IT goes without saying that in the Philippine Basketball Association, the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel team is a huge draw. When the Kings are on center court, practically everything is abuzz.
And this standing of Barangay Ginebra as the local pro league’s “marquee” name was proven to be true once again in the team’s recent conquest of the PBA Governors’ Cup where it got the better of the resilient Meralco Bolts in six games; a series that turned out to be a “blockbuster” in more ways than one.
“Ginebra, as everyone knows, is the crowd favorite. For three decades now, it is the consistent PBA crowd-drawer. While other teams have built their respective fan bases, with teams like San Miguel and Purefoods having huge following of their own, Ginebra remains ahead of them,” said basketball analyst Rick Olivares as he described where the Kings stand in the PBA.
“So popular is Ginebra in the PBA that there were instances in the past that matches of the team were scheduled on key dates to ensure the PBA had drawing power. To this day, their games have always been the must-watched ones,” he added.
In the 2016 Governors’ Cup finals, that saw Barangay Ginebra end an eight-year title drought, the crowd indeed came.
While it did not break any attendance record at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, where the entire series was played, demand for tickets was still high, particularly in the last two games where gate attendance averaged 22,362 people.
League officials and observers pointed out that the numbers could have easily been higher if not for the decision, which was understandable they said, of the Araneta management to limit the number of people entering the coliseum on safety concerns.
Limited were the sale of tickets for the Upper B and standing room only (SRO) sections which traditionally represented a big chunk of their sales, league officials said.
Despite not breaking any record, Barangay Ginebra, nonetheless, still holds an impressive distinction of being party to two of the biggest number of attendance in a PBA game at the Araneta Coliseum -- the 24,883 people that saw the team battle San Mig Coffee in Game Seven of their 2014 Philippine Cup semifinals and the 23,436 that witnessed Game Three of its finals against Alaska in the 2013 Commissioner’s Cup finals.
“Through the series (Ginebra vs. Meralco) I realized that the Araneta Coliseum is small when Ginebra plays in the championship. It’s amazing to see how they have captivated all these fans throughout the years. It is something that is interesting to study how such following can be achieved by the other teams. There is just something in them. It is very interesting the kind of dimension that Ginebra has brought to the league,” said PBA Commissioner Chito Y. Narvasa.
With the fans going to the venue, demand for food in the coliseum also saw an uptick.
“During regular games with a good-sized crowd our sales are pretty good but when Ginebra plays it increases considerably,” said Brian Racal, a staff member of Wendy’s fastfood chain which operates stalls inside the Big Dome.
“It depends, of course, who Ginebra is facing in a particular game, but if they are teams like San Miguel, Purefoods (Star now), Alaska and TNT, our sales rise from an average of P9,000 to P14,000 to triple that, like P30,000 to P40,000,” he added.
In the Governors’ Cup finals, they experienced strong sales at the series’ peak, Mr. Racal said, surpassing the P100,000 sales mark.
Equally benefitting from the good fan pickup of the last PBA finals were clothing merchandise, particularly those bearing Barangay Ginebra-related designs and logos.
One shop, Shooting Star Design and Print (shootingstarclothing.com), saw orders for its shirts and hoodies with Barangay Ginebra’s popular battle cry “Never Say Die,” and the championship logo, among other designs, double both in its store in Paco, Manila, and online.
“Ginebra has always been one of our popular designs when it comes to PBA teams but in the finals against Meralco orders doubled with fans eager to show their support for their favorite team,” said a Shooting Star staff who refused to be named.
She went on to say that orders continue to come in, weeks after the finals had ended.
TV RATINGS
TV ratings also experience a jump whenever Ginebra plays, said Lloyd Manaloto, Head of Network Marketing and Digital of TV5, whose Sports5 arm is covering the PBA since 2011.
