PBA games stay at Big Dome

For P5 million, the Philippine Basketball Association has decided to keep its strings attached to the Araneta Coliseum — at least for this year.

The PBA recently stood on the verge of closing its doors on the Big Dome for the coming 29th season after the Quezon City venue signed a lucrative deal with Beam toothpaste to have its colorful logo prominently splashed all over the place.

Kept off the deal, the PBA then threatened to pull out of the Big Dome starting this year unless it gets a 30 percent share of the advertising contract reportedly worth at least P12 million. Araneta Coliseum, however, refused to budge, leading to the impasse.

Sources said Big Dome officials said they wouldn’t care if the PBA decides to burn the bridge, insisting that the practice of having corporate logos painted on the court is common even in the National Basketball Association.

For fear of being left out holding an empty sachet, Beam toothpaste came to its own rescue, offering the PBA a hefty P5 million with nothing to be taken out of the Big Dome coffers, the PBA then agreed, meaning games at the Big Dome this year will go on as scheduled.

"The PBA has agreed to the offer. Tuloy ang games sa Araneta," PBA media bureau chief Willy Marcial told The STAR as soon as he was imformed by commissioner Noli Eala of the board’s approval of the Beam offer.

"But the P5 million is only for this year," he added.

The board decided to accept the settlement during a special meeting at a Mandaluyong hotel where the league’s P670 million, three-year contract with its new broadcast partner — the NBN-4/IBC-13 consortium — was earlier signed and sealed.

The decision might pave the way for the staging of Sunday’s opening of the PBA at the Araneta Coliseum featuring the lone match pitting the Alaska Aces and the Sta. Lucia Realtors.