Davao City Sports Council Inc. president Peter Lavina has announced the formation of the Davao ABL Fans Club to help support and popularize the new ASEAN Basketball League (ABL).
The ABL opened last October 10 in Jakarta after its successful launching in Manila last September 1.
The ABL looks to create a new sports project in South East Asia that will merge high performance sports action with family entertainment to engage audiences in the region with a population of 600 million.
Entered in the ABL are the KL Dragons (Malaysia), Satria Muda BritAma (Indonesia), Brunei Barracudas (Brunei), Philippine Patriots (Philippines), Singapore Slingers (Singapore) and Thailand Tigers (Thailand).
The Philippine franchise is owned by Mikee Romero and Tonyboy Cojuangco.
Each team is allowed to have two non-ASEAN imports and three ASEAN imports and will play home-and-away games in the various ASEAN capital cities covered by local and international sports television.
The Davao ABL Fans Club aims to help create a movement to support the ABL and help build the ASEAN community through sports and cultural appreciation.
Davao is an ideal place to form the Fans Club because it is the premier city in southern Philippines, the de facto capital of the BIMP-EAGA (Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area), and home to the Consul-General offices of Indonesia and Malaysia. Moreover, it has direct flights to Indonesia and Singapore, and soon to Brunei.
The Davao ABL Fans Club hopes that the city can host special ABL games in the future.
Lavina said those interested may register at Room 3, SP Building or email ptlavina@yahoo.com. They can also visit www.aseanbasketballleague.com for details of the ABL.
