The UAAP Season got off the ground with never-before-seen rites last weekend at the University of Santo Tomas campus in Espana, where players — not just from basketball — joined in the parade of teams that signaled the start of wars in multiple sports.
Stars of the PBA come from the two collegiate leagues in the country, the other being the NCAA, the older of the two which got going almost a month ago.
Rare are times when homegrown players who make it to the pro league don’t come from either the UAAP or the NCAA, especially in the advent of the Fil-foreign talents.
For close to the last two decades, the UAAP, however, has gotten the better of the NCAA as far as glamour and following are concerned as games almost always cater to fullhouse crowds.
There is a magic in the UAAP that the NCAA — and even the pro league — don’t see, and definitely, it is taking a lot of attention away from the PBA, which is entering the homestretch of its Governors’ Cup eliminations.
We said last week that the PBA is playing infront of sparse crowds, save for Barangay Ginebra games and that match between the Gin Kings and Star which drew close to 17,000 fans a month ago at the Araneta Coliseum.
It’s going to get worse, and the PBA cannot do anything about it.
Even the major publications in the country are giving priority to the UAAP in its post-game stories as the UAAP is made as the banner story in the sports section more often than not.
Not that the UAAP doesn’t deserve it, but the PBA being in a more crucial stage in its tournament should make it as the logical first choice as a banner story.
But it’s not that way nowadays.
***
Proof that the PBA is struggling in terms of attendance is that it has been knocked out of the Araneta Coliseum for several of its playdates, being forced to play at the Ynares Center in Antipolo because the UAAP will be playing at the Big Dome.
The games on Sept. 10 and 11 were originally scheduled in Antipolo, good thing that the Mall of Asia Arena came to the rescue at the last minute and gave the PBA a decent venue to hold four crucial games there.
We have covered the PBA for so long and we can’t remember times when it has been made to bounce around venues this way.
In the old days, the PBA commands where it would play, with all the other leagues left waiting to choose from the crumbs.
This is certainly not healthy for Asia’s pioneering pro cage league, its leadership must come up with something truly new to re-establish its fan base and again occupy its old place as far as sports-entertainment outfits in the country is concerned.
***
The best basketball action in the country has been, and always will be, the PBA.
There’s no question that the finest players in the country are there, and when you watch the UAAP or any other league, they seem to be playing in slow motion compared to how action is in the pro league.
So what has the league done — or failed to do — the past few years for it to be relegated to a place where it is now when the collegiate season starts?
Has the proliferation of the Fil-foreign player been good for the league? Has the rule allowing conglomerates to own multiple teams been of help? Is the three-conference calendar viable at this point?
There are so many questions and so many things to look into, but looking back at the glory days of the PBA, only the three-conference format was there since the beginning and yet the league was the biggest sporting draw in the country for decades.
Even then, the league should take a look into this as there is just too much basketball in the country that’s going on at the same time.
The hunger factor is not there as far as the fans are concerned, because the PBA is there practically every day for close to 10 months of the year.
Enigmatic players like the Jaworskis, the Fernandezes, Patrimonios, Adornados, the Cos, etc., haven’t come aplenty in the past few years, with the Fil-foreign players not really having a solid fan base simply because the local community only get to know them when they come over.
A homegrown player provides the attachment between fan and cager since the fan is used to seeing the player since his college, or maybe, even high school days.
It’s hard to associate yourself with a Fil-foreign player who studied and played collegiate ball in the United States with someone who grew up in a barrio and played sandlot basketball.
Fans love players they can relate to, and when the Fil-foreign player is interviewed on TV and can’t converse in the native tongue, it’s an added turn off.
Stars of the PBA come from the two collegiate leagues in the country, the other being the NCAA, the older of the two which got going almost a month ago.
Rare are times when homegrown players who make it to the pro league don’t come from either the UAAP or the NCAA, especially in the advent of the Fil-foreign talents.
For close to the last two decades, the UAAP, however, has gotten the better of the NCAA as far as glamour and following are concerned as games almost always cater to fullhouse crowds.
There is a magic in the UAAP that the NCAA — and even the pro league — don’t see, and definitely, it is taking a lot of attention away from the PBA, which is entering the homestretch of its Governors’ Cup eliminations.
We said last week that the PBA is playing infront of sparse crowds, save for Barangay Ginebra games and that match between the Gin Kings and Star which drew close to 17,000 fans a month ago at the Araneta Coliseum.
It’s going to get worse, and the PBA cannot do anything about it.
Even the major publications in the country are giving priority to the UAAP in its post-game stories as the UAAP is made as the banner story in the sports section more often than not.
Not that the UAAP doesn’t deserve it, but the PBA being in a more crucial stage in its tournament should make it as the logical first choice as a banner story.
But it’s not that way nowadays.
***
Proof that the PBA is struggling in terms of attendance is that it has been knocked out of the Araneta Coliseum for several of its playdates, being forced to play at the Ynares Center in Antipolo because the UAAP will be playing at the Big Dome.
The games on Sept. 10 and 11 were originally scheduled in Antipolo, good thing that the Mall of Asia Arena came to the rescue at the last minute and gave the PBA a decent venue to hold four crucial games there.
We have covered the PBA for so long and we can’t remember times when it has been made to bounce around venues this way.
In the old days, the PBA commands where it would play, with all the other leagues left waiting to choose from the crumbs.
This is certainly not healthy for Asia’s pioneering pro cage league, its leadership must come up with something truly new to re-establish its fan base and again occupy its old place as far as sports-entertainment outfits in the country is concerned.
***
The best basketball action in the country has been, and always will be, the PBA.
There’s no question that the finest players in the country are there, and when you watch the UAAP or any other league, they seem to be playing in slow motion compared to how action is in the pro league.
So what has the league done — or failed to do — the past few years for it to be relegated to a place where it is now when the collegiate season starts?
Has the proliferation of the Fil-foreign player been good for the league? Has the rule allowing conglomerates to own multiple teams been of help? Is the three-conference calendar viable at this point?
There are so many questions and so many things to look into, but looking back at the glory days of the PBA, only the three-conference format was there since the beginning and yet the league was the biggest sporting draw in the country for decades.
Even then, the league should take a look into this as there is just too much basketball in the country that’s going on at the same time.
The hunger factor is not there as far as the fans are concerned, because the PBA is there practically every day for close to 10 months of the year.
Enigmatic players like the Jaworskis, the Fernandezes, Patrimonios, Adornados, the Cos, etc., haven’t come aplenty in the past few years, with the Fil-foreign players not really having a solid fan base simply because the local community only get to know them when they come over.
A homegrown player provides the attachment between fan and cager since the fan is used to seeing the player since his college, or maybe, even high school days.
It’s hard to associate yourself with a Fil-foreign player who studied and played collegiate ball in the United States with someone who grew up in a barrio and played sandlot basketball.
Fans love players they can relate to, and when the Fil-foreign player is interviewed on TV and can’t converse in the native tongue, it’s an added turn off.
