PBA to adapt to digital age

MANILA, Philippines - PBA commissioner Chito Narvasa said the other day there’s no doubt that basketball owes its widespread popularity throughout the country to the pro league and the challenge of the future is to propel Asia’s first play-for-pay conclave to the next level – the digital age – with the goal of transitioning into a total sports entertainment vehicle.

“We can’t be complacent,” said Narvasa. “The PBA has been around since 1975 and offers a career for players. Without the PBA, basketball wouldn’t be as popular as it is. Players in elementary, high school and college can look forward to a career in basketball. The reason why leagues like the UAAP and NCAA are flourishing is because of the PBA. It’s the same reason why volleyball is gaining in popularity because there are leagues to play in after college. After 41 years, we’re reviewing how to improve the PBA, how to make it more relevant, how to not only continue to run it professionally but also to bring it to the next level.”

Narvasa said the plan is for the PBA to make more of an impact in the grassroots nationwide. “I was BCAP president from 1998 to when I joined the PBA and through the years, I’ve been able to touch base with coaches all over the country,” he said. “Many of my BCAP contacts are now athletic directors of different schools, provinces and regions from Batanes to Sulu. It’s this network we want to tap for the PBA. We’re excited to expand our Batang PBA and Alagang PBA programs and to be more involved in social media.”

Narvasa said the PBA is ready to address the problem of dwindling live attendance. “We want to make it easy for fans to come out and watch the games live,” he said. “We do about 260 games a year and our goal is to engage our in-venue fans a lot more. Next year, we expect to implement a lot of changes. We realize the success of the PBA depends on its partners and we want to brand it well. Because of the traffic situation, it now sometimes takes two hours to travel from Makati to Araneta for the games when before, it used to take one hour. Today, there’s no such thing as rush hour anymore because every hour is rush hour and it’s making fans stay home to watch the games on TV instead of commuting to the venue.”

Narvasa said the PBA isn’t averse to adjusting ticket prices to entice fans to the arena. “We’re studying the NBA and Euroleague models in terms of relative ticket prices,” he said. “Our ticket prices are much higher than ticket prices for the UAAP and NCAA. Of course, we can’t control what the venues are asking as their share of revenues. It’s something we’ll factor in when coming up with our new pricing scheme.”

The game itself has to be exciting for the fans to stay loyal to the PBA. “In line with efforts of TV5, our coveror, we realize the PBA has to step up,” he said. “In my job as commissioner, my priority is to make sure every game is decided fair and square. I also make sure every trade is fair. My decisions are not influenced by any special interest. I’ve rejected trades which I felt weren’t fair but I’d rather keep the details confidential. It’s about professionalizing how to run the league with transparency, integrity and sincerity.”

Narvasa said improving the standards of officiating will always be a priority. “It isn’t easy,” he said. “Right now, we’ve developed a grading system for us to be able to rate the performance of every referee based on quantitative terms. I’ve introduced the four-referee rotation system and once, I even sent a referee home at halftime because he wasn’t performing up to par.”

Narvasa said players adjusting to calls is something every league undergoes. “Take Terrence Romeo, for example,” he said. “For a while, he kept on getting whistled for carrying the ball. In the NBA, that’s called a discontinued dribble. But he’s learned to adjust. It’s the same thing with the travelling violation which is how FIBA calls it. My request is for TV5 to provide us slow-mo angles of critical plays. There are 10 cameras used for every game including two goal cameras. Our three referees cover primary areas but there are also common areas. The center, trail and slot referees should be able to cover every angle but realistically, there will be blind spots. On TV, sometimes, an angle is replayed that isn’t in a referee’s line of sight. We’d like TV to show different angles available to our referees to assist in their judgment of calls.”

Narvasa said no one man can make the PBA more relevant to the times. “We’ve all got to work together because the PBA means so much to millions of Filipinos,” he said. “From a purely basketball league, we plan to transition to becoming a total sports entertainment vehicle. The PBA is a brand that we are determined to grow. Change is coming and we’re exciting to launch the transformation.”