Why not a modern coliseum!

When I went to the covered court of Barangay Kasambagan to get the cash gift from the city administration of His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Michael L. Rama, a fellow senior citizen engaged me to a hearty conversation. He was free because he just got his envelope while I was still looking for the table where I could get mine. Anyway, we were like brothers who missed each other's company for decades on end. At 70 plus, he is a little bit older and seemingly slower than me. But, in a wild discussion of wide ranging topics old men are wont to do, this gentleman showed that he still possessed keen memory from which he flashed profound wisdom.

He talked about the world championship fight in the junior lightweight (130 pound) division between Filipino world champion Gabriel "Flash" Elorde, a native of the then municipality of Bogo, Cebu, now a city, and the Japanese Teruo Kosaka. He did not miss the fact that in those times, the dominant boxing body was the World Boxing Association as the other bodies like the World Boxing Council and the International Boxing Federation came later.

According to my fellow senior citizen, the Elorde-Kosaka tiff was fought at the Cebu Coliseum, then brand new. Gauging from the standards of that era, the coliseum was huge but it was still filled with boxing aficionados to the rafters.

He loves sports. I could discern that because, he told me that he witnessed the third basketball game in the best-of-five series between the defending CESAFI champion Cobras of the Southwestern University and the University of the Visayas Green Lancers. It was difficult for me to imagine that at his late age, he still had the strength to put himself in the middle of bodies pushing one another at the gate. Well, that early, even if it was the first victory snatched by UV, he said he saw the challengers reclaiming the championship eventually. In his mind, all that the UV needed was just one victory and they would have slain the monster that haunted them in the campaign.

We learned from the papers how thrilling the classic game between UV and SWU went through. I refer to the championship match that my fellow senior citizen forecast would take place. It was the fifth game that was played with fans filling every available space of the antiquated coliseum. But, the reports did not just account every brilliant move of the players. Even such disturbing events like the failure of some aspects of the electronic board got featured. And there was Mayor Rama pacifying the crowd agitated by the electronic faus pax. In fact, the scores had to be written on a white board as if we went back in the time when Elorde and Kosaka belted it out in the early 60's.

Cebu City, which proudly claims to be the Queen City of the South, does not have a coliseum capable of setting up proud shows. For instance, Mr. Antonio L. Aldeguer of the famed ALA Promotions is poised to stage a possible world boxing championship here in our city. Some of his boxers have shown great promise. They are potential world beaters. But, I am afraid that Mr. Aldeguer does not want to venture putting up an international card here. The grand ballroom of the Waterfront Hotel, the venue which he had chosen for some time now to put up his bouts is too small for a world title fight that earning a good margin of profit is but an illusion. The present Cebu Coliseum can neither be attractive.

It is time the city explores the possibility of having a new arena that will serve as the venue for transnational events. We need it now. Or we lose in the competition for global attention. Just imagine that if Manila is going to host a game of the National Basketball Association few days from now, a similar event may be played here if we had such a site.

May I suggest that the city council and the mayor link their efforts to offer a part of the South Road Properties to any consortium who likes to invest in such a project as a modern coliseum? Yes, with a joint venture, why not a modern coliseum?