Golden ticket: A guide to the UAAP ticketing scheme

It is that time of the year again; the UAAP has started and university students are hyped up to watch the heated games and make a bid to secure a golden ticket either by going to the venue a couple of hours before, lining up in front of the schools’ sports office or haggling with scalpers.

It is, however, not always easy to nab a ticket at a fair price, even more so for the always sold-out La Salle-Ateneo games.

Securing the pass

No event grabs more attention than the men’s basketball tournament. This year will not be different.

The tournaments will be held in three venues namely: the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Pasay’s Mall of Asia Arena, and the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.

For games to be held at the Mall of Asia Arena, patrons can buy tickets by accessing the arena’s website, www.smtickets.com, which requires a registered account.

For ticket details and additional information, SM tickets could be contacted at 470-2222.

The process is also the same for sports enthusiasts who would want to watch the games at the PhilSports Arena, Pasig City.

The Smart Araneta Coliseum also allows online ticket reservation through www.ticketnet.com.ph or through the coliseum’s landline at 911-5555.

Another option is to purchase tickets directly at the respective venues which would entail much waiting. DLSU students, however, could nab tickets by reserving online through the DLSU My.LaSalle (MLS) account.

The process is relatively the same as enrollment. Students would, however, need to work on timing to secure one from the limited tickets to be sold.

Just login to your account, click Proceed to Main Page, and look for the Reserve Tickets option at the lower left side. The next steps would be to choose a preferred seat, print the page, and pay for the ticket on the scheduled date.

The usual MLS ticket allocations, however, only sell lower box tickets, upper box and general admissions; the numbers are also very limited.

Allocation and distribution

UAAP Season 75 President Nilo Ocampo of National University revealed that a certain, undisclosed percentage of the tickets would be sold at the venues. The hosts would distribute the remainder of the tickets to the member schools and sponsors accordingly.

Ocampo explained that in a regular game, four member schools that are scheduled to play on a given game day would get an equal number of tickets.

During the Ateneo-La Salle matches, however, an exception was made; ticket allocation was allotted to the two schools instead of the usual four to accommodate more patrons from blue and green lineage.

Of other events

As to the other sports, the Office of the Sports Development (OSD) shares that the sub-hosts would decide on the manner of ticket distribution.

The sub-hosts are the member schools designated to oversee a sporting event.

Since most of the other sports have few spectators, the event organizers are not as strict in selling tickets.

Some events, like the football event, held last season at the Ateneo football grounds, are open to the public to encourage people to watch the games.

Since only the men’s basketball games’ tickets are being sold through MLS, some students are asking if tickets to other games could be sold via MLS.

Clah Lazaro (II, AB-CAM) said, “I think it’s quite unfair on the part of the other DLSU teams because they (MLS) only have the men’s basketball tickets (for sale).”

Christian Tan Seng (II,CS-CSE) agrees with Lazaro. He furthered that selling game tickets for other sports online promotes the other sports, and that the initiative also lessens the complications in buying tickets, such as the long lines and booth confusion.

John Borromeo (III, MKT) disagrees though saying, “Not all sports in the Philippines are as big as basketball leagues today.”

Algene dela Paz (III, CS-NE) also agrees with Borromeo’s sentiments. He replied  in Filipino, “I only watch the men’s basketball games, particularly the ones where they are against AdMU.”

The demand for tickets for other sport events is not high, with the exception of the women’s volleyball. The OSD hence, does not find it practical enough to sell tickets to the other games through the MLS accounts. The OSD also clarifies that tickets are accessible and available at the venues.

For your convenience

OSD Director Emmanuel Calanog shared that the tickets sold by the office are cheaper than the ones in the venue. Some of the tickets sold at the venue are actually ones that were not sold by the office; these are sent back to venue management for selling.

Each university is then responsible for the reprinting charges and the logistics expenses of the procedure.

Calanog encouraged, “Basta may tickets dito (As long as there are tickets here,) you should get them here already.”

The convenience of reserving tickets through MLS has made watching the UAAP games live more appealing to students. Moreover, most Lasallians now prefer purchasing tickets via MLS than going to the venue.

“The important thing is that the students have access to the tickets, I think that is more important [than any other concerns],” he concluded.

With respect to a system that makes purchasing tickets more convenient to Lasallians, Calanog is hoping that students would show their support in all games and not just during the highly anticipated La Salle-Ateneo tussles.

“We are hoping that the culture will change. People will go out and watch the team regardless of whom they are playing [against] and not just because it is just La Salle-Ateneo,” Calanog ended.