Always about money
Professional sports are a multi-million-peso industry with fans flocking to game venues to watch their favorite team and players play. Many more tune in to their TV sets back home making things a highly profitable business not only for team owners but also for advertisers and sponsors, which in turn helps to sell their products.
Players also go where the most money is offered as pro sports have stipulations on player contracts which give them additional compensation, bonuses and incentives, aside from their base salaries.
The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL), founded by Manny Pacquiao in 2017, will open its seventh season this Saturday, March 8 at the Capital Arena in Ilagan, Isabela. It was reportedly offering huge monthly salaries to players with rates ranging between p400,000 to as high as p1.2m. If true, this will make the Philippine Basketball Association blush.
But let’s not worry about the PBA. As long as the SMC and MVP groups are involved in Asia’s first play-for-pay league, the Liga ng Bayan will float.
Homegrown talents had shunned the PBA and are playing overseas, particularly in Taiwan, Korea and Japan because they offer much more. Of course, these players in their prime had taken advantage and the opportunity of favorable conditions. As the saying goes, “make hay while the sun shines”.
But some still wanted to make hay even when thunderclouds are heavy, translation, years past their prime. Well, it’s their right to earn a living and demand for the moon and the stars, who cares if, with height and heft notwithstanding, is only good for about 4 points and 3 rebounds per outing.
After a 5-year absence, Cebu will be represented in the MPBL, this time as the Cebu Classic and will be seeing action in Pasay City on March 13 against Caloocan.
There was some drama as to the formation of the Cebu-based team which was supposed to be built around a former PBA and national team player, who’s also not a stranger to controversy himself dating back from his college playing days to his stint with Gilas and the PBA.
A source said that there were more than half a million-peso salary negotiations with 5-figure cash bonuses for every game won and an ownership stake of the team. But things were not meant to be for both parties that the said player was dropped.
The player said money was not an issue but about the composition of the team which, according to him, doesn’t have any Cebuanos in the lineup.
Yes, the roster includes Manila-grown former PBA players but there are about five former CESAFI standouts on the team, which are as Bisaya as Danao City’s paltik, Lapu-Lapu City’s sa-ang and the masareal of Mandaue City.
Bottomline, it’s always about money.
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