SEOUL: Leaders of the PBA — the people who represent the team owners, if not the owners themselves — take a few days off each year to pick each other’s brains and chart the path the league will take for the coming season.
This year, these people flew to this bustling and chilly South Korean capital to work a while and have some fun, agreeing on the direction the PBA will head under a new chairman in GlobalPort team owner Mikee Romero.
On Thursday, for practically the whole day, board members and the Office of the Commissioner sat and drew up the 42nd Season’s format, among other things, with Romero giving commissioner Chito Narvasa marching orders on expanding the reach of the PBA to international borders.
“It’s the logical path to take, because every major league in the world is doing it,” Romero told a handful of Filipino reporters during a break in their session at The Plaza Hotel. “Even the NBA is going to China, to the rest of Asia.”
Romero wants the PBA to step out of its shell and conquer the region using social media as a medium.
“That is what is happening now,” Romero went on. “Thirty percent of the population is on social media. We need to tap that market, otherwise, the PBA will be in a stagnant state.”
Romero said that he isn’t a ‘techy’ kind of guy, but wants to tap into the social media platform just the same “because everyone is into it already.”
Romero, who won a seat at the Lower House for the 1Pacman Party List, will be the first team owner to sit as league chair for the first time in a quite a while, taking over from Robert Non of San Miguel Beer, who wound up his second stint in four years with another mammoth effort.
***
Planning sessions like this one happen just once a year, and during that time, you can see that these team representatives, or owners, are really one in trying to come up with the ideas that would help the league take the next step.
They all know that had it not been for the Barangay Ginebra-Meralco title series in the Governors’ Cup, the season that passed would have been ho-hum as far as gate attendance and league awareness were concerned.
But with Ginebra going all the way, the league saved its season and almost broke the all-time gate take of P240 million. A new mark would have been established had the league not opted to turn away thousands during the playoffs because the Araneta Coliseum could only accommodate so much.
That’s why the league is now trying to look at ways to make all the games “watchable” as far as the paying public is concerned.
The league leaders know that elimination round games draw small crowds because of the game having very little at stake.
Romero even went on to joke that all games should be playoff games during his watch.
But talking seriously again, Romero believes that tapping the vast reach of social media could be the answer to the league’s problems — granting that the games are interesting enough for the public to watch or, at least, look forward to.
The league will soon be tapping a social media editorial board to take care of this.
But like the papers back home that are doing the same and are struggling with it, the PBA will have its work cut out, and, just like in 1975 and in its early years when it was just starting — and struggling — to get into the social consciousness of the Filipino, there will be birth pains in this endeavor.
And we see that there will be a lot.
***
With that being Romero’s marching orders, the board and the Office of the Commissioner came up with the format for the coming season, which opens on Nov. 20 with the Philippine Cup where San Miguel Beer is the defending champion.
As usual, the Philippine Cup will be the longest tournament for the year, as the conference will have a double-round elimination before going into the playoffs.
Each of the 12 teams will play a total of 22 games in the classification round, guaranteeing huge media exposure for everyone. Making the playoffs would stretch that, and winning the championship will sweeten the pot all the more.
The format of the playoffs is the only thing left to be determined, same with the Commissioner’s and Governors’ Cups, import-laden conferences where the board already came up with the height limit for reinforcements.
In the Commissioner’s Cup, imports for each team will be no more than 6-foot-10 in height, while in the season-closing Governor’s Cup, each squad will be allowed reinforcements of 6-foot-5 with the option of tapping an Asian import still there.
The league did away with the handicapping system it adopted for the last two seasons because it feels that Mahindra and Blackwater, which will be entering their third year, have developed into strong teams that could now win.
In that, this corner disagrees.
Blackwater and Mahindra still have a lot of catching up to do, especially now that the strong teams became even stronger after the last Draft.
Parity in the league will never happen, because there are teams that are willing to spend more and have the capability of doing so.
This year, these people flew to this bustling and chilly South Korean capital to work a while and have some fun, agreeing on the direction the PBA will head under a new chairman in GlobalPort team owner Mikee Romero.
On Thursday, for practically the whole day, board members and the Office of the Commissioner sat and drew up the 42nd Season’s format, among other things, with Romero giving commissioner Chito Narvasa marching orders on expanding the reach of the PBA to international borders.
“It’s the logical path to take, because every major league in the world is doing it,” Romero told a handful of Filipino reporters during a break in their session at The Plaza Hotel. “Even the NBA is going to China, to the rest of Asia.”
Romero wants the PBA to step out of its shell and conquer the region using social media as a medium.
“That is what is happening now,” Romero went on. “Thirty percent of the population is on social media. We need to tap that market, otherwise, the PBA will be in a stagnant state.”
Romero said that he isn’t a ‘techy’ kind of guy, but wants to tap into the social media platform just the same “because everyone is into it already.”
Romero, who won a seat at the Lower House for the 1Pacman Party List, will be the first team owner to sit as league chair for the first time in a quite a while, taking over from Robert Non of San Miguel Beer, who wound up his second stint in four years with another mammoth effort.
***
Planning sessions like this one happen just once a year, and during that time, you can see that these team representatives, or owners, are really one in trying to come up with the ideas that would help the league take the next step.
They all know that had it not been for the Barangay Ginebra-Meralco title series in the Governors’ Cup, the season that passed would have been ho-hum as far as gate attendance and league awareness were concerned.
But with Ginebra going all the way, the league saved its season and almost broke the all-time gate take of P240 million. A new mark would have been established had the league not opted to turn away thousands during the playoffs because the Araneta Coliseum could only accommodate so much.
That’s why the league is now trying to look at ways to make all the games “watchable” as far as the paying public is concerned.
The league leaders know that elimination round games draw small crowds because of the game having very little at stake.
Romero even went on to joke that all games should be playoff games during his watch.
But talking seriously again, Romero believes that tapping the vast reach of social media could be the answer to the league’s problems — granting that the games are interesting enough for the public to watch or, at least, look forward to.
The league will soon be tapping a social media editorial board to take care of this.
But like the papers back home that are doing the same and are struggling with it, the PBA will have its work cut out, and, just like in 1975 and in its early years when it was just starting — and struggling — to get into the social consciousness of the Filipino, there will be birth pains in this endeavor.
And we see that there will be a lot.
***
With that being Romero’s marching orders, the board and the Office of the Commissioner came up with the format for the coming season, which opens on Nov. 20 with the Philippine Cup where San Miguel Beer is the defending champion.
As usual, the Philippine Cup will be the longest tournament for the year, as the conference will have a double-round elimination before going into the playoffs.
Each of the 12 teams will play a total of 22 games in the classification round, guaranteeing huge media exposure for everyone. Making the playoffs would stretch that, and winning the championship will sweeten the pot all the more.
The format of the playoffs is the only thing left to be determined, same with the Commissioner’s and Governors’ Cups, import-laden conferences where the board already came up with the height limit for reinforcements.
In the Commissioner’s Cup, imports for each team will be no more than 6-foot-10 in height, while in the season-closing Governor’s Cup, each squad will be allowed reinforcements of 6-foot-5 with the option of tapping an Asian import still there.
The league did away with the handicapping system it adopted for the last two seasons because it feels that Mahindra and Blackwater, which will be entering their third year, have developed into strong teams that could now win.
In that, this corner disagrees.
Blackwater and Mahindra still have a lot of catching up to do, especially now that the strong teams became even stronger after the last Draft.
Parity in the league will never happen, because there are teams that are willing to spend more and have the capability of doing so.
