P1.5B to host FIBA 2019 World Cup?

MANILA, Philippines - It may take a budget of P1.5 billion to stage the 2019 FIBA World Cup but despite the enormity of the amount, the SBP is seriously pursuing the hosting bid with the view of making it a viable project.

SBP deputy executive director for external affairs Butch Antonio said the other day if the Philippines is awarded the hosting rights, no less than a collective effort between the public and private sectors will be required to turn it into a success. SBP executive director Sonny Barrios, Antonio and logistics director Andrew Teh recently attended a two-day seminar in Madrid where FIBA director of events Predrag Bogosavljev, a Serbian, briefed the participants of the pre-qualifying conditions to bid.

So far, only the Philippines and Brazil have confirmed their intent to bid. But in Madrid, there were other countries represented in the seminar, including China, Germany, France, Russia and Lithuania. The deadline for bidders to file applications is the end of this month. By next month, FIBA will announce the short list of candidate nations. Then, a workshop will be held for bidders in Geneva in December. FIBA officials will visit the bidding countries and inspect facilities in January and February next year. The decision of which country will host the 2019 event will be made during a Central Board meeting in June or July. SBP president Manny V. Pangilinan is one of 26 members of the Central Board.

To formalize a bid, a country must pay an application fee of 50,000 Euros or P2.9 million to FIBA. The host nation will pay a rights fee of 8 million Euros or P460 million to FIBA. The speculative budget of P1.5 billion includes the rights fee.

The Philippines was first to inform FIBA of its intent to bid last July. Then, Brazil Basketball Confederation president Carlos Nunes signified the 2016 Olympic host’s intention to bid last month. Brazil hosted the FIBA World Cup, then known as the World Championships, in 1954 and 1963 while the Philippines had its turn in 1978. FIBA recently said that a federation may bid for both the 2019 and 2023 World Cups. It may award hosts for the events at the same time.

Europe hosted the last two FIBA World Cups, Turkey in 2010 and Spain this year. In 2006, the host was Japan. For the 2019 edition, Germany and France may put in a joint bid. Russia and China have never hosted a World Cup. Puerto Rico, Venezuela and a consortium made up of Estonia, Finland, Lithuania and Latvia are also considering to bid for the rights.

“When we attended the briefing seminar, there was constant reference to the Philippines successfully hosting the last FIBA Asia Championships,” said Antonio. “But of course, the magnitude of a World Cup is much larger. In 2019, the FIBA World Cup will be expanded from 24 to 32 teams so that the minimum requirement is four venues. There will be eight brackets of four teams each and games of two brackets will be played in each venue in the preliminaries. The plan is to schedule a team to play games every other day. The requirements for media coverage positions and the media center are enormous but we think that everything is doable if we all work together as a team.”

Antonio said the four venues for the preliminaries could be the Smart Araneta Coliseum, the Mall of Asia Arena, a refurbished Philsports Arena or ULTRA and the soon-to-be-built SM Cebu. The 55,000-seat Philippine Arena could be the site for the semifinals and final.

Antonio said SBP president Manny V. Pangilinan will be briefed soon on the bidding process after which a campaign will be laid out to pursue the hosting rights. The P1.5 billion budget is a preliminary estimate.

The 2019 FIBA World Cup will bring in 12 qualifiers from Europe, seven from the Americas, seven from Asia/Oceania, five from Africa and the host country to assemble 32 teams. It will be the first FIBA World Cup since the inaugural event in 1950 where Asia and Oceania will fall under a common zone. Under the previous format of 24 countries, there were three qualifiers from Asia and two from Oceania. In the new system, Australia and New Zealand will compete for qualifying spots with the Philippines, China, South Korea and Iran. The host country will be exempted from participating in the qualifiers. Unlike in previous World Cups, the Olympic champion is not guaranteed a slot.

The 2015 FIBA Asia Championships in China will determine the sole Asian representative in the 12-team Olympic basketball tournament in Rio de Janeiro. But the FIBA-Asia and other continental championships will no longer be qualifiers for the World Cup. FIBA recently announced a new World Cup qualifying system where over two years, two rounds of zone competitions will be held on a home-and-away basis.