A league for all

Despite all the bad news that has been plaguing Philippine basketball, there are still some groups that feel the full potential of the sport for good has not yet been fully exploited. One such group is TeamSports, a division of Total Events and Athletes Management (TEAM) Inc., which has created a new league for the one sector of Philippine society that hasn’t had any league of its own: advocacies.

"There are a lot of groups out there that are doing a lot of work in helping the country, and some of them are struggling," explains TEAM vice-president Teddy Pereña. "With the popular appeal of basketball, we can bring them all together, and everybody will benefit."

The Philippine Advocacy League will feature sixty teams playing in sixty different venues. The players will range in age from 6 to 60. The teams will compete for titles in six different venues. The new wrinkle is that they will be playing for a general championship, similar to college sports.

The first conference will be called the Children’s Cup, and will include kids and elementary school children. The second conference will be called the City Cup, with high school students representing their various cities in Metro Manila. The third will be the College Cup, wherein varsity teams will carry their school colors. The fourth level is the Corporate Cup, wherein companies can field teams made up of certified employees. Next is the Community Cup, and eligible players will suit up for their respective villages and barangays. Lastly will be the Club Cup, featuring club teams composed of players 55 years old and above.

Each tournament will have 10 teams playing in a two-month tournament. Each team will carry an advocacy, whether its for health, clean air, national discipline, tourism, staying away from drugs, and so on. And each team will have a corporate sponsor backing it up.

"Everyone will have their own local government or corporate sponsor," says Pereña, who has been a successful organizer of basketball tournaments himself. TEAM, Inc. has been organizing the Friendship Cup (won by The Philippine Star basketball team last Sunday) for the last four years, and even had the country’s two largest sports writing groups (the Philippine Sportswriters Association and Sports Communicators Organization of the Philippines) play in exhibition games.

The group behind the birth of the Philippine Advocacy League is not one to trifle with, either. Members of the group are PBA legend and coach Fritz Gaston; retired PBA All-Star Pido Jarencio; Atty. Rene Bello, president of IBC-13; Ed Morada of the MTRCB; sports broadcaster and programming director of Prime Channel Bob Novales; and Ruddy Tan of Burlington. This is the same group that organized the Tuklas Taas search for young basketball players above six feet tall, produced the 2004 Junior SEABA TV coverage, and organizes the Burlington Friendship Cup.

What is the benefit to the advocacies, should they join? The league will play in 60 venues, so their reach will be broadened. Awareness for all their causes will be enhanced. They will have a means to generate sponsorship revenue, and receive television and print exposure from the games. In addition, prizes will be given to the champions of each tournament. Lastly, it will bring all the advocacies together.

How will the teams be divided into groups? Pereña says that the invited teams will draw lots to determine which advocacy they will represent. Everyone assumes that all advocacies represent positive change, so the teams wouldn’t really mind.

The plan is for the Philippine Advocacy League to start playing in January. Each tournament will run for two months of the year, keeping the league a year-round affair. Initially, all teams will be from Metro Manila and nearby.

"Later on, if we are successful, we can expand to the Visayas and Mindanao," Pereña hopes. "Who can say no to doing good?"

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For inquiries on the Philippine Advocacy League, you may reach this writer through [email protected].