By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter
IN the lead-up to the just-concluded 30th Southeast Asian Games, concerns were floated around over facilities built for it, particularly those in the New Clark City complex in Capas, Tarlac, ending up as white elephants.
A valid argument considering history is littered with venues going to waste after major sporting events, one local economist said, hence, the need for “follow-through” from all concerned.
In the aftermath of those that happened in the 2004 Olympics in Greece and, more recently, in 2016 in Rio, Brazil, where venues were left with sparse use, if at all, after, Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion, chief economist at Union Bank of the Philippines, said all concerned should guard against such thing from happening here.
“There are many risks associated with hosting events such as the SEA Games and one of them is having the facilities ending up as a white elephant and just wither away without people using these facilities again ever,” said Mr. Asuncion in an interview.
He spoke particularly of those found in the NCC complex, which includes a world-class athletic stadium, aquatics center and athletes village.
The sports complex is part of the big-ticket NCC project of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) under the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program of the government, aimed at providing an alternative center for Metro Manila and to be the next growth driver in Luzon.
Its construction cost P9.5 billion and it is hoped that with such major sports facilities in place, real estate values would rise in said area.
“Follow-through is key. The government should be able to use these facilities for our national athletes and continuously support athlete development; successfully luring investors and/or locators to NCC. The government should continue to help develop the area and continue to push for the NCC to become what it was initially planned to be,” said Mr. Asuncion.
In allaying fears that the facilities built for the SEA Games would be laid to waste, proponents of the hosting said these could have commercial purposes like having it rented out to local teams as well as foreign for their training in next year’s Tokyo Olympics and other major sporting events.
Plans have been put forward as well to have the NCC sports complex house the proposed National Sports High School for students, which aims to help deserving student athletes get the needed training and preparation to be champions in their respective disciplines.
Recently, the BCDA and the Philippine Swimming, Inc. signed an agreement with the Asian Swimming Federation for the country to host the 2020 Asian Swimming Championships at the New Clark City Aquatics Center.
Apart from the facilities found in New Clark City, venues like the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex and Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila and PhilSports Arena in Pasig were renovated for the 30th SEA Games which the country hosted from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11.
