Philippines hopes for windfall as basketball comes home in 2023

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter

MORE THAN 40 years since hosting the biggest hoops event in the world, basketball is coming home to the Philippines after the country, together with Indonesia and Japan, secured hosting rights for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

The Philippines bagging the rights to host the International Basketball Federation’s (FIBA) World Cup is viewed positively for the potential windfall it can give beyond basketball, as the current government pushes initiatives in tourism, infrastructure, and other fields to speed up overall economic growth.

Coming off a failed bid to host the 2019 edition of the quadrennial basketball meet, which went to China, the group of the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan bagged last month rights to host the 2023 World Cup, beating Argentina and Uruguay which jointly submitted a bid.

It marked the first time that the world basketball governing body had awarded the hosting of the World Cup to more than one country, with games to be held back-to-back within Asia.

The Philippines will play host for the first time since the 1978 edition of the tournament in which Yugoslavia beat the Soviet Union in Manila.

Half of the 32 matches will take place in the Philippines while the remaining 16 will be played in Jakarta and Okinawa.

Playoff games all the way to the championship will be held in the country.

‘A BASKETBALL-LOVING COUNTRY’
“Winning the bid to host the FIBA 2023 World Cup together with Japan and Indonesia marks the country’s reemergence and rising prominence in the world of international sports,” Communications Secretary Martin M. Andanar said in a statement after the 2023 hosts were named on Dec. 9.

“We can expect this to spur tourism even further and provide added stimulus for businesses as well as investments.”

President Rodrigo R. Duterte — who met visiting FIBA officials in a courtesy call early last year — has expressed support for the initiative to host, spearheaded by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, Inc. (SBP), seeing how it can unify the nation, apart from the benefits it can give the economy and to the sport of basketball.

The significance of the hosting beyond basketball is definitely not lost on SBP officials, on whose shoulders the event’s success now rests.

“We are a basketball-loving country so it is huge from a basketball perspective. Beyond basketball, foremost is showcasing the Philippines to the world that we are capable of hosting such events,” Alfredo “Al” S. Panlilio, SBP president, said in a recent interview with BusinessWorld.

“This is not the first time that we bid for it. We lost to China for 2019 but I think this time we had a compelling case along with Indonesia and Japan. As a group with Indonesia and Japan, we present more reach for FIBA to further the growth of the sport. We have a bigger market to promote products for commercial opportunities as well,” Mr. Panlilio added.

WELL-TIMED
“Hosting this event is a huge bonus for Filipinos. Knowing the culture we have of basketball, this event will greatly encourage many Filipinos,” Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion, chief economist at Union Bank of the Philippines, said in a separate interview.

“In terms of its impact on the economy, it will definitely be huge as well. This type of hosting I would say would be equivalent to hosting the Miss Universe pageant or even more for the excitement, the hoopla and the energy it can generate,” he added.

“Definitely, first and foremost is the image that the country has in the international arena. This means that we are a country that is able to host such a magnitude of an event,” he explained.

“Secondly, it would be the tourism sector. This would be a great time to further promote the Philippines as a major tourist destination, knowing that only 8.6% of the economy comes from tourism as of 2016.”

The economist went on to say that the 2023 hosting should benefit from the current economic push, particularly the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure development program of the Duterte administration which ends its six-year term in mid-2022.

“I think 2023 is the perfect time because of a lot of the big-ticket infrastructure projects that have been started and most probably which will be already (be) or almost (be) finished by then,” Mr. Asuncion said.

“If the current government plays its cards right and moves in the right direction, the country would be averaging about 7-8% GDP growth, which is a great complement to the hosting and vice-versa.”

The “Build, Build, Build” program — aimed at spurring economic growth to 7-8% annually from this year to 2022 from 2010-2015’s 6.2% — will see infrastructure spending increase to P1.899 trillion, equivalent to 7.45% of gross domestic product (GDP), in 2022 from a programmed P1.17 trillion, or 6.68%, this year.

The focus on infrastructure — particularly those aimed at easing traffic congestion like new roads, bridges, elevated highways and railways — is one of the things SBP is banking on to ensure the success of the Philippines’ hosting of the event.

“In 2015, I still feel we won that [bid]. We had a good presentation… but at that time we lost, aside from the bid price by China, also on infrastructure — they already have it built,” Mr. Panlilio noted.

The SBP official said as per agreement with FIBA, venues to be used for the hosting are Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Philippine Arena in Bulacan and Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.

BENEFITS
On its Web site, FIBA cited four potential benefits of hosting FIBA events like the World Cup, namely: economic, sporting, social and capacity development.

