Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama wants SM to push through with their plans to build an arena in the South Road Properties (SRP) so the city can offer it as a venue for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
The mayor met with SM representatives and Bu Varquez, SRP management office head, to discuss the project.
“(I told them) I don’t want the word proposed. You should be very clear, we are going to build the arena, so that we can finally remove from the TOR (terms of reference) the issue about or the concern about arena or a sports dome,” Rama told reporters.
He said SM, which is building the SM Seaside Complex in SRP, should be committed to do the project since they had presented it to the media in the past.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup is expected to be held in Asia and the Philippines is bidding for the right to host the event.
Venue
Rama said he was not privy to the cost of the project but he insisted on the timeline.
“They have to do it within the timeline of FIBA so that they know what they’re running after in terms of time frame,” he said.
The Philippines is competing with China for the right to host the event.
The FIBA’s central board is expected to make its final decision by June.
SM’s arena in SRP is among the venues being looked into for the event.
The other prospects are the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan, and other planned arenas in Parañaque City and Bacolod City.
Transport system
Aside from being a sports arena, Rama said he told SM that the arena should also be multipurpose.
“You don’t only talk about basketball. If there’s such a thing as a convention that will bring 15,000 people, then we can have that and the whole arena will be converted as if we are in a ballroom,” he said.
The SM Seaside Complex in SRP is expected to open by November this year.
Since the SRP is not yet in the public utility vehicles’ route, SM is working on setting up a High Quality Public Transport System (HQPTS).
The system consists of 77 buses plying four routes including one express route going to the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA).
Franchise
These routes are: Talisay-SRP-Mambaling, North Bus Terminal-SM City Cebu-Downtown-SRP-Mambaling, Talisay-SRP-Downtown-SM City Cebu-North Bus Terminal, and Talisay-SRP-Plaza Independencia-SM City Cebu-MCIA.