Cebu Commercial League for Basketball?

This is the million-dollar question that has been asked over and over again since 2008, the first year for Cebu basketball to go without a commercial league. Picking up from Jonas Panerio’s piece on the absence of a local commercial basketball league, I looked back at Bleacher Talk’s archives since we had been writing about this ever since we’ve been writing. I’m afraid I don’t have good news for basketball fans. We can complain all we want about the absence of a commercial league. We can use this as a scenario/reason why our college players and graduates lack competitive exposure at the highest level. We can cry all we want but there’s a reality we have to face. The most basic reason why commercial leagues don’t last long is because these are not financially viable, with team owners and the league doing a lot of spending with no forms of income or revenues.

Looking back, Cebu has had a history of commercial leagues. We had the Cebu Amateur Basketball Association (CABA) in the 70s, which was followed by the Cebu Amateur Basketball League (CABL) in the 80s. The name was changed to just CBL with the advent of open basketball. This was followed by the Cebu Basketball Federation (CBF), and the Mandaue Inter Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA). On a larger scale, Cebu also played part of the Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA), the National Basketball Conference (NBC) and the Mindanao Visayas Basketball Association (MVBA) and the Liga Pilipinas. All the players in these leagues were products of Cebu college basketball teams.

When I was a kid, I can still remember how my father would tell me how Conpinco was the team to beat in the 70s. In the fray were teams like La Fortuna, Gaisano, Golden Sun, Casino, Mama’s Love, RRA Paint, PLDT, and Baseline. Atlas Mines (in Lutopan) also had an all-star team that would go to the city just to play in invitational tournaments. VFI or Virginia Food Inc. also had a commercial team that dominated the scene before the rise of the M. Lhuillier dynasty. Later on, the CBF featured the likes of General Milling Corp (GMC), Cebuana Lhuillier, Skygo, Jazz Cola, Hapee Toothpaste, Chowking and Cebu Landmaster Inc. In the MICAA were Upland Feeds, Sunpride, Megalotto, Tampico and Bambi. ML Kwarta Padala, Arthro/Guardo and Cebu Landmaster were regular fixtures in the MVBA or the Liga Pilipinas. My apologies if I fail to mention other teams from the past; that was a long time ago when the internet and social media were non-existent. But having said that, it’s clear that we did have “commercial” leagues outside of the collegiate basketball tournaments (CAAA and CESAFI). Practically all of Cebu’s college players played in these leagues because it was common practice to tap them to form a team. And so with this rich history of amateur or commercial basketball, the big question remains: Why doesn’t Cebu have a league?

Basketball Management 101 will teach us that if one wants to put up a long-running basketball league, one has to spend for its operations. In a commercial set-up, we are talking about the basics: court/venue rental, utility personnel, security, ticket staff and officiating. The league will also spend for marketing communication activities from press conferences to print ads, streamers, flyers, radio ads and grassroots gimmicks. The CBF even spent for TV coverages for all its games. The league also has to maintain good relationships with the different towns and their officials: from the mayor, vice mayor, councilors all the way down to the utility personnel of the venues that are used. In sum, the league needs to shell out cold cash for all these. Bawal ang utang. And who spends for this? Again, the basics. In the absence of sponsors, the team owners usually split the pie evenly to cover the cost of all operations. The teams stand as the major sponsors and get all the major media values in all venues through the installation of streamers and on-premise activities. If a league has a huge following and get a lot of media exposure, corporate sponsors may come in partner via sponsorship fees. This is how the PBA, UAAP, NCAA and CESAFI have survived the trials through the years. 

But that’s only one part of the expenses. The teams also need to spend for its own operations. The basics? They need to form a team of players and coaches and give them attractive allowances. Players and coaches usually get a fixed monthly allowance and some teams also give separate allowances for games and practices. Game bonuses for won games are also a norm for all. A team also has to spend for uniforms, equipment, transportation, hotel accommodations wherever needed and some even provide “housing” benefits/quarters for its players and coaches. Are you still with me? Can you add all this expenses up?

It’s so easy to talk about expenses, isn’t it? Now the tough part. Where does one get the money to support all these? Ticket sales? Sorry. Collection here can hardly dent the expenses of a regular game day. Moreover, the Cebuano basketball fan isn’t willing to spend that much for a basketball game. And in this day of malls, the Internet and social media, basketball will surely take a back seat. Today’s customer would easily prefer the confines of the cool environment of a mall with a date or the family over a hot and sweaty basketball game, wouldn’t you? With a limited fan base at games, there’s no way corporate sponsors will come in. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this is simply the reality of the times. Through the years since the 70s, the Cebu commercial scene has had to go through all this. They’ve had to spend for their activities with no guaranty of income to offset their expenses. No astute businessman is going to survive this unless he has a very deep pocket. Now do you know why Cebu doesn’t have a commercial basketball league?

But there’s a spark of hope out there for our college players and fans. Playing in various short tournaments are corporate basketball teams that travel around in the “Panalay” leagues. Among the names are ASPA, ARQ, RA Engineering, Jomang’s, Samsam Gullas Team,  AC Troopers, Lanlyn’s, Autolab, and San Remigio. The PBA has also announced that they’re expanding the PBA D-League to the south with Cebu as a target venue.

Here’s hoping for the best. A commercial league is always a great venue for players to develop and prepare for a possible professional career. No question about that. But there’s a catch and it’s costly. So let’s not be part of the problem. Why not be part of the solution? Game?