Rizal Memorial Coliseum

battle between the 12th and 5th cavalry divisions of the American troops weeding out the 2nd naval battalion of Japanese soldiers holding garrison in the concrete structures of the sports complex. As the war came to a bloody end in Intramuros, the sports complex’s concrete shell, sustaining heavy damage, barely survived. Despite the seemingly impossible task to resuscitate war-ravaged Manila, the city rose again, and the rehabilitation of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex was akin to a phoenix rising from the ashes.

The Philippines became an independent republic in 1946. Amidst the reconstruction and return to normality, the country hosted the 1953 Philippines International Fair in Luneta, which heralded to the world the 500-year progress of the Philippines and its recovery from the war. Participated in by ten foreign countries, this served as a showcase of national spectacle where the Philippines presented itself as a progressive, democratic nation embracing modernity. Concurrently, the reconstruction of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex was in full swing. This regenesis would give the site a new life and meaning -- taking on a different symbolic mantle. It was to be the bearer of Filipino resilience and post-war recovery.

The culmination of this display of post-war national self-actualization was the country’s hosting of the Second Asian Games in 1954. The event served as the successor to the Far Eastern Championship Games in advocating the Pan-Asian diplomatic relations through sports. While brewing tensions between the democratic and communist nations overshadowed the event, the 2nd Asian Games served as an opportunity for the Philippines to project itself as a new nation of the free world. The Philippines’ hosting of the 1954 Asian Games was the first big international sporting event that the new Republic would undertake in its post-colonial existence.

Owing to its unparalleled capacity as a collection of large venues, the Rizal Sports Complex was host to local, national, and international events. Annual collegiate sporting events of the NCAA and UAAP continued to be held here, along with the games of the Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA), which was the forerunner of today’s Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Other non-sporting events have also found a home in the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex. The Rizal Coliseum in particular, was the largest indoor venue of the period and was host to many local events and international shows, such as the concert of Jose Iturbi, exhibition bout of Rocky Marciano, the Holiday on Ice which was an ice-skating performance that premiered on April 29, 1955, and was a charity benefit for the Anti T.B. Society and Boys Town. Numerous other commencement exercises such as those of the Philippine Women’s University and the College of Physical Education, as well as various benefit performances were held at the Coliseum throughout the 1950s.

Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, especially the Rizal Coliseum’s preeminence as the multipurpose venue of Manila and its neighboring towns was unchallenged in subsequent years as it was perhaps the only indoor venue sizeable enough to accommodate a large audience, until the creation of other venues outside the city of Manila, such as the Loyola Center, now known as the Blue Eagle Gym, which opened in 1949, and the Araneta Coliseum which was inaugurated in 1959, both in Quezon City. One of the last major events before its steady decline into the 1970s, was the concert of The Beatles in 1966, which had an audience turnout of 80,000, one of the largest for the band’s concerts.

The Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games), regional counterpart to the Asian Games, paved the way for the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex to again return to the fore with the Philippines’ hosting of the 11th installment of the Games in 1981, and the subsequent hostings of the 16th SEA Games in 1991, and the 23rd SEA Games in 2005, and its counterpart 2005 ASEAN Para Games. As the de facto national stadium, Rizal Memorial Sports Complex had been the go-to venue for the hosting of international sporting events, but it was proving more and more inadequate, as was apparent in the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2005 SEA Games being held at the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta instead. In the years between hostings, the sports complex served as the training grounds for the national athletic teams who represent the country in international sporting events. The prominent games of its original collegiate and professional league residents have since transferred to the newer, better maintained, and far more adequate venues.

Recognizing the 2017 declarations of the National Museum and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, in April 2019, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) remitted Php 842.5 million to the PSC