IT’S understandable that City Hall’s announcement of its plan to put up a 20-hectare sports facility was met with skepticisms.
It’s not the first time that a planned sports facility was announced, so I guess people are skeptic if the plans ever pushes through.
The first one was announced by then Cebu City Sports Commission chairman Jonathan Guardo but he and Tomas Osmena had a falling out, so that went into the backburner. During his term sharpshooter Mike Rama, who once scored 96 points in a local game, talked about a sports hub also at SRP. That too never went past the “talking” phase.
And now this, Mayor Osmena announced a plan for his 20-hectare facility that will include football fields and tennis courts (emphasis on the plural), motocross paths, a jogging trail and a diving pool.
Mayor Osmena expects the facility to be finished later this year because there won’t be any major civil works needed.
I’m going to hold off my judgement of this and believe that unlike in previous attempts, this will really push through. If there’s one thing that both the BOPK and Team Rama can agree on, it’s this statement by the mayor--the sports facility is what the City needs right now.
We have sports enthusiasts in both camps, Jerry Guardo and Mary Ann delos Santos of BOPK and Jerry Guardo and Raymond Garcia of Team Rama and I think they all can see what such facility can do for the city.
There’s already an ongoing construction of a privately-funded artificial pitch also at the SRP but I don’t see putting up one owned by the City would be in conflict. Besides, though the mayor call it football fields, it doesn’t have to be only for football as both softball and baseball—two sports where Cebuanos excel nationally and in the Asean region—also need fields.
The first question of course is will this be finally happening. The Mayor has been known to follow through on his words and given that he said construction will start this year, well, we can afford to wait, right?
I don’t think this will be a permanent facility but how the Cebuanos will take to this might prod Cebu City to think of a more permanent solution to the lack of sports facilities in the city.