Rama wants a new stadium to rise at SRP

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is seeking investors to build a new stadium at the sprawling South Road Properties (SRP).

“Our concept here is that it should not only be a super dome but a super multi-purpose structure (on a build-operate-transfer scheme),” he said yesterday.

Rama made the announcement as he cited the near commotion last week at the Cebu Coliseum during the championship match between the University of the Visayas (UV) and the Southwestern University (SWU).

He said the coliseum, which was the venue of a world title bout between Bogo’s pride, Gabriel “Flash” Elorde and Japanese Teuo Kosaka in the early 1960s, was bursting at the seams during the Cesafi final match.

The commotion due to the overcrowding at the coliseum prompted Rama to intervene and appealed for calm by speaking through a public address system.

“It’s not a question of having a market for it.  If we want to continue to be competitive as a highly urbanized city, we don’t have to think about (whether or not we have) a market for it,” he said.

Rama said his planned stadium should not be compared with the provincial government’s Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) which is barely used.

Roberto “Bo” Varquez, the SRP manager, said the city government could accommodate the mayor’s planned stadium on a seven-hectare lot located near the Cebu City Hall block.

About two-hectares of the property will be developed into a park while the remaining five hectares will be set aside for the proposed stadium.

An alternative site, Rama said, is the vacant lot located after the Mambaling bridge before the SM Prime Holding’s project site. Varquez said Cebu City’s stadium won’t be competing with the convention center which SM will also be building at the SRP because it will cater to different markets.

Rama said he wanted the city’s stadium design to be similar to the Kaoshiung stadium in Taiwan in which the structure can be converted into function areas. /Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac