INCOMING PBA CHAIRMAN SEGISMUNDO PRESENTS 8-POINT PLAN FOR 2013-14 SEASON
SYDNEY – Incoming PBA chairman Ramon Segismundo came armed for the Board of Governors planning session at The Westin Hotel and Resort here.
Wielding an elaborate 8-point plan which he presented to the league governors Monday night, Segismundo, senior vice president for Human Resources and Corporate Services at Manila Electric Company and board representative of the Meralco Bolts, made clear his intention to “match if not surpass” the record-breaking tenure of his predecessor, Barangay Ginebra’s Robert Non, basketball operations chief at San Miguel Corporation.
Segismundo has big shoes to fill.
The PBA, under Non’s watch, grossed over P200 million in earnings last year, a more than 100 percent increase from the previous season with Rain or Shine’s Mert Mondragon as chairman.
Speaking alongside Segismundo at the press briefing, PBA commissioner Chito Salud attributed the success of the banner 38th season to returning to the three-conference format, intense action through thrilling tournament formats, and parity in trades.
Salud also reported an increase in live attendance percentage from 8 percent in 2010-11 to 12 percent in 2011-12, and another 10 percent last year. Gate receipts also skyrocketed from a 23 percent raise two years ago to an 89 percent surge in the most-recent season.
Segismundo nodded at Non’s direction and then bared his strategic vision for the 39th season.
“A great banner year under chairman Robert and I salute him for a job well done,” said Segismundo.
“We’re placing a lot of high hopes on next season and I believe we’ll continue to break all-time records in terms of gate attendance, fan satisfaction and engagement, as well as the partnership and synergy that we’re driving with Gilas, SBP, our TV coverors and media partners. It’s all about partnership and collaboration. Looking forward, we hope to outdo ourselves.”
While he had expressed before his desire to transform the country into a “unified basketball nation” after Gilas Pilipinas’ silver medal finish in the FIBA Asia Championship and ensuing return to the world stage, Segismundo stressed that, along with Salud, league expansion will be “one of the priorities” of his chairmanship.
“We don’t expect it to happen overnight; I know it’s a slow burn. But within the next 12 months, we hope to develop steps to make sure it happens,” he said, adding that talks will be initiated with “potential team owners” to assure them that being in the PBA is a “great investment, has great value to any business and is something really that they should seriously consider.”
Segismundo hinted at the possibility of the PBA doing a “road show” for prospective team owners to cover wider ground in their search for new members.
Salud, for his part, said he is waiting for whoever appears ready to go beyond preliminary questions.
“We’ve had very many inquiries,” he said. “But serious intentions, that’s what we’re waiting for.”
Outside raising the number of ballclubs during his watch, Segismundo advanced an overall theme designed to “rally the Filipinos behind the PBA in 2014, ”a breakout year” for Philippine basketball.
Segismundo said PBA-backed Gilas Pilipinas intends to “make it to the Top 16” in the FIBA World Cup in Spain next year and to qualify to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.
Everything else falls into place after that, Segismundo said.
With “convergence and alignment” of programs with the Commissioner’s Office, the Bolts governor said he wants to continue to drive the PBA’s successful performance in the past season, support quality investment on professional training for PBA staff and the referees, stabilize TV partnership and other coverors for more consistent and larger audience viewership, and strengthen the “Alagang PBA” project to deepen the culture of sports in the community.
“We must project the PBA as a responsible partner in the development of our country,” Segismundo said.
The increase of PBA teams “in the medium term” is fifth in the agenda while sixth is a more detailed discussion of the overall theme Segismundo laid down for this year – rallying the nation behind Gilas and the PBA.
“Philippine basketball is returning to the world stage and this goes beyond the game,” he said. “It’s all about our country, the people, and teaching the values of unity, discipline and the can-do spirit that, yes, the Filipinos can.”
Likewise, Segismundo is pushing for the development of international agreements between the PBA and leading professional basketball leagues and associations in the areas of training, technology transfer, technical management and marketing.
“We really want to raise our game,” he said. In that aspect, the league governors visited the New South Wales Institute of Sports Tuesday morning to confer with its basketball coaching staff headed by Damian Cotter, mentor of Australia’s U/19 men’s team.
Lastly, Segismundo wants the PBA media to have “a real, thriving and dynamic personality of its own” to make sure the excitement of the games “are brought to the millions of sports fans all over the country.”
Salud kept his role in the post-board meeting media briefing to a minimum.
“We had a very fruitful planning session, and the board agrees that we should continue developing the product – the game, and satisfying our customers – our fans, with support from our TV coveror and a strong marketing thrust,” he said.
Of Segismundo’s 8-point plan, Salud said: “If all these are achieved, hopefully it will lead to what the chairman has been saying – expansion of one to two teams in the very near future.” (WJRHT)
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