Futuristic sports center rises

A 24-hectare sports center, part of a futuristic 72-hectare complex that includes a golf course and three hotels, will play host to over 3,000 Muslims and Christians who will compete in what is called the first Mindanao Friendship Games in Tubod, Lanao del Norte.

The complex, built from national and local funds since 1998, is 95 percent complete but provincial officials assure all the venues will be ready for competition when the games start Nov. 11.

Provincial Governor Imelda Dimaporo said the Tubod Sports Center, chiseled out into a state-of-the-art center from the foot of the mountain outside the capital town, will be the most modern sports complex in the Philippines when it is completed, ready to host the 2005 Southeast Asian Games if awarded the right to stage it.

The complex can stage all indoor and outdoor sports except sailing, rowing and yachting and shooting, although certain shooting events were held on the provincial level recently, using the mountain wall as natural barrier.

Its main venue – the 30,000-seat track and field oval – has rubberized track surface built according to international standards. The interior, the football field, will be off limits to field events since it will be levelled off to meet stringent international standards for football competitions.

Outside is a practice oval where tracksters can warm up. The grass area enclosed by the oval will be used for field events such as the javelin, discus, hammer and triple, high and long jump.

An Olympic-size swimming pool with gallery on both sides and shower rooms is fully operational. A warmup pool is located just beside the competition pool.

The complex has five outdoor tennis courts, one of them a center or championship court. Next to it are three courts – for outdoor volleyball and basketball games. A huge field, one for baseball and another for softball, makes Tubod a better venue for junior and senior ballgames than the existing Rizal Memorial diamond in Manila.

The multi-purpose gym is primarily an indoor basketball court with a seating capacity of 6,000, ideal for road games of the Philippine Basketball Association and the Metropolitan Basketball Association. It will eventually be a multipurpose hall which will serve as venue for other indoor games such as volleyball, table tennis, badminton, tennis, judo and other contact sports.

Tubod’s sports complex is the only center in the Philippines with a sports village. Inside the complex are two 20-room buildings for 80 twin beds. Another building has 20 suites for visiting VIPs, with a modern lounge also ideal for sports meetings.

The hotels can be converted into dormitories for players under training in the region or as overnight stops for PBA or MBA players. During multi-sports events, the hotels are reserved for national sports association officials and technical officials.

A separate canteen can seat 200 hungry spectators at a single time.

Built at a cost of P500-M, the complex is currently the priority project of the Dimaporo government, which has momentarily set aside the completion of its provincial Kapitolyo to finish the center’s construction.

As of last week, construction workers were making the finishing touches on the indoor basketball court, whose flooring is expected to be finished in time for the games.

However, the construction of the seats, and the pavement of the roads inside the complex may have to wait until after the Mindanao Games when funds from the national government would have been released.

Part of the expansion plan is the development of a 41-hectare land for an 18-hole championship golf course and a shooting-archery range, a picnic park and a sports academy that will attend to the training of future national athletes from Mindanao.

Also included in the plan is a five-hectare provincial trade center with wet and dry markets and integrated terminal and food courts.

The provincial government, headed by the husband-and-wife team of Congressman Abdullah Dimaporo, scion of former Lanao del Sur kingpin Ali Dimaporo, and Imelda Dimaporo, daughter of the powerful Quibranza clan of Lanao del Norte, is investing heavily on the project, knowing the returns on investment will be worth the risk.

Gov. Dimaporo said the complex will not be a "white elephant" unlike other sports complex built from government funds. She said it will remain as a permanent venue for a sustained sports development program for the province and the whole of Mindanao as well.

Part of the long-range program is to make the complex the sports training center for Mindanao, with the hotels to serve as dormitories for athletes and coaches. The idea is patterned after the training program of Australian national athletes in Melbourne.

Congressman Dimaporo, a graduate of the Harvard school of economics, is also considering reviving the BIMP-EAGA (Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines) - East Asia Growth Area Games and hopes to make Tubod the national sports center of Mindanao. The Mindanao Games is designed to be an annual fixture where potential national champions will be developed and nurtured under a workable, scientific sports program before they are recommended to the national pool.

In a region where Muslims are locked in battle against Christians, and the MILF poses a continuing threat to the province and many parts of Christian Mindanao, the Tubod Sports Center is envisioned to be the unifying force in the continuing campaign for peaceful co-existence among warring groups and clashing ideologies.

It is designed to bring together as often as possible the young generations of Muslims and Christians to compete in the name of friendship and fair play in a league of their own, the Mindanao Friendship Games.