Rizal Memorial Coliseum

Rizal Memorial Coliseum

Former names	Rizal Memorial Tennis Stadium
Location	Manila, Philippines
Owner	Philippine Sports Commission
Operator	Philippine Sports Commission
Capacity	8,000
Construction
Opened	1934
Architect	Civil Engineer Pedro Siochi y Angeles (1886-1951) - a native of Malabon, Rizal and graduated Civil Engineering from the University of Ghent, Belgium Main Contractor the Pedro Siochi and Company
Tenants
Philippines women's national basketball team MICAA (1938-1981) UAAP (1938-2002) NCAA (1938-2006)

The Rizal Memorial Coliseum is one of two indoor sporting arenas located inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila, Philippines, the other being the Ninoy Aquino Stadium. The capacity of the coliseum is 8,000.

The coliseum and the surrounding sports complex are named after Philippine national hero José Rizal. The venue was originally built solely for tennis and was called the Rizal Memorial Tennis Stadium, but was later used for basketball and other indoor competitions, which led it to being renamed to its present name.

It was one of the main venues of basketball games and other indoor sports during the 1940s up until the 1970s. It was the home venue of the NCAA, UAAP and the now-defunct Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association. These leagues started to also hold their games outside of Rizal Memorial Coliseum when The Araneta Coliseum became operational in the 1960s.

The Philippine Basketball Association also hosted a number of playing dates in the venue during the early-1980s. The basketball competitions of the 1981 Southeast Asian Games was held at RMC that saw a fight-marred gold medal game between the host Philippines and Malaysia.

With the construction and use of the more popular (and much larger) Araneta Coliseum, as well as the use of the PhilSports Arena, the arena suffered terribly as the arena lack an air-conditioning system and adequate lighting. However, in the past few years it has hosted a number of UAAP, NCAA and Shakey's V-League tournaments, as well as the 2005 Southeast Asian Games.

In 2007, the NCAA held its games at the Araneta Coliseum and The Arena in San Juan marking for the first time in a long while the arena did not host any NCAA game.

See also

• Rizal Memorial Sports Complex
• Rizal Memorial Stadium
• Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium