Thursday, August 19, 2004 Oyson: ‘I will build that megadome!’ By Manuel N. Oyson Jr. Counter punch
CEBUANOS still enjoy clean and wholesome sports events even if they have to pay through the nose to watch them. Take the 15th PBA All-Star Classic last Sunday at the Cebu Coliseum.
It was Standing Room Only. All seats were taken. Even some seats in the reserve section were appropriated by those who had entered hours ahead of the actual game time at 7 p.m. It was a sight that could warm any promoter’s heart. Sports impresario Paul Pereyra of Mindcom could only smile at the huge turnout.
Scalpers had a field day, doubling and trebling the prices to those who wanted to see the game, especially out-of-towners. After all, it is not every year that the PBA All-Star Weekend comes to town. It was only the second time to be held in Cebu since 1990. Reports say that the tickets were already sold out a week earlier.
SURPASSED. This paper’s Bzzzzzz section even reported that a mother with two sons in tow from Cagayan de Oro City expressed dismay when she had to pay more for the tickets than their combined boat fares just to see the game. That full-house attendance of 12,000 could only have been surpassed on Aug. 4, 1962 when the Cebu Coliseum doors swung open for the first time.
Then world junior lightweight-champion Flash Elorde regained his Oriental lightweight crown against Teruo Kosaka to whom he lost four months earlier in Tokyo.
Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn F. Garcia tossed the ceremonial ball and stayed around for one full quarter before leaving. She was seated beside Buddy Encarnado, chairman of the PBA board of governors.
It was the first I recall that a governor watched a basketball game inside the Cebu Coliseum. Seeing the huge turnout, many of them standing even in the reserved sections, and within hearing distance of Encarnado, she told me: “I will build that (Cebu) megadome.”
JOINT VENTURE. The Cebu Megadome has been scrubbed off the project board temporarily because of the opposition of the majority in the Provincial Board. It would not pass the P250 million budget for its construction on a 4.3 hectare (worth P400 million) area donated by the Mandaue City.
When I told Encarnado, a friend from way back, about the funding problem for the Cebu Megadome, he asked how the PBA could help. I suggested that maybe it can enter into a joint venture with the Province and the Mandaue on what may be a mutually beneficial undertaking. He asked for copies of project studies. Gwen did not say when it would be built. She is gutsy and feisty. Go for it, guv!
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The Cebu Coliseum isn’t just ancient, it’s a disaster waiting to happen.” – Joaquin M. Henson, noted sports columnist-analyst, in “Sporting Chance,” The Philippine Star (8/17/004)
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