A promising 2020 for PBA

IT looks like the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), which opens its 45th season on March 8 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, is heading for a turnaround this year.
At least that is what PBA chairman Ricky Vargas said at the media presscon hosted by the league recently at the Conrad Hotel, an opportunity that I did not let pass, knowing I would end up missing the media day that came two days after at Okada as I had to be at the Mandaluyong City Peace & Order Council quarterly meeting being a member of the council.
I was the first to ask the question in the open forum.
I asked what was the gate attendance of games in 2019 and compare it to 2018. It has been a concern of the league the past years as attendance has been declining.
The answer given by Ricky was that yes, there was decline in gate attendance by 4% but still, there was 4% increase in revenue from this side.
Plus the fact that TV5 has increased its payments for the right to air PBA games and the additional advertising revenues made Ricky conclude that the PBA is headed for a turnaround year in 2020.
What the league has realized is that the potential for online advertising revenues is bigger, and that the league is presently pursuing talks with Facebook and YouTube for whatever tie-ups they can agree on. And if we are to go with the record number of 3.5 million online viewers in Game 2 of the Meralco-Ginebra Governors’ Cup finals series, then the league does have the leverage to attract online advertisers on top of traditional media advertisers on television.
PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial, who has been renewed already to a fresh three-year contract because of his performance and very good working relationships with the PBA Board, disclosed that the Middle East remains to be the biggest out of the country viewership base.
Now for the games themselves, starting with the all-Filipino conference, missing the action for sure will be multiple MVP June Mar Fajardo because of a Paul George type of injury that might see his return by the third conference already, Raymond Almazan, also out with a knee injury, and another big man Greg Slaughter who took off on a temporary leave from playing.
But whatever his reasons are, his action definitely did not sit well with Alfrancis Chua who said players should be the ones to ask their teams if they will be renewed or not in reply to rumors that Greg did not like supposedly the lack of offer and the trade talks about him.
Read between the lines then, a team that is interested to keep a key player woos the player and even offers contract extension, what does the present situation tell you about Greg’s standing with Ginebra then?
The status of suspended Calvin Abueva was also taken up and Willie said the player just has to meet a few more things. Willie has also made his recommendation already to the board regarding his playing status.
The fact that 16 rookies have already been signed by the different teams while a lot of veterans but not so key players have transferred teams should make the league more interesting and the absence of the bigs mentioned earlier, particularly for June Mar will affect the parity in the league.
Among the rookies this year is, surprise, a 35-year-old player, Maurice Shaw from Blackwater. The guy is a Fil-Am who is supposed to be a very good player but did not know that he could have qualified except much later. Other players should not monkey around with this guy as he is reportedly a blackbelter in martial arts, not sure if karate.
We may also see some PBA games going back to its former home — the ULTRA or Philsports — as the league is negotiating with the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) on the matter.
As usual, the different team managers were asked as to who should be the top ranked team in the Philippine Cup, and a majority said it should be TNT. Now will it come to pass or not, we will know.
Hopefully, on my part, I can see more PBA games this year.