THOUGHTS | THE PBA IS NOT A DYING LEAGUE

FROM THE PBA WEBSITE

I get what the people are saying.

The empty seats and the decline in ratings are the biggest reasons our premier basketball league is "dead."

However, it’s not.

Over the years, the PBA has had three major issues that need to be addressed, with one reason almost impossible to overcome. The issues are five instead of the aforementioned three, but I am veering away from their bad online data sharing (PBA website) and questionable marketing ploys (addressing the 4-point line rather than more out-of-town games) because we have known this for a long time.

I just don't want to repeat myself.

SOAP OPERAS

I always get a kick when the sports leagues tell everyone that they are the number one sports league in the country. Whether it’s professional or college basketball, and even if you add volleyball, and even the international sports fests like the Olympics, Asian Games, and SEA Games into the mix, sports is baby food compared to the drawing power of Coco Martin, Barbie Forteza, and the other primetime stars in the country. The PBA's ratings started to decline when Thalia’s Marimar first aired. Yes, the gyrating island girl with a meddling dog had a cheesy premise, but its success triggered ABS-CBN to put Mara Clara in their primetime block. The end of the erstwhile daytime soap paved the way to the super-successful Esperanza and right then and there, men couldn't get the remote off the women. From Judy Ann Santos to Angel Locsin to Marian Rivera and the current primetime setup, the PBA started its steep decline, giving their broadcast partners some kind of curse.

Basketball will always destroy a network program schedule, and it's not just a Filipino thing. There is a reason why TNT had to give up its NBA rights and why even the WWE is moving from network to network.

Can you imagine 24 Oras going for two hours on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and a tight 30-minute bullet version on Wednesdays and Fridays? The daily newscast is the heart of every network because the stories are usually free and people will always look forward to it. Even a slow news day will have a story, and it's not like you can't instigate a political battle or a public opinion.

Worse, what about your favorite primetime drama? You can’t force a household to watch an SMC farm team taking on the third-best MVP team especially if one would miss out on a grand reveal like a first kiss, a grand reveal, or an important death scene. This is also why both ABS-CBN and GMA stopped producing their weekday primetime dramas and comedies – because daily dramas are there to hook the viewers, intending to glue the set on their channels.

You can't hate the networks for hating a bunch of boring Tim Duncans and loving a couple of outspoken Draymond Greens. I for one would rather have an impromptu controversy than a slew of boring games.

THE AIR21 EXPRESS ONLY HAD ONE PBA FINALS APPEARANCE.

FARM TEAMS

Speaking of which, why would people go to the arenas to watch a doubleheader between farm teams and non-SMC teams? It’s no coincidence that the three most popular teams are the three oldest. The San Miguel Beermen, the only surviving original team, has won 29 championships. Ginebra, a league fixture since 1979, has won 15 championships. Finally, the Magnolia Hotshots, who also went by Purefoods and San Mig Super Coffee, has amassed 14 titles. TNT, a team with a modest following compared to the three aforementioned teams, has won ten championships since coming into the league in 1990 as the Pepsi Hotshots.

Rain or Shine and Meralco combine for three titles. Converge hasn’t won a title since buying the franchise from Alaska, Northport hasn’t won a title since purchasing the franchise from Coca-Cola, and it’s not like there’s a championship history when Phoenix got the franchise rights from both Barako Bull and Air21.

If you’re talking about the old Red Bull title squad, the genealogy is with the NLEX Road Warriors.

And yes, NLEX has yet to win a PBA title as well.

With this in mind, you get why people could care less for the other squads. Change that. They only care for the other squads when they tinker on their rosters. For independent teams like Rain or Shine, Phoenix, and Converge, the draft and trades can make or break their budget-friendly moves for a championship squad. It's either that or the fear of disbandment. For the farm teams, it’s another way to find fault for feeding the three most popular ballclubs. For the big three, it's just a case of strong teams becoming even stronger.

Northport is on top of the standings as of the moment, but in the numbers, I will show a couple of paragraphs later, it feels like people are still iffy on whether or not the Batang Pier can sustain their momentum.

