EDITORIAL - Cebu City needs a stadium

In the near future, sports and music enthusiasts will no longer have to troop to the aging Cebu Coliseum to watch bigtime basketball tournaments and concerts as a world-class facility will soon rise in the city.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is reportedly planning to build a stadium at the South Road Properties. He said the establishment will be a multi-purpose center which can host concerts of foreign artists, sports matches and international conferences.

The city government is now looking at two locations at the SRP where the stadium will be built. One is the seven-hectare lot that it owns near the UP campus while the other is the two-hectare property near the Mambaling Access Road beside the SM development.

Rama's plan for such a project stemmed from his dismay over the technical glitches during the final match of the CESAFI basketball championship. The game was held at the Cebu Coliseum, where space is no longer enough to cope with the growing spectators.

A sports buff himself, Rama sees the need for a stadium so Cebuanos could enjoy a first-class venue for sports and entertainment. If realized, the project would definitely make the city a destination for big games and concerts.

Presently, Cebu City has no sports complex with international standards. Foreign acts holding concerts here will have to be content entertaining a few hundred fans at a hotel, which has limited space.

It's really unfortunate that while the city is dubbed the most highly urbanized area outside Manila, it lacks a world-class facility that would cater to major sports activities, concerts and conferences. There's the Cebu City Sports Center. But it has become outmoded and is no longer ideal for major events except for the annual Sinulog Festival.

With Rama's plan to build a stadium, it is expected that the city will someday compete with other areas in attracting international games and concerts. Of course, it will also help expand the city's tourism industry.