SEA Games hosting to serve as basis for Asiad bid

The success of the 30th Southeast Asian Games later this year will serve as the gauge for the Philippines to explore the possibility of bringing the Asian Games here.

Philippine Olympic Committee president Ricky Vargas has broached the idea of holding the biggest continental sportsfest on local turf depending on the outcome of the SEA Games hosting.

“Yes, we have an intention to bid for 2030,” said Vargas, who cochairs the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) with Philippine Sports Commission chair Butch Ramirez and former Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano.

The only time Manila hosted the Asian Games was during the second staging of the event in 1954,  when 970 athletes from 18 countries played in eight sports.

The 19th Asiad will be held in Hangzhou, China, in 2022 before Nagoya, Japan, takes center stage in the 45-country meet in 2026.

“The model of the SEA Games is the Asian Games in terms of hosting. If we are successful here, we’ll be ready for the Asian Games,” said Vargas.

Once the New Clark City Sports Complex in Capas, Tarlac, gets completed, it will be the architectural crown jewel of the 30th SEA Games.

Phisgoc has earmarked P7.5 billion for the 11-nation Games on Nov. 30-Dec. 11 in four designated hubs—Clark, Subic, Manila and BLT (Batangas, La Union and Tagaytay).

The construction of the New Clark City Sports Complex has a separate budget under the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.

According to a highly placed source, the projected budget of the SEA Games is almost the same that the country will spend if it wins a bid to host the Asiad.

The opening ceremony is set at Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan, with FiveCurrents, the live content creators that produced the opening and closing performances of the 2012 London and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics, being tapped as producers of the opening ceremony.

International artist Bruno Mars, America’s highest-paid musician whose mother is Filipino, is also being eyed to perform during the opener.