Every year, there's a rogue farm team or independent squad that would defy the odds and push their luck to the next round. However, because these teams have underachieved for so long, they tend to crash out to at least one of the SMC teams.

This is why people are happy to see Meralco win the Philippine Cup against the San Miguel Beermen. Even if the Bolts are an MVP team, this is their first finals appearance since obtaining the franchise rights from the Sta. Lucia Realtors.

However, sustaining the momentum is much harder, especially during "harvest" time.

VENUES

For decades, the PBA has dreamt of its venue. I have heard about this certain vacant lot between EDSA and Quezon Avenue that is now Centris. Hell, I even remembered the league trying to buy a random arena. Nonetheless, fans will troop for the major games but it's the league's prerogative to sway the passersby to go to the arena. When I was on Channel 5, they used to have a Gimme Five promo. That worked in the 2000s because the league was hot back then. Now, the lack of arena fans is an eyesore.

For me, the venue needs to be near EDSA, most specifically near a mall and an MRT station. The Araneta Coliseum is the perfect venue for this, but it’s also at the heart of traffic as well as the rush hour. The Ninoy Aquino Stadium is in Malate years after the height of the location’s popularity. The venue favors the people south of Manila, and these folks would rather attend games in the Mall of Asia Arena. That said, the MOA Arena is fallible as well, with the venue being the chief host of the UAAP Games. The FilOil Centre in San Juan is not as big as the other venues, but at least it’s the somewhat official venue of the NCAA since most of the colleges are near the venue.      

BY THE NUMBERS

The Commissioner's Cup has been on for almost two months as of press time, and this is why I don't see the league as "dying."

Yes, the MPBL games may have people in the venues, but I don't think the tickets are valued enough. A PBA ticket is almost more than thrice compared to an MPBL ticket.

The PBA can lower their entrance fees only to make their venues jam-packed.

It makes sense for their video library.

Here are the numbers from the One Sports YouTube channel. Yes, the PBA must have its YT channel to publish its iconic games. That said, to say the league is dead is an understatement. How can it be dead when their full game highlights average 100,000 views and higher? Not only that, they would have at least five videos per game. The full game highlights, per-quarter highlights, uncut highlights, and the player of the game video are constants. It's another story when it comes to insane dunks, fantastic buzzer-beaters, significant plays, and even brawls.

That is why the league can just sacrifice their ticket sales, at least in the elimination round, to lessen the empty seats.

Yes, highlight dunks and buzzer-beaters are awesome for playback, but it's better to have these moments with the audience cheering in the background.

FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS

2024-25 PBA COMMISSIONER’S CUP

START TO DECEMBER 25 (as of January 10, 2025)

