Will the Cebu Formula Work for All Local Clubs?

Photo Credits: Philippines Football League

As a Kaya fan, following the team around and watching them drop points like that can be one of the leading causes of my high blood pressure. And after they split the points that last game, one thing caught my attention: that Cebu crowd sure is great.

They don't have a large stadium, but the crowd was electric. And that gave the Dynamic Herb Cebu Stadium a huge advantage as a real-deal home game. It's no wonder the Gentle Giants were so pumped up this season. They not only know that there's a crowd behind them, but they feel it too.

So it brings me to the question: Will the Cebu formula work for Kaya in Iloilo? How about the NCR-based clubs?

Now before you go and bash me with facts, you really don't need to. Tito Jay and I did have a discussion about it. And while the question crossed my mind, my head went in and gave me a straight answer anyway. Probably not.

Metro Cebu is huge. But if they were the lone club representing one of the proudest regions in the Philippines, you can bet that it'll draw in a crowd. Put that in perspective along with how the Cebuano outfit marketed their local heroes and put local business names front and center where their targeted audience can see.

Their formula is definitely putting butts in seats. But would this work in the more congested locations like good ol' NCR?

For one, and correct me if I'm wrong, I'm pretty certain that getting from the city to Cebu's home fortress is easier than, say, someone from Valenzuela supporting Kaya-Iloilo if they played in the Rizal Memorial Stadium.

Unless you have a car of your own or are willing to take that long commute back and forth (and we're not even considering your schedule outside football here), going to see the games is a battle in itself. Lalo na pag talo pa.

If getting real die-hard supporters to see the games is hard, what more for the casual fans who all clubs are targeting? And that's just scratching the surface here.

I'm pretty certain that casual fans already know about the league. Some may even know about the teams forming the league and the players that fight for them. But what they probably don't know is how fun it is to actually watch. They probably don't know how or where to watch. They might not even know how cheap it is to get seats.

And let me tell you, especially those fans who haven't been around enough, that once upon a time club football had a crowd large enough to shake the stands.

It was at the time when the United Football League capitalized on the Azkals' success and marketed their way to the common household.

That's the keyword. Marketing. Simply put, they need to put some money where it matters. Infra, development, and making sure everyone gets paid are the important areas. But if we don't get people behind us, the league and its teams will continually fight this uphill battle. So maybe putting aside more money and just taking the hard blows by the chin early would save everyone the misery of folding in the future. Just my two cents, anyway.

And one last thing, which was the most prominent thing that I observed. The Stadium.

The Dynamic Herb-Borromeo Sports Complex is in no way larger than the entire Rizal Memorial Stadium complex. But one thing that sets it apart is how close the pitch is to those seats.

The fans can make such noise, the players can drown in chants, and the visitors can shake from their boos. And that's coming from, give or take, a 1,000 to 3,000-seater grandstand.

It doesn't take a large crowd to make it look packed. And it doesn't need an army of ultras to make that kind of noise. That's the atmosphere that football needs.

It's definitely not on anyone's itinerary to build their own FIFA standard stadiums anytime soon. But if we can bring football closer to the fans, from the location, to the reach, and to the pitch. I think we can unlock the secrets of making football pop in NCR. And boy, that's something that I wanna see soon.