To stage game down under?: Aussies mull PBA options

SYDNEY – Basketball New South Wales (BNSW) CEO Danny Martinez said yesterday he is carefully studying possible project tie-ups with the PBA after a meeting with newly designated pro league chairman Ramon Segismundo and commissioner Chito Salud here last week.

Segismundo and Salud were in this city to preside in a planning session with the Board of Governors at the Westin Hotel. They conferred with Martinez and BNSW Asia-Pacific director Amado (Ding) de Villa on partnership options. The Board paid a visit to the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) at the Olympic Park and was impressed by the facilities provided in the 17-year-old center that today has over 700 high-performance athletes on team or individual scholarships.

“We’re very excited to do projects with the PBA,” said Martinez, a Filipino who has lived here since 1986 and worked as full-time BNSW CEO the last 12 years. “Commissioner Salud has broached the idea of bringing two PBA teams over to play in Sydney. We’re looking at the numbers to figure out if it’s feasible. If it pushes through, the PBA will come with a party of 75, including players, coaches, referees and staff. The tab is $300,000. If we sell tickets at an average price of $30, we’ll need a crowd of 10,000 to break even. If we get sponsors to defray costs, we could make it happen.”

Two possible venues are the State Sports Center at the Olympic Park and the Sydney Entertainment Center downtown. The State Sports Center, a multi-purpose indoor arena, sits only 5,000 while the Entertainment Center, home of the National Basketball League (NBL) team Sydney Kings, has a seating capacity of 13,250. If the venue is the State Sports Center, sponsors must pick up a hefty tab to cover for the limited capacity.

Martinez said he also discussed the possibility of a two-game PBA-NBL All-Star series. “We could do Game 1 in Sydney and Game 2 in Manila,” said Martinez. The option will involve less players coming from the PBA. “It’s never been done before,” he continued. “I think this has a chance of bringing in a lot of fans particularly if we set up a preliminary game that’s a crowd drawer in itself.”

Martinez said another topic was referee development. “We’re very proud of the performance of Australian referees in FIBA competitions,” he went on. “In the Olympics and World Championships, Australian referees are assigned in big games, of course only when Australia isn’t playing. In our system, we appoint the referees to work games whether in the NBL or a domestic league. For instance, if we know there’s bad blood between two teams, we’ll assign referees who are cool and focused. If it’s a game between two highly physical teams, we’ll designate referees who are big enough not to be pushed around. If it’s a game between two teams that like to run, we’ll choose referees who can keep pace. I understand in the PBA, there is a drawing of lots to determine the three referees to work a game.”

De Villa said Segismundo may take the Meralco team to train at NSWIS next year. “He mentioned that Meralco might come over as a team to use NSWIS’ facilities,” said De Villa. “He also talked about broadening the scope of PBA team managers. I think, some PBA team managers are chosen from among former players who are still around the game but their responsibilities are not clear. Mr. Segismundo’s idea is to provide team managers with a sense of purpose, to make them function as real team managers like in the NBA. The NSWIS may be able to offer a course to enhance their development.”

De Villa, a former La Salle cager, said Australian sports authorities are aware of basketball’s popularity in the Philippines. “Unfortunately, basketball is not in the Australian’s culture,” he said. “The NBL isn’t growing as quickly as it should. That’s probably because some of Australia’s best players are in the US either in the NBA like Patty Mills and Aron Baynes or in the NCAA. But there’s a large Filipino community in Australia, probably 300,000 all over and 100,000 in Sydney. Blacktown, a Sydney suburb, is like a little Manila and in 2005, a group of PBA legends were over to play an exhibition before over 5,000 fans. The Filipino player is well-known in Australia for his abilidad and diskarte.” De Villa declined to comment on a rumor that a Filipino businessman is interested to invest in an NBL team, perhaps the Sydney Kings.

Martinez said BNSW is a state-wide umbrella federation of 85 associations holding 900 games every weekend with over 60,000 registered players. The NSWIS is supporting 32 basketball scholars of 700 athletes in its program. Of the 32, 12 are in the wheelchair pool and the 20 others are split between 10 males and 10 females.