NU-FEU showdown posts record attendance

What some thought might be a dud of a UAAP Finals series, box office-wise, ended up shattering basketball attendance records at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

With glamour squads Ateneo and La Salle crashing out of the title picture for the first time in 20 years, Far Eastern University and National University proved they could dish out a thrilling showdown as well as draw a huge crowd and more.

Game 2 of the title series between the Tamaraws and the Bulldogs last Wednesday had fans literally packing the Big Dome to the rafters.

The attendance was a whopping 24,896.

The number turned out to be an all-time record for a single basketball game in the 39-year history of the Big Dome, surpassing the 24,883 crowd attendance set by the PBA last February in Game 7 of the Finals between Barangay Ginebra and San Mig Coffee.

Both the Blue Eagles and the Green Archers have been Finals staples in the last 20 years. Since the league adopted the Final Four format in 1994, either one of them has reached the title round. Thrice—in 2001, 2002 and 2008 —the two fierce rivals arranged hit title duels that had crowds going past the 23,000 mark.

Last year’s Game 3 Finals between La Salle and University of Santo Tomas also drew a record number of spectators—23,305—at Mall of Asia Arena, the highest in a single basketball event at the two-year-old venue.

And it might be just as jampacked again when the Tamaraws and the Bulldogs, each vying for historic title romps, clash for one last time in the do-or-die Game 3 at 4 p.m. on Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.