RANK	DATE	MATCH	YOUTUBE VIEWS
1	DECEMBER 25	GINEBRA VERSUS MAGNOLIA	1,000,000
2	DECEMBER 11	NLEX VERSUS GINEBRA	702,000
3	DECEMBER 18	GINEBRA VERSUS TERRAFIRMA	594,000
4	DECEMBER 21	CONVERGE VERSUS GINEBRA	563,000
5	DECEMBER 15	EASTERN VERSUS GINEBRA	522,000
6	DECEMBER 3	SAN MIGUEL VERSUS PHOENIX	418,000
7	DECEMBER 22	EASTERN VERSUS SAN MIGUEL	355,000
8	NOVEMBER 28	BLACKWATER VERSUS MAGNOLIA	340,000
9	DECEMBER 4	RAIN OR SHINE VERSUS EASTERN	335,000
10	DECEMBER 6	TNT VERSUS EASTERN	301,000
11	DECEMBER 8	NLEX VERSUS SAN MIGUEL	297,000
12	DECEMBER 11	MAGNOLIA VERSUS TNT	288,000
13	DECEMBER 4	NORTHPORT VERSUS MAGNOLIA	288,000
14	DECEMBER 10	SAN MIGUEL VERSUS RAIN OR SHINE	287,000
15	DECEMBER 1	MAGNOLIA VERSUS CONVERGE	285,000
16	DECEMBER 20	MAGNOLIA VERSUS NLEX	283,000
17	DECEMBER 18	RAIN OR SHINE VERSUS MAGNOLIA	276,000
18	NOVEMBER 27	CONVERGE VERSUS TERRAFIRMA	251,000
19	DECEMBER 8	TNT VERSUS NORTHPORT	248,000
20	DECEMBER 20	NORTHPORT VERSUS EASTERN	236,000
21	NOVEMBER 29	EASTERN VERSUS CONVERGE	226,000
22	NOVEMBER 27	EASTERN VERSUS PHOENIX	223,000
23	DECEMBER 1	MERALCO VERSUS RAIN OR SHINE	216,000
24	DECEMBER 25	MERALCO VERSUS CONVERGE	204,000
25	DECEMBER 17	CONVERGE VERSUS NLEX	204,000
26	DECEMBER 18	PHOENIX VERSUS CONVERGE	195,000
27	NOVEMBER 30	TERRAFIRMA VERSUS NORTHPORT	192,000
28	NOVEMBER 30	NLEX VERSUS BLACKWATER	181,000
29	NOVEMBER 29	MERALCO VERSUS PHOENIX	177,000
30	DECEMBER 10	BLACKWATER VERSUS EASTERN	164,000
31	DECEMBER 6	MERALCO VERSUS TERRAFIRMA	163,000
32	NOVEMBER 28	NORTHPORT VERSUS NLEX	159,000
33	DECEMBER 19	BLACKWATER VERSUS TNT	141,000
34	DECEMBER 17	PHOENIX VERSUS NORTHPORT	123,000
35	DECEMBER 22	TERRAFIRMA VERSUS RAIN OR SHINE	100,000

I intentionally leave out the January 2025 games because the month hasn't finished yet. That said, the Ginebra versus San Miguel game has 827,000 views and the Ginebra versus Northport game has 351,000 views. The crowd darlings inside the arena are still the favorites on the internet. They are followed by Magnolia, San Miguel, NLEX, and Eastern.

Surprisingly, Meralco is dead last with an average of 190,000 views.

That said, have you seen the MPBL YT page views?

Moreover, how many views can a remastered Crispa versus Toyota game have?

Here are the numbers.

For as long as the Big Three teams are part of the league, and for as long as the collegiate leagues have a basketball program, it's impossible for the league to die. Yes, most fans tend to overact, but no China, Japan, Korea, or ASEAN league can mess our league up.

However, how can they sell the league to sponsors if they create a demo reel of empty seats? How can they sell their ad spaces like their digital roll tech, in-game segments, and other arena spaces if the games are virtually inaccessible?

Do you know the reason why I made this blog? I was checking out the January 10 game stats and it's unavailable because instead of managing their website, they thought it's a good idea to have a four-point line. Yes, the stats were back online after a day, but if you compare the PBA with any other major basketball tournament in the world, it lacks information as well as direction.

And no, I love the four-point line. Unlike other people, I have grown to love the area. It's another strategy for the teams and it's also a nice way for players to develop their outside shot since I highly doubt we're going to see an average of ten dunks in a typical PBA game. That said, they had to develop their kind of live stat because the "normal" ones don't have the four-point stats. Furthermore, the idea behind the line has worn off. Yes, George King may average more than two quadruples per game as of this writing, but the scoring stat isn't what it once was in the Governors' Cup. Five teams have scored less than five 4-pointers this conference, including the Converge Fiberxers who have yet to make one, and Ginebra, whose import, Justin Brownlee, once led the Governors' Cup in 4-pointers made.

I can't blame the people for trashing the league's attendance figures but at the same time, they need to iron the kinks. Selfishly, I want them to make their website and statistical information up to par with the rest of the league.

Finally, I need them to stop pimping that they are the number sports show in the Philippines because it's almost the same as being the nicest guy in prison.

The PBA is not dying.

It just has a lot of issues.