Resurgent PBA plots bigger season; Segismundo is chair

SYDNEY—Robert Non of Barangay Ginebra turned over the chairmanship of the Philippine Basketball Association to Meralco’s Mon Segismundo here Wednesday morning in a board meeting following a highly successful season.

“(The season that passed) proved to be a bigger hit in terms of gate attendance, gate receipts and TV viewership,” Non said during the meeting held at Westin hotel hours after the group arrived from an eight-hour flight from Manila.

“It was also the year when the country made it back to the World Basketball Championship,” added Non, referring to the PBA’s huge contribution in lending its players to the Gilas Pilipinas team that placed second to Iran and qualified for the Fiba World championship next year in Spain.

“It would have been a perfect year had Ginebra won a championship,” Non said.

From about P114 million in revenues the previous season, the PBA broke the P200 million mark while setting a record in live attendance with 23,436 fans that witnessed Ginebra’s Game 3 loss to Alaska in the Commissioner’s Cup Finals at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“We hope to sustain our gains and maintain not only the resurgence of the PBA but of Philippine basketball as well,” said commissioner Chito Salud in his annual report.

Salud pointed to the parity in the league as the main reason why the PBA is enjoying enormous success. In the past season, six different teams made it to the three title series, with Talk ‘N Text winning the Philippine Cup over Rain or Shine, Alaska bagging the Commissioner’s Cup over Ginebra, and San Mig Coffee nipping Petron Blaze in the Governors’ Cup.

“This is the result—a banner year each year since the time we reverted back to the three-conference format in 2010,” Salud said. “We are back in the stream of consciousness of the fans, unlike before, when they were saying that the PBA was slowly becoming a niche, tayo-tayo na lang (an exclusive club).”

The meeting was also attended by Ely Capacio of San Miguel, Lito Alvarez of Air21, Mamerto Mondragon of Rain or Shine, Richard Bachmann of Alaska, Manny Alvarez of Barako Bull, Patrick Gregorio of Talk ‘N Text, Rene Pardo of San Mig Coffee and Erick Arejola of Globalport.

The PBA will again take the lead in forming the national squad for the World Championship, but Salud stressed that nothing has been discussed with head coach Chot Reyes.