Deputy Speaker Roberto Puno is drumming up support for the Philippines’ bid to host the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2019 by filing a resolution in the House of Representatives urging his colleagues to commend and back this effort.
Puno, who is also chairman of the National Unity Party (NUP), said the Philippines’ hosting of the 2019 FIBA World Cup “will bring countless benefits for the country, not only in terms of global recognition, but also in generating billions of pesos in tourism revenues.”
He noted that competition, considered as the biggest and most prestigious in the world, attracts some 20,000 basketball fans from around the world, with over 171 countries broadcasting the event to some 800 million television viewers across the globe.
The Fédération Internationale de Basketball or FIBA, considered as the sole competent global authority in basketball, has included the Philippines in its shortlist of countries qualified to bid for the rights to host the 2019 World Cup.
Puno said the Philippines has made “a strong and serious bid” to host the 2019 event through the initiative of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan, president of the country’s national basketball federation – the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP).
“The Filipinos’ love and passion for basketball provides this competition, considered as the biggest and most prestigious in the world, an assured captive local audience numbering in the tens of thousands as demonstrated by the record attendance of around 52,000 at the opening games alone of the Philippine Basketball Association’s 40th season held at the Philippine Arena last October 2014,” Puno pointed out in House Resolution 1787.
The lawmaker said that FIBA, in turn, can benefit in terms of marketing and generating free publicity for the World Cup and the sport of basketball as the Philippines “is second only to the United States in chalking up the highest number of unique online traffic for basketball-related topics and pages as shown in Nike Basketball's social media platforms” alone.
Puno said the country is highly capable of providing multiple suitable sites for the FIBA World Cup events because it already has the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, the SMART-Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City and the 55,000-seater Philippine Arena in Bulacan, which is recognized as the world’s largest indoor arena.
Two other stadiums are being planned to be built in the cities of Cebu and Bacolod in time for the World Cup in 2019, he added.
Puno said he hopes to present the resolution “expressing the sense of the House of Representatives to commend and support the efforts” of the SBP for the Philippines’ bid to host the Basketball World Cup to the FIBA Inspection Team from Geneva when it visit the Philippines on January 26-29, 2015.