Crowd shot during the VNL game between Japan and China at Mall of Asia Arena. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines–Attendance on the second day of the VNL men’s tournament took an obvious dip Wednesday, not because action has let up on the floor.
“We were expecting that it would be like this today and (Thursday) because Japan is not playing,” with a smile, Philippine National Volleyball Federation president Tats Suzara told the Inquirer.
“Japan has really attracted the crowds every where,” added Suzara, who bared that the Philippines will also host a women’s leg of the highly-popular circuit before the Paris Olympics next year.
A big crowd came to Mall of Asia Arena for the first day of hostilities Tuesday and cheered Yuki Ishikawa and the rest of the Japanese national team in their 24-26, 25-23, 21-25, 25-23, 15-12 nipping of towering China that kept them unbeaten after nine games in the 16-nation tournament.
Japan’s Yuki Ishikawa in the VNL Manila Leg game. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
Ishikawa leads the tournament in scoring with a total of 160 points.
First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos was among those in attendance for the featured game on opening day where almost 6,000 fans watched and forked out sums of as large as P11,000 for a VIP seat.
The Philippines is hosting the final week of elimination play as half of the field will hit the showers after Sunday before the knockout stages starting with the quarterfinals are held in Poland.
Being the host, Poland has automatically qualified and is playing just for the ranking, which will be very important in the playoffs. The higher the finish the lighter the assignment for a country that advances.
A windfall of $1.5 million (roughly P84 million) is up for the champion.