MANILA, 24 October 2003 — PBA days are numbered.
This stern warning came from Bert Lina, owner of PBA team FedEx.
Even with a merry mix of sensational imports and other promotional gimmicks, the Philippine Basketball Association would fail in its bid to lure fans back into its venues if the issue against the so-called Fil-shams is not settled soon.
Lina, who team entered the PBA early last year, broke his silence for the first time on the worsening state of the pro basketball league, citing a lot of factors for its continuous decline.
He particularly blamed the Fil-sham mess and the high cost of tickets as reasons for the continued decline of gate attendance in Asia’s first-ever pro league.
“The people are fuming mad because of Fil-shams who are still playing in the PBA,” said Lina, who urged the professional league to expedite its work in ridding the pro league of the Fil-shams. “They feel cheated because of this Fil-sham controversy.”
The Senate committee on games, amusements and sports, under Senator Robert Barbers, had earlier recommended to the Bureau of Immigration the deportation of eight Fil-foreigners, led by Talk ‘N’ Text’s Asi Taulava, but the Department of Justice has yet to withdraw the citizenship it gave to the eight.
Lina pointed out fake Filipino cagers are pulling the league down. He earlier suggested that the PBA reduce its ticket prices, especially those in the lower and ringside sections to bolster gate attendance in the league.
For the record, FedEx is one of only two teams — the other being Sta Lucia Realty — among 10 active teams in the league which doesn’t have foreign-bred players in their lineup, a principle the sportsman is trying to inspire among his fellow board members.
He said FedEx’s “one vote” was not enough to get the board to take more active measures to resolve the issue.
“I’m only one as against 10,” he said. “Now maybe they are beginning to see the light. You can’t tell fans what to like.”
PBA Chairman Jun Cabalan reacted swiftly to the scathing remarks made by Lina.
He reminded Lina that “the problems besetting the league today, most especially the Fil-Am subject, has been and is being thoroughly discussed and acted upon by the entire board together with the league commissioner.”
He said Lina “was, in fact, present when measures were adopted to address the matter of the Fil-Ams.”
Cabalan firmly brought to the attention of Lina “that pursuant to the rules of the PBA board and the gentleman’s agreement among the governors, all statements relating to policies affecting the league must be aired through the appropriate venues provided by the constitution and discussed first within the confines of the board room ... any diversion from the said policy will only lead to misunderstanding and would be detrimental to the greater interest of the league.”
Lina said he had also tried to convince the PBA board to take a three-month break during the collegiate season from July to October, saying the Universities Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) now attract more following than the PBA.
“I think we, as businessmen, should take a little more sacrifice and give those three months to the UAAP and NCAA,” he added.
From the Final Four onward, the UAAP has had a sellout crowd at the Araneta Coliseum, while De La Salle-Ateneo games have always been attended by full-house crowd this year.
Lina even hinted that FedEx management is already entertaining the possibility of his ballclub finishing its five-year contract with the country’s premier league and then would move his resources to other pursuits.
Lina said his firm might concentrate on promoting and helping the sport of cycling of which he was recently elected president of its national association.
It can be recalled that Lina and FedEx had locked horns with the PBA since acquiring Tanduay’s franchise last year, foremost being the disputed contract of veteran forward Bong Hawkins.
PBA Commissioner Noli Eala, and later the league board, both ruled in favor of Hawkins, ordering FedEx to pay Hawkins the remainder of his contract amounting to over P9 million. The two sides have already settled the issue.
Interestingly, the PBA has gone through a series of “storms” this season.
Controversies such as the television coverage, the advertising brouhaha involving Beam Toothpaste, the Fil-sham issue and the drug scandals that netted some of the league’s superstars have all contributed to the dwindling of gate attendance.
Eala has actually tried to “rescue” the league by coming up with promotional gimmicks such as the Toyota-Crispa matchup, which served as a “front-act” to the All-Star Weekend of the PBA last June. The amiable PBA commissioner also revived the ongoing One-on-One match up.
He also revived the Reinforced Conference, which was one of the original conferences instituted by the PBA during its formative years in the 1970s, replacing the Governor’s Cup.
At the same time, Eala brought back the Invitational Cup, though it proved to be a flop considering that the foreign teams invited were patsies.
Eala has also reconnected with the fans on a personal level, seating himself and his staff amid the crowd while treating fans to watch the action from the sidelines.
He also has created special boxes where fans can mingle with celebrities while watching games and will be served on by waiters.
“With all these changes and by our own admission that this is a transition phase for the league, we had very little expectations about attendance because we understood there was the possibility that fans would simply wait and see what the new PBA is all about before coming into the games,” said Eala.
He said he is proposing a radical revision of the league format in a bid to generate fan interest and improve the quality of competition in a tight eight-month schedule.
Eala will present to the board a 14-page briefing paper on his proposal.
The proposal resets the league opening to October and allows for a three-month break from July to September. It guarantees each team a minimum 30 and a maximum of 45 to 50 games a season.
Aside from the National Championships, which will be preceded by the race for divisional titles similar to the National Basketball Association (NBA) format, the proposal includes a provision for an Invitational tournament in July.
Obviously, the doping problem has alarmed the basketball sports industry still struggling from waning game revenues amid economic difficulties and the emergence of new and rival forms of entertainment. Officials estimate the value of the illegal drug trade in the Philippines at 81.6 billion pesos a year.
The professional league, established 28 years ago, has about 200 players and 10 teams funded by top Philippine corporations. So alarmed was Eala over the drug mess that he called for desperate measures to curb the menace.
