A really disorganized event last July 17. Period
Over a week before the said date, news programs from different local free TV channels announced that Lebron James will be arriving at Manila this July 24 2013 at Mall of Asia Arena courtesy of this global shoe brand (yes, you know it for sure) and the way to get free tickets is to go to the shoe brand's branch in Bonifacio Global City on July 17 at 12nn. They're giving away 2 tickets per person.
After I heard and saw the news, I already saved the date at my organizer. He's one of the NBA players that I idolized after the Michael Jordan era. There are a lot of reasons why I wanted to be there at the said. I knew the challenges that I'll gonna face at the ticket distribution day. One of those is the thousands of fans that will also line-up there.
Early morning of July 17 2013 when I heard my mom (as she's watching a morning show that time) that as early as that time that there were already a lot of people lined up for the tickets. Coz of that, I'm on a hurry mode.
9am when I arrived that the said shoe brand's branch. I inquired at the guard in front of the glass door on where is the end of the line. He answered that it was at the side of the branch. I went there. After a few minutes, a barkada of 4 also went at the end of the line and coz of them, I just found out that you need to fall in line first at the vacant lot at the side of Two Parkade to get a stub with number. As a proof, I asked the guy who provided the info on the stub. He showed it. He's No. 745 and the stub is about 1 x 3 inches. The shoe brand's logo at the top, the number at the bottom. He also shared that they lined up at the early hours of July 17. There's no info in the front of the store on the step by step guide to get tickets.
When I'm already at the place to get a stub, I saw a zig zag like line with already thousands of people there. The cones like you usually saw and a barricade placed nearest to the said building were only the separations that were there to secure the line. No ropes. I had a doubt to that coz of possible people who will make "singit" to others like me. The pic below took around 9am
The clock striked at 12noon (and as long as 230pm) , there's no info from the organizer or the execs of the shoe brand on when they gonna start giving those stubs. Meanwhile, I saw tweets from an ABSCBN sportscaster/reporter that the line was already closed at 12nn and an Instagram pic of a person who got a ticket as early as the night of July 16 thanks to the guy who became my buddy throughout the day. It saddened me coz it was a clear evidence that the organizer did not stick to the info that they announced. There's also no info or update from the shoe brand's Twitter and FB fan pages. I looked at the back and I checked at there were 3 more lines.
230 to 330pm, that moment happened. At first, the lines became compressed for a reason. After that, me and a lot of people noticed that there were already a lot from the back were now ahead of us. That means that they did that "singit" move. Too late the hero for the marshalls who came in to fix the line at it's original form. At that time, there's still no updates on the stub distribution.
4pm, marshalls and some people already announced that they start to give away stubs by batch of 20 as they will have to go to the shoe brand's branch to claim the ticket once they already had the stub. From that time til night, it was a slow process. The pic below took around 4pm
6pm and until 930pm, the zig zag line became fast moving. That was a welcome development for us despite that super delayed time and occcassional rains. The pics below were cshot during those times.
Around 930pm to 1130pm, a male exec unnamed either from the organizer or the shoe brand announced that they were already ran out of stubs and tickets. Over 500 people including me were still lined up. Expect from most of us became angry coz of that announcement. A woman tried her best to confront the said exec but got no positive results. It came to the point that we walked straight to the nearby branch of the shoe brand to protest. There were already a number of security personnel surrounded the store as we went there. Imagine the anger and disappointed messages that were thrown outside the store. BGC security and some Taguig police were also came in to secure the store. There were no violent actions happened from both parties. A security personnel also tried to pacify us by giving a bunch of personal size drinking water. I refused to take one still coz of my anger. We chose to stay near in front of store's branch waiting on something to happen.
1130pm, a crew and a cameraman from ABS CBN went near to us to get our side. Of course, they came from an ABS CBN vehicle. Good thing, Bandila was currently onair at that time and Ms. Ces Drilon responded to my tweet. I knew most of the ABS CBN reporters but I don't know the guy who took the report. A 63 year old woman from East Rembo and a married man from Pampanga agreed to share their stories. I'm sad that up to this date, this story still not airing in their News and Current Affairs shows. I chose to "censor" the face of the guy to protect his identity. The crew even gave away his cell number to us in case for updates. The 2 pics below took while the ABS CBN crew were doing their job
From the story that I shared to you, that was really a lack of planning from the organizer of the said event. Too bad, I never saw a story same to myself from any of the local free TV news programs. Good thing that I saw comments from the one of the shoe brand's official FB pages that I'm not alone.
I hope that before the LBJ in Manila event tomorrow, there's a golden chance that Lebron will discover this blog post. I hope this will also serve as a lesson to those organizers who will also give away free tickets to big events like this.