Economic benefits come in the form of events’ impact on the overall economy and return on investment, branding on a global scale (advertising and sponsorship values), revenue opportunities (sale of tickets and local broadcast rights) and auxiliary events’ potential (associated events with economic value).

Take the case of Spain, for example, which hosted the last FIBA World Championship (now World Cup) in 2014.

An article published on the SportsBusiness Journal Web site on Dec. 5, 2014 — three months after the tournament — cited figures from a study by professional services provider Deloitte putting the value of its “total economic impact” for Spain at €408 million against an operational budget of €39 million to host the event then.

Economic impact included €75 million in taxes and €33 million in “direct profit to the State.”

An estimated €83 million came from more than 55,000 visiting basketball fans from around the world who spent on food, lodging and other items as they came to cheer for their national teams in the cities of Bilbao, Granada, Gran Canaria, Sevilla, Barcelona and Madrid.

A total of 672,000 spectators attended the 76 games, with the six venues filled to 80% of capacity.

Promotion of the FIBA Basketball World Cup started 500 days before the event began, with such activities taking place around the world between January 2012 and September 2014.

The article did not give figures on advertising revenues during the tournament, whose games were broadcast in 179 countries, but a separate FIBA release on Dec. 3, 2014 said presence of the event logo in the advertising campaigns of 24 event partners yielded €212 million in revenues.

The SportsBusiness Journal article quoted Spanish Basketball Federation President José Luis Sáez as describing it as “the biggest sporting event of the decade in Spain.”

“We have had an exemplary tournament leaving a unique legacy for Spanish basketball. We are not going to stop here; we want to remain leaders in the future.”

UNQUANTIFIABLE
Mr. Asuncion said the event should similarly be positive overall for the 2023 hosts, even if there are three of them this time.

“…[T]ourism is one sector that will benefit from the hosting. It’s like the Olympics in a way that people really trek to [the country]and watch. It’s a good opportunity to show the world that we are capable of hosting such events and change whatever bad perception they may have of the Philippines,” he said.

“It’s just the start and can eventually translate to investors gaining confidence in us and may want to come in and do business,” he added.

Moreover, relations among the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan “can be enhanced with this hosting, even if Indonesia is a competitor of ours within ASEAN,” Mr. Asuncion said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

“This is sports after all and can bring people together. Overall it’s going to be positive.”

Mr. Panlilio said SBP, including chairman emeritus Manuel V. Pangilinan who was part of the presenting team in the FIBA headquarters in Switzerland, was now moving to ensure maximum benefits from the event.

“Now that it has been awarded to us, I think it will be easier to talk to people or groups as far as sponsors and partners for the hosting,” said Mr. Panlilio, who is also the representative of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) board and is a senior vice-president for Customer Retail Services and Corporate Communications of the country’s biggest electricity distributor.

“The partnership with the government is very critical like that with the Department of Tourism as well as the (Cabinet) economic cluster, considering the amount of economic activity that the event will generate,” he added.

Mr. Panlilio said sectors that will likely ride on the 2023 World Cup include retail, tourism, telecommunications and property developers.

SBP is also looking at foreign companies that will likely take interest in the event.

“Companies like Samsung, Huawei and others from Indonesia and Japan maybe want to come on board,” Mr. Panlilio said.

“Across the PBA family, like from the San Miguel group, companies from the retail sector, tourism like hotels and resorts, developers like Megaworld (Corp.) maybe will be interested. Telecoms, too, since social media traffic is also expected to be big.”

EARLY START
Considering the magnitude of the task ahead, Mr. Panlilio said SBP has begun preparations, starting with the establishment of the local organizing committee that will be in charge of the technical side of the tournament as well as commercial and marketing aspects.

The same group is expected to travel to China to observe the conduct of the 2019 World Cup.

“A lot of work is ahead of us. We have to establish a local organizing committee team that will be bigger than the SBP which is used to running such events especially on the marketing side. We need experts to ensure the execution goes well, timelines are met and we don’t go beyond the budget,” Mr. Panlilio said.

For Mr. Asuncion, ensuring the event’s success will be a “matter of great planning and anticipation.”

“All sectors of society should work together… to ensure success and reap the benefits of the World Cup hosting,” he said.

“The support of government for the event should be top and foremost, from the President to the ordinary person helping this event.

For Mr. Panlilio, the fact that it took more than four decades for the Basketball World Cup to return to the Philippines is in itself significant.

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime event to host at this stage. It took a while for us to get this,” Mr. Panlilio said.

“FIBA has shown confidence in us to host and it’s not for nothing. So everybody must come on board and make this a success.”