A HIGHLY-placed source told me that a big mall at the South Road Properties is entertaining the idea of having a football field in a property adjacent to theirs.
Sorry for the cloak-and-dagger but I have to respect my source’s request for anonymity as negotiations are still early. Though if you say big mall at SRP, you pretty much have an idea what establishment I’m talking about.
The property in question is currently idle and is currently used as a place where mall-goers throw their cigarrete butts. It is certainly big enough for a pitch, or even two.
Of course you’ll ask, what would happen to the artificial pitch already at SRP owned by Dynamic Herbs? Well, it would still be there.
I don’t think Cebu will ever experience a case of having “too many” football fields because there aren’t enough. It’s a good thing that we have a united football community and organizers just give way when another tournament comes in.
But put in another pitch like that, a spot in the football calendar suddenly opens. You can have the Cesafi and City Olympics--which use the same pitch--be played together.
If the mall operator is worried that a football specific pitch might not be too attractive, it can have one for football and one for other sports that need a field--softball, baseball, frisbee, rugby.
We have some of the best softball players around but they don’t have a pitch; rugby and frisbee too have their own following but are like orphans of the city, scrounging around for a venue for their events.
Besides, we really don’t have any more green spaces in the city to hang out in. A few years ago, the Cebu Business Park used to be that place but those areas where people used to jog and play their sports have been developed. Some transferred to the IT Park but those areas too have been developed.
Some like to run at Fuente Osmeña, but aside from the muggers and drunk revelers at night, you have to contend with the fumes of the cars too.
So yes a green space where people can walk, jog, play, even just laze around is one that we need.
That area is currently surrounded by trees and I just can imagine a tree-lined place where you can sweat it out. And of course, if you get a bit hungry or want something to buy, there’s a big mall just across. (We have to give them that selling pitch of course so they’d consider the pitch.)