BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A message from Smart Sports' Patrick Gregorio re: the LA Galaxy, the UFL and football


A message from Smart Sports' Patrick Gregorio

"This LA Galaxy event  is a fantastic boost for Philippine football.  The timing couldn't have been better.  As you know, MVP has identified a number of sports that he will be actively supporting.   Football is one of them.  We have just announced our support for the Philippine Football Federation and its national league.  Several MVP-owned companies have teams in that league. So we're going all-out in our support for football.  When we heard that the LA Galaxy team was coming to Asia, we immediately confirmed our interest to support.  After all, LA Galaxy has David Beckham in its roster.  And Beckham is arguably the most popular football player in the world.  The team also has Landon Donovan - arguably the best American football player.  And, to make things even more exciting, LA Galaxy were just crowned champion of Major League Soccer in the US.  So we're having the US Football Champions - with the most iconic football player in the world coming to Manila -- it can't better than that."

If we are to improve the state of football here, we have to promote it to the general public.  And the only way to do that is to host more foreign teams... popular football teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United.  We plan to invite these teams in the future.

2011 is another banner year for Smart Sports. 2011 will be remembered as the year Smart Sports brought the most famous athletes in the world --  Kobe Bryant, Derrick Rose, Kevin Duran --  and on December 3, David Beckham!"

3 comments:

  1. Indonesia is among the football crazy countries of South East Asia yet tickets for the LA Galaxy event have been priced much, much lower. Tickets in Indonesia are sold from Rp 75,000 (US$8.25) to Rp 750,000 (US$81.87).

    Ticket prices should have been priced reasonably if the objective was to boost Philippine Football.

    “We have just announced our support for the Philippine Football Federation and its national league. Several MVP-owned companies have teams in that league”.

    Thank you to SMART for their support for Philippine Football but what national league is Gregorio referring to? The Philippines does not have a national league. The UFL is not considered as a national league by definition and for obvious reasons. You can check it out in the FIFA website. All recognized leagues worldwide are listed. This is one of the reasons why we can't qualify for the AFC President's Cup.

    Someone must remind Gregorio that this is not basketball. In football it is not allowed that a company and its subsidiaries exercise or are in a position to influence in anyway another club as this is seen by FIFA as a threat to the integrity of any football competition. This is clearly stated in the FIFA Statutes and more importantly in the PFF By-Laws. Maybe it would be wise for Mr. Gregorio to take a crash course in football----------he will enjoy it more than basketball.

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  2. To Anonymous:

    You know that Gelora Bung Karno seats 80k. So they have the leeway to spread out the cost over a larger fan base, unlike the Rizal Memorial which seats only 12.8k.

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  3. Television coverage by AKTV of the UFL, PHIL- vs LA GAlaxy, PHilippine Team games IS HUGE! Thank you! Here's to more!

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