SM Group earmarks P1B for national sports academy

MANILA, Philippines – The Sy family’s SM Group will build the country’s first national sports academy in Laguna with an initial investment commitment of P1 billion.

“We are looking at another kind of business in Calamba which will be be the first in the Philippines. It has already been approved by the board. We’re planning to put up a sports academy,” SM Prime Holdings Inc. president Hans Sy said in an interview.

“We felt that we should go into this because we want to help in sports development but at the same time we’re also considering the welfare of athletes, what happens to them after their prime years. We want to give them certain education that will also help them later on,” he added

Sy said the project would be undertaken by National University (NU), an educational institution controlled by the Sy family. 

“The whole study is there already and we’re now getting architects to finalize the plan. We have foreign consultants because we want it to be at par with international standards. We need to make sure that all the facilities are there,” Sy said.

The sports academy is targeted to start by school year 2018.

“The initial stage will cover the development of facilities of the most popular sports like basketball, volleyball and tennis. It will cover two aspects. One is for the training and one is for team development of other professional teams. Football will be part of the succeeding stages because a football field requires a larger parcel of land,” Sy said.

“I’m very happy that the board approved it and the siblings approved it because it’s something we believe can help the country not only in terms of sports development but also encourage the youth to go into sports and do away with drugs,” he added.

The SM Group in 2009 acquired majority ownership of NU and has since then invested heavily in improving the institution’s facilities.

SM owns the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, a state-of-the-art facility that hosts the biggest sports and entertainment events in the country.