False alarm
Sporting By Chance by Quinito Henson Updated March 11, 2009 12:00 AM
The cost for a round-trip ticket to Belgrade is $1,500 and not $15,000 as reported in this column yesterday.
Jose (Junjun) Capistrano, the Philippine representative to the World University Games’ governing body Federation Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU), inadvertently added another zero to the sum in calculating a budget to attend the head of delegations meeting in Belgrade on March 19-21.
Without noticing the mistake, Capistrano said he couldn’t afford to make the trip.
But SBP executive director Noli Eala yesterday pointed out the error as he, too, is fixing to travel to Serbia with coach Rajko Toroman’s national developmental basketball team.
In fact, Capistrano asked Eala if he could attend the Universiade meeting instead since he would be in Belgrade anyway with Toroman’s squad. Eala, however, said the team will be in Serbia from March 27 to April 7 to play a series of games against four Division A and three Division B clubs.
Eala said the budget to bring over the developmental team to Serbia is about $80,000 for a 10-day visit. He estimated the budget for La Salle to play in the Universiade to be about $20,000 for 15 persons from July 1 to 12.
Late yesterday, Capistrano was trying to reach Jack Rodriguez, the country’s consul to Serbia. Since the $1,500 airfare is affordable, Capistrano will try to find out if it’s not too late to fly to Belgrade. How quickly a visa may be issued is a factor.
The Serbia trip is just one of the prizes that La Salle won by capturing the Philippine Collegiate Champions League (PCCL) crown last December.
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PCCL chairman Rey Gamboa said last season, the total amount of prizes solicited by the league was P1.907 million. The prizes were in form of scholarship grants, athletic items, team and individual trophies and medals, gift items and certificates and cash. The major prize donors were FilOil Flying V, SBP chairman Manny V. Pangilinan, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Molten basketballs.
Gamboa said the prizes were distributed to the nine regional champions and the Final Four teams in the Sweet 16 Finals. No other collegiate tournament gives as many prizes and in those hefty amounts.
The winners of the FilOil Flying V scholarship grants were La Salle (P500,000), Ateneo (P200,000), Letran (P100,000) and San Beda College (P50,000). The grants are paid directly by FilOil Flying V to the schools upon submission of the list of beneficiaries. La Salle has submitted its list and the check will be presented by FilOil Flying V to the school’s representative during the pre-season tournament opening games on April 19.
During the launch of last year’s tournament, the only prizes that were initially mentioned were the scholarship grants. The other prizes were later announced and awarded right after the regional championships (nine regional winners were given P20,000 each in athletic items and trophy) and the Sweet 16 Finals.
Aside from the scholarship grants, the players of the Final Four teams received bonus cash and gift certificates amounting to P400,000 for La Salle, P200,000 for Ateneo, P100,000 for Letran and P50,000 for San Beda. MVP J. V. Casio was given P25,000, a KFC special prize and trophy, best coach Franz Pumaren P15,000 and trophy, best referee Barbacena P15,000 and trophy and the mythical first teamers Casio, Rico Maierhofer, Rabeh Al-Husseini, R. J. Jazul and Nonoy Baclao P5,000, a KFC special prize and individual medals each.
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Gamboa said corporate sponsors PLDT and Smart provided the funds for the airfare, transportation and accommodation expenses of all teams that advanced to the regional and zonal championships and the Sweet 16 Finals in Manila.
For the record, the PCCL is a non-profit entity with the objective of bringing together all the country’s 27 senior varsity league titleholders and for these teams to compete in a nationwide multi-level tournament culminating in the Sweet 16 Finals to crown the national champion for the season.
Funds for the PCCL are sourced solely from corporate sponsors and donors. The PCCL does not charge admission fees during games. The nominal fees assessed during the Finals last December were for the account of FilOil Flying V, sponsor of the championship phase, to partially cover their costs.
In sum, all the promises made by the PCCL to the tournament participants were kept. And in fact, a lot more than the promises were given. No wonder everyone’s looking forward to this season’s edition. The players, coaches and fans know when they’ve got a good thing going.
