Romero pays P10M more for franchise

MANILA, Philippines - Sultan 900 Capital Inc. will have to pay a league franchise fee of P10 million on top of its P100-million buyout of the Coca-Cola franchise for a whopping total cash out of P110 million to gain membership in the PBA.

The next applicant may have to pay more with the PBA board of governors setting a new rate for franchise fee during its planning session over the weekend in Macau.

“P10 million is now the minimum. If the franchise sale is over P100 million, the league franchise fee is 10 percent of the total amount,” said Rain or Shine governor Mamerto Mondragon, who has just turned over the board chairmanship to Ginebra’s Robert Non.

The old minimum franchise fee is P6 million.

The former board chair foresees the approval of Sultan’s purchase of the Powerade Tigers team in their special meeting at the PBA office in Libis, Quezon City today.

“(The approval of his franchise application) was not in the agenda (of our Macau meeting). But some members talked about it during the break. I think Mikee will get the needed number of votes,” said Mondragon.

A two-thirds vote (six of nine excluding Powerade or seven of 10 including Powerade) of the league board is needed for the sale agreement to be sealed.

Rain or Shine co-owner Raymond Yu said: “Count us giving the first vote to Mikee.”

“Alangan naman pillin nila (I doubt they would choose) the league to have just nine members,” said Yu.

Pending the approval of the Powerade team sale, the board approved a three-conference calendar for 10 teams in the coming 38th PBA season. Also approved are formats for each conference involving the same number of ballclubs.

The league is also set to hold its annual rookie draft where Powerade (Sultan) is picking 10th and 16th.

This developed as San Sebastian stalwart Ronald Pascual Jr. and former FEU gunner JR Cawaling withdrew their draft application, pegging the total number of hopefuls for Sunday’s draft at 57.

Meanwhile, Gary David emerged the scoring champ, Arwind Santos the sultan of rebounds and blocks, Jayvee Casio king of assists and Chris Ross steals leader as shown by season-end stats released by the league.

David was the runaway scoring champ, averaging 25.84 points a game. Next was rookie Marcio Lassiter (17.13), followed by James Yap (16.71), Mark Caguioa (16.32), Mark Cardona (15.80), Chris Lutz (15.38), Santos (15.00), Willie Miller (14.93), Cyrus Baguio (14.69) and Jayson Castro (14.68).

Santos, Petron’s do-it-all forward, topped the rebounding with 10.674 an outing and blocks with 1.435 per game.

Doug Kramer was second in caroms with 8.771, then came Asi Taulava (8.682), Sonny Thoss (8.314) and Rudy Hatfield (7.250).

Runners-up to Santos in blocks were Japeth Aguilar (1.346), Thoss (1.171), JR Quinahan (1.039) and Rob Reyes (0.842).