THE third season of the Governor’s Cup-Inter Cities/Municipalities Under-21 Basketball Tournament gets underway on March 9 with simultaneous opening ceremonies in seven venues in Cebu.
The Cebu Provincial Sports Commission (CPSC) has decided to do away with the usual grand opening in one venue and will instead have a ceremony per district.
CPSC executive director Ramil Abing relayed this to SunStar Cebu in an interview.
“Every district will have its opening; we think this is a suitable change. It saves time, and teams don’t need to travel far for the opening ceremony, especially those teams who don’t have a scheduled game on that day,” he said.
The change in the opening ceremony is in line with the new format this season when teams are bracketed according to their congressional district. Cebu Province has seven districts.
The opening venue for the first district is at Talisay City Sports Complex; the second district is at Oslob Municipal Gym; the third district is at Tuburan Municipal Gym, the fourth district is at Bogo City Coliseum, the fifth district is at Catmon Gym and Danao City Civic Center, the sixth district is at Consolacion Gym; and the seventh district is at Dumanjug Municipal Gym.
The champion in every district will win P100,000 while the second placer will get P50,000. The top two teams in all seven districts will advance to the second round. The 14 teams will be divided in two brackets and will play in a single-round robin format.
The top two teams in every bracket in the second round will advance to the crossover semifinals.
The grand champion will win the P500,000 cash purse. The second to fourth placers will get P300,000, P200,000 and P100,000, respectively.
Out of 53 cities and municipalities of Cebu Province, a total of 41 local government units will see action in this year’s province-wide grassroots tournament for players aged 21 and below. (RSC)