THE seventh and final game of the blockbuster best-of-seven PBA Commissioner’s Cup championship series between eventual champion Barangay Ginebra and guest foreign team Bay Area shattered the previous record attendance in league history.

In an official report by the PBA Commissioner’s Office, the deciding Game 7 between the Kings and the Dragons attracted a record crowd of 54,589 at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan last Sunday.

That shattered the previous record attendance of 54,086 for the Game 7 showdown between Ginebra and Meralco in the 2017 Governors’ Cup also held at the world’s largest indoor stadium.

PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial expressed gratitude to the PBA fans for making it happened.

“Siyempre taos-puso tayong nagpapasalamat sa lahat ng fans na tumangkilik sa ating Commissioner’s Cup finals between Ginebra and Bay Area. Kung hindi dahil sa kanila, hindi natin magagawa ito,” said Marcial in a statement.

Interestingly, the PBA record crowd came a few days after the NBA game between the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors attracted a raucous crowd of 68,323 to the Alamodome — the Spurs’ home from 1993 to 2002 before their move to the AT&T Center arena.

The Spurs-Warriors game shattered the previous record attendance for a regular-season NBA game of 62,046 for a showdown between Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls and the Atlanta Hawks at the Georgia Dome on March 27, 1998, according to reports.

Marcial noted that Game 1 easily set the tone of the finals as it attracted a crowd of 18,252 on Christmas Day, which the Kings handily won, 96-81.

Only Game 3 had the lowest registered attendance in the title series pegged at 15,004 as the Kings rallied to beat the Dragons, 89-82.

The crowd is back in full force in Game 5 (21,823 at Mall of Asia Arena) and Game 6 (22,361 at Smart Araneta Coliseum), respectively.

In all, the first six games of the series averaged an attendance of 18,453.

The entire finals itself drew an average crowd of 23,615, according to the PBA.

Last Sunday, Ginebra defeated Bay Area, 114-99, to capture its 15th PBA championship.

The scores:

Ginebra (114) – Brownlee 34, Malonzo 22, Thompson 18, Aguilar 14, Standhardinger 12, Tenorio 10, Pringle 3, Gray 1.
Bay Area (99) – Powell 29, Blankley 25, Liu 17, Lam 13, Yang 10, Zhu 5, Reid 0, Song 0, Ewing 0, Ju 0.
Quarterscores: 27-21, 61-39, 95-74, 114-99.

The results:

Game 1 –Ginebra 96, Bay Area 81.
Game 2 –Bay Area 99, Ginebra 82
Game 3 –Ginebra 89, Bay Area 82
Game 4–Bay Area 94, Ginebra 86.
Game 5– Ginebra 101, Bay Area 91.
Game 6 — Bay Area 87, Ginebra 84.
Game 7 — Ginebra 114, Bay Area 99
(Ginebra wins best-of-seven series, 4-3).