8 in 2020 when close to 12,000 fans watched the opening of the league’s 45th season headlined by the showdown between then Philippine Cup defending champion San Miguel against Magnolia also at the Big Dome.

      Three days after, the PBA decided to suspend the season indefinitely following the increase in COVID-19 cases in the country.

      Live audience returns

      The league would then hold two stagings of the Philippine Cup in almost a two-year span without the benefit of the fans in the stands.

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      Live audience were slowly allowed to return by the time the Governors’ Cup returned at the Big Dome in the middle of December last year.

      Following the suspension of the games in January with the rise in the COVID-19 Omicron variant, fans were initially not allowed again inside the venue when the conference resumed last Feb. 11.

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        But after a week, league officials approved the return of a live audience but only at 50 percent capacity with the metropolis still under Alert Level 2.

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        A crowd of 6,500 fans turned up at the Big Dome for Sunday's double-header.
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