“The PBA is part of the core pillars of TV5. I think we have a strong male audience because of the PBA. Ginebra is definitely an important piece of the league, it’s part of the lore of the PBA. What is interesting about Ginebra is that its fandom is passed from generation to generation. It’s a community and it makes everything interesting,” he said.
“From the days of the “Big J,” Robert Jaworski, to the heydays of Mark Caguioa and Jayjay Helterbrand, to now of Scottie Thompson, heroes abound for them and their following has been steady,” Mr. Manaloto added.
Mr. Manaloto said the lure of Barangay Ginebra is further magnified when it goes deep in competitions.
“When you look at the ratings, generally Ginebra matches have strong ratings during regular or elimination games but when they make it to the playoffs it picks up some more. It varies from every game of the playoffs and when they reach the finals it snow balls even further,” he said.
In numbers provided by TV5, the PBA Governors’ Cup finals between Barangay Ginebra and Meralco had an AMR (Average Minute Rating) of 4.7, among the highest in the last two years of PBA finals coverage by the network, behind only the 5.5 AMR of the 2015 Philippine Cup Finals between San Miguel and Alaska, and the 4.9 AMR of their Philippine Cup Finals rematch this year, that saw the Beermen come from a 1-3 series deficit to defend their title.
The 4.7 AMR was a 24% improvement from last year’s Governor’s Cup Finals (San Miguel vs. Alaska ) that had a 3.8 AMR and a 51% uptick from the 3.1 AMR of the preceding 2016 Commissioner’s Cup Finals.
Further highlighting Ginebra’s TV appeal, according to Mr. Manaloto, was the 6.3 AMR that Ginebra’s Commissioner’s Cup finals in 2013 with Alaska had, where the latter swept the former in three games.
Also, in the title-clinching Game Six of the 2016 PBA Governors Cup, the AMR peaked at 11.8 which translated to a 45% audience share at one point, which was “high” for a three-plus hour show, said Mr. Manaloto, considering they were up against the established teleseryes of the other networks.
Live streaming of the clincher, that had import Justin Brownlee towing Barangay Ginebra to the title via a buzzer-beating and game-winning three-pointer, on the network’s online portal, Sports5.ph, had a 2,000% increase in viewer traffic as well, said Mr. Manaloto.
The TV5 official compared the kind of reception that the 2016 PBA Governors’ Cup Finals had to that of the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship held here in Manila and covered as well by TV5 where Gilas Pilipinas beat South Korea in the semifinals and break the so-called Korean Curse.
“It was a national event,” he said.
While the recent PBA finals series was made epic by the tremendous efforts that both Barangay Ginebra and Meralco showed, still the impact that the former had overall in the finals being a hit could not be denied, Mr. Manaloto said.
“Meralco was a factor without a doubt with the way they battled and gave a challenge to Ginebra despite making it to the finals for the first time, in the process gaining the respect and admiration of the PBA community. But Ginebra was the beginning storyline. Their fandom was thirsty after eight years of waiting for another title,” Mr. Manaloto said.
“They had fans who didn’t want to miss the event as well as casual fans who didn’t want to miss out on it as well. There was this huge bandwagon effect, hence, the high numbers,” he added.
Moving forward, both officials of TV5 and the PBA are expecting better things after a highly a successful finals series.
“It’s going to be clean slate anew when the new season starts on Nov. 20. But the fervor and anticipation is there because of what Ginebra had done. They are ‘relevant’ once again. They are not satisfied and they will go for it. The floor is higher for the PBA but it can get even better,” said Mr. Manaloto.
“The whole PBA benefited from the series because Ginebra and Meralco set the bar high. So the fans are going to expect more,” Mr. Narvasa, for his part, said.
“The level of excellence in the league has to increase. The recent series was well received not plainly because Ginebra was involved but it also played at such a high level that even non-fans of theirs got interested. And the rest of the league should recognize that. In the PBA, it’s not enough to be popular. A team should also strive for excellence because the fans now are intelligent,” he added.