Over a week before the said date, news programs from different local free TV channels announced that Lebron James will be arriving at Manila this July 24 2013 at Mall of Asia Arena courtesy of this global shoe brand (yes, you know it for sure) and the way to get free tickets is to go to the shoe brand's branch in Bonifacio Global City on July 17 at 12nn. They're giving away 2 tickets per person.
After I heard and saw the news, I already saved the date at my organizer. He's one of the NBA players that I idolized after the Michael Jordan era. There are a lot of reasons why I wanted to be there at the said. I knew the challenges that I'll gonna face at the ticket distribution day. One of those is the thousands of fans that will also line-up there.
Early morning of July 17 2013 when I heard my mom (as she's watching a morning show that time) that as early as that time that there were already a lot of people lined up for the tickets. Coz of that, I'm on a hurry mode.
9am when I arrived that the said shoe brand's branch. I inquired at the guard in front of the glass door on where is the end of the line. He answered that it was at the side of the branch. I went there. After a few minutes, a barkada of 4 also went at the end of the line and coz of them, I just found out that you need to fall in line first at the vacant lot at the side of Two Parkade to get a stub with number. As a proof, I asked the guy who provided the info on the stub. He showed it. He's No. 745 and the stub is about 1 x 3 inches. The shoe brand's logo at the top, the number at the bottom. He also shared that they lined up at the early hours of July 17. There's no info in the front of the store on the step by step guide to get tickets.
When I'm already at the place to get a stub, I saw a zig zag like line with already thousands of people there. The cones like you usually saw and a barricade placed nearest to the said building were only the separations that were there to secure the line. No ropes. I had a doubt to that coz of possible people who will make "singit" to others like me. The pic below took around 9am
The clock striked at 12noon (and as long as 230pm) , there's no info from the organizer or the execs of the shoe brand on when they gonna start giving those stubs. Meanwhile, I saw tweets from an ABSCBN sportscaster/reporter that the line was already closed at 12nn and an Instagram pic of a person who got a ticket as early as the night of July 16 thanks to the guy who became my buddy throughout the day. It saddened me coz it was a clear evidence that the organizer did not stick to the info that they announced. There's also no info or update from the shoe brand's Twitter and FB fan pages. I looked at the back and I checked at there were 3 more lines.
230 to 330pm, that moment happened. At first, the lines became compressed for a reason. After that, me and a lot of people noticed that there were already a lot from the back were now ahead of us. That means that they did that "singit" move. Too late the hero for the marshalls who came in to fix the line at it's original form. At that time, there's still no updates on the stub distribution.
4pm, marshalls and some people already announced that they start to give away stubs by batch of 20 as they will have to go to the shoe brand's branch to claim the ticket once they already had the stub. From that time til night, it was a slow process. The pic below took around 4pm
6pm and until 930pm, the zig zag line became fast moving. That was a welcome development for us despite that super delayed time and occcassional rains. The pics below were cshot during those times.
Around 930pm to 1130pm, a male exec unnamed either from the organizer or the shoe brand announced that they were already ran out of stubs and tickets. Over 500 people including me were still lined up. Expect from most of us became angry coz of that announcement. A woman tried her best to confront the said exec but got no positive results. It came to the point that we walked straight to the nearby branch of the shoe brand to protest. There were already a number of security personnel surrounded the store as we went there. Imagine the anger and disappointed messages that were thrown outside the store. BGC security and some Taguig police were also came in to secure the store. There were no violent actions happened from both parties. A security personnel also tried to pacify us by giving a bunch of personal size drinking water. I refused to take one still coz of my anger. We chose to stay near in front of store's branch waiting on something to happen.
1130pm, a crew and a cameraman from ABS CBN went near to us to get our side. Of course, they came from an ABS CBN vehicle. Good thing, Bandila was currently onair at that time and Ms. Ces Drilon responded to my tweet. I knew most of the ABS CBN reporters but I don't know the guy who took the report. A 63 year old woman from East Rembo and a married man from Pampanga agreed to share their stories. I'm sad that up to this date, this story still not airing in their News and Current Affairs shows. I chose to "censor" the face of the guy to protect his identity. The crew even gave away his cell number to us in case for updates. The 2 pics below took while the ABS CBN crew were doing their job
From the story that I shared to you, that was really a lack of planning from the organizer of the said event. Too bad, I never saw a story same to myself from any of the local free TV news programs. Good thing that I saw comments from the one of the shoe brand's official FB pages that I'm not alone.
I hope that before the LBJ in Manila event tomorrow, there's a golden chance that Lebron will discover this blog post. I hope this will also serve as a lesson to those organizers who will also give away free tickets to big events like this.
