SM Seaside City Cebu’s Mountain Wing area during the 2019 Chooks to Go Pilipinas 3×3. | Photo from SM Seaside City Cebu
CEBU CITY, Philippines—SM Seaside City Cebu will roll its red carpet for the biggest international basketball tournament happening in Cebu, the Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas FIBA 3×3 World Tour Cebu Masters, slated this weekend, October 1 and 2, 2022.
SM Seaside City Cebu, the fourth biggest mall in the Philippines, is not new in hosting such international 3×3 basketball event. In 2019, it hosted the Chooks to Go Pilipinas 3×3, which drew more than a thousand spectators at the Mountain Wing area.
Anton Del Prado, the SM Regional Operations Manager, said they have been preparing for this for two months now ago.
“When it comes to events like this, we prepare months before, even our three-day sale, we prepare for it two months before at least. This one, this basketball event, we prepare for this two months before also,” said Del Prado.
In fact, the pre-event activities was already happening to hype up the event. On Tuesday, September 27, 2022, the Cebu Chooks and Manila Chooks 3×3 teams, headed by the Philippines top-ranked 3×3 basketball player Mac Tallo, treated Cebuano basketball fans with their meet and greet event at the Mountain Wing area.
“This event is sponsored so we coordinated with the head office on the ground and we already reached out to Chooks-to-Go even before they reached out to us,” added Del Prado.
A total of 14 teams from Belgium, Latvia, Netherlands, Mongolia, Switzerland, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United States, Japan, Qatar, and India will strut their wares in this 3×3 tournament in Cebu.
Prime venue for sports
Over the years, SM Seaside City Cebu has been promoting itself not just a lifestyle destination in the Visayas. It has been promoting itself as a prime venue for sports.
“We always want to promote SM Seaside City Cebu as a prime venue for lifestyle, family, and sports. Our last event was the taekwondo event and the chess event. Will also have a bowling and figure skating events soon,” said Del Prado.
“SM in general, Mr. Hans Sy, our the chairman of SM Prime is very supportive of sports. He is also supportive in many sports all over the Philippines. So, SM is very supportive of it also like this one that we’re having this weekend,” added Del Prado.
The Mountain Wing area can accommodate as many as 500 people in seating capacity, while the entire space, including the upper ground floors, can fit as many as a thousand.
Besides the Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas FIBA 3×3 World Tour Cebu Masters, SM Seaside City Cebu will also launch one of its most sought-after events, the Christmas centerpiece launching on October 21, 2022 at the same area.
“There’s an upcoming event after the 3×3 including, we’re going to construct our Christmas centerpiece, we make sure our Mountain Wing always have an activity or event. We will be launching the Christmas centerpiece on October 21,” Del Prado concluded.
/bmjo
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