PBA to spend a fortune for tiff

The Philippine Basketball Association is spending no less than P4.5 million for its three guest teams in its three-week mid-season invitational tournament set to start July 27 at the Astrodome.

The amount doesn’t include the $20,000 cash pot the league is staking for a foreign team which will win the championship, the tournament operational cost and the expenses of the six local squads.

But PBA officials are hopeful the Filipino basketball fans will love the tourney and the league will recoup the expenses from gate receipts.

The league marketing arm is also looking for prospective sponsors to help defray the whopping budget for the three guest teams, namely the Yugoslavian youth team, the Jilin Qi Tigers of China and the Yongsei University of South Korea. The guest teams would then carry the banner of the corporate sponsors in their campaign in the tourney.

Among the prospective sponsors are the Lamoiyan Group of Companies, Basic Holdings Inc. and the company of PBL board chair Deoceldo Sy.

The PBA is spending around P2 million for the airfare and about P2.5 million for the board and lodging of the three teams in a five-star hotel in Roxas Blvd. area. Then there are the expenditures for the guest teams’ vehicles, rentals on practice venues and payment for personnel, including liaison officers, security and the likes.

PBA officials admit they’re spending quite a fortune but they’re looking more at the goodwill they would be giving to the fans.

PBA finance officer Ricky Palou said they would recoup their expenses if they draw an average gate attendance of 4,000 or a gross earning of P1 million per playdate. He said they averaged P250,000 per playdate in the qualifying round alone.

Meanwhile, Sta. Lucia Realty, the All-Filipino Cup fourth placer, ended its campaign in the invitational qualifier on a winning note as it ripped Purefoods, 80-72, at the Astrodome last night.

Alaska kept its mastery of Barangay Ginebra, making it 3-of-3 in their personal duels in the season last night to clinch the last slot in the Invitational Cup at the Astrodome.

The Aces repulsed the Kings, 93-85, to complete a four-game sweep in the qualifier and, in the process, gain the right to join the Red Bull Thunder, the Talk n Text Phone Pals, the Coca-Cola Tigers, the FedEx Express and the San Miguel Beermen in the brief mid-season tourney.

The Invitational Cup fires off next Sunday in the same venue.