PhilSports Complex
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The Philippine Institute of Sports Complex (also known as PhilSports) is a national sports complex of the Philippines. It is located in Meralco Avenue in Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippines. It is where the offices of the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee and some National Sports Associations are located.
PhilSports Complex facilities are purposely built to cater the Filipino athletes’ needs from training facilities to living quarters. By virtue of Republic Act 6847, which created the Philippines Sports Commission, was to develop and maintain a fully-equipped sports facility. Due to its proximity to business districts of Makati and Ortigas, the arena is also used in concerts and conventions.
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[edit] History
[edit] 20th century
[edit] 1970s
The complex is actually the sports field of a defunct school named Saint Martin's Integrated School (Elementary and High School). The school was transferred to First Lady Imelda Marcos during the 1970s and the school was reorganized as the University of Life, a vocational school. The actual site was renamed to University of Life Track and field and Arena (ULTRA) Sports Complex.
[edit] 1980-1999
In 1985, the Philippine Basketball Association became its main tenants after nine years at the Araneta Coliseum. The venue was attracted to an SRO-crowd during their stay. The PBA stayed for seven years until they moved to the newly-built Cuneta Astrodome in 1993, citing the venue's lack of maintenance.
After Marcos was removed, the University of Life was closed. However, the sports facility was transferred to the Philippine Sports Commission in preparation for the 1991 Southeast Asian Games. Several names were applied at the complex. These were The Ultra, PSC-National Academy of Sports (PSC-NAS) and PSC Sports Complex. Due to confusion to the public especially in concerts, the commission decided to have a permanent name: PhilSports.
[edit] 21st century
[edit] 2000-2004
The sports complex reached its maximum audience space when the Asian pop group F4 and Taiwanese local star Barbie Xu staged a concert in the facility in 2003.
The 5th World Wide Bible Exposition of Ang Dating Daan was held.
[edit] 2005
The complex was the venue of the badminton events during the 2005 Southeast Asian Games from November 27, 2005 to December 5, 2005.
[edit] ULTRA Stampede (2006)
On February 4, 2006, the PhilSports Complex was also the site of a stampede that killed 74 people and injured hundreds. Wowowee, the early afternoon game show of television network ABS-CBN, was scheduled to hold its first anniversary show at the complex. Attracted by the large prizes given out during the show, crowds of people, mostly from the lower classes of society, waited for days just outside the stadium. As the opening of the gates neared a few hours before the show, the crowd surged forward crushing those at the front of the queue underfoot.
The cause of the stampede is still being determined pending investigation.
[edit] Facilities
- PhilSports Arena (seating capacity: 10,000)
- PhilSports Baseball Stadium
- PhilSports Football and Athletic Field
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