Cebu as a sports destination

Manila – My trips to the Big City are always very short ones and each time I come here I am more convinced that Cebu is indeed a great place. I might just be being very Cebuano, but with the traffic situation and the pollution here, I’d say there’s no place like home.

Of course each time Toyota Motors Philippines invites me to come over, the events that I attend are always a pleasure and despite having to sit through traffic congestion moving from one place to another, I look forward to my next visit.

Why are my thoughts in Cebu? I guess it is because of the recent talk about making the place as an ideal sporting destination and the fact that I had to wake up very early last Thursday to talk a little about it over the morning show Buena Mano of GMA-7 Cebu.

First, we have to understand that we cannot just bid for any sporting event we can think of. We have to face reality that Cebu, though a bustling metropolis, is not fully-equipped to handle just any event.

We have to check what we have and don’t have. To sound a bit more positive about it, let’s start with what we have.

We have accommodations for a wide spectrum of guests with the 5,000 or more hotel rooms available around Cebu. We have good hospitals that can take care of the guests’ medical needs. We have transportation facilities and an international airport.

Although we have such things, we don’t have a decent stadium that has a good track oval and a well-kept field.

We also don’t have an air-conditioned sports arena and have been making do with the decrepit Cebu Coliseum that has been renamed to New Cebu Coliseum just because the basketball court got a new coat of paint and that was more than a decade ago.

But let us not worry too much, we might not be able to host major football events yet or very big basketball or international volleyball events, we can do so many other things.

The Cebu Pistol and Rifle Association (CPRA) range in Lapu-Lapu City is a world-class facility for practical shooting that has already hosted the World Shoot in 1999.

We have big hotel ballrooms and the Cebu International Convention Center that can host other indoor events that don’t need an arena set up.

There mountain bike trails of Danao City have been host to many international events and the South Road Properties can host other competitions while not much activity is happening there yet.

There are many things we can do. We just have to think hard on what to concentrate on so we can do it right and well.

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MILESTONES: Happy birthday to our chairman of the board, Dr. Jose ‘Dodong’ Rivera Gullas, who is turning a year older tomorrow. Sir Dodong, as he is fondly called is not just an educator and a philanthropist, but also a dedicated sportsman.

Belated birthday greetings go to my beloved mother-in-law, Herminiana Gabuya Reyes, who turned a year older yesterday. The same goes to my classmate Noreen ‘Taki’ Davide-Salas, who also celebrated her birthday yesterday.

More power to all of you! – THE FREEMAN