Friday, January 18, 2008 Cesafi to go national By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE 2008 season of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc (Cesafi) will reach a wider range of audience as the former PBA commissioner, Noli Eala, is interested in giving Cesafi a national coverage.
Cesafi commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy said Eala, who is one of the prime movers of the sports promotion company, Third Force Promotion, will be bringing Cesafi basketball and volleyball games on national television.
Eala came to Cebu during the final moments of the highly-sensational Cesafi finals last year and was reportedly overwhelmed at the turnout of the crowd and the kind of competition between finalists University of the Visayas and University of San Carlos.
“Eala sent Cesafi a letter for us to explore the possibility and the schools seems to welcome the concept,” said Tiukinhoy.
Eala and his team have promoted the Rey “Boom-Boom” Bautista fight and has Cesafi next in its sights as they want to bring the provincial league not just to the Visayas and Mindanao crowd but also to the audiences of Luzon and NCR.
“Just as NCAA and UAAP are brought to Visayas and Mindanao audiences, it is time that Cesafi will be taken to the Luzon viewers,” Tiukinhoy added.
Tiukinhoy said it is a good thing for Cesafi schools because it will be an added mileage for them.
“This is a wide-scale advertising for the school and as an added measure, they do not need to spend extra. They just need to play better,” Tiukinhoy said.
The Third Force will be the ones to market the event and therefore, do not need to ask for extra fees from Cesafi. Tiukinhoy said that there is also a chance that Cesafi can even earn from it.
Another upside that Tiukinhoy finds from this is that schools will now try to have a better recruitment program for their basketball and volleyball teams.
“They need to show that they are very competitive otherwise, the whole nation will see it. They do not want everyone to see that they are just whipping boys,” said Tiukihoy.
The volleyball and basketball competitions will be aired over ABC 5 and Cesafi is hoping to sign a three-year contract with Cesafi.
