PSC to convert track oval to football field

The Philippine Sports Commission is planning to turn the Rizal Memorial track and field oval to a football field by the end of the year.

PSC chair Harry Angping said he would help generate P20 million from the private sector and some P30-P40 million from the government and from a special fund from President Arroyo to finance the project.

“We’re planning to transform the track oval into a football field by the last quarter of the year,” said Angping during Friday’s signing of a memorandum agreement with the Commission on Higher Education and private and public school athletic associations.

“The P20 million we’ll get from the private sector and the balance from our internal funds or we’ll request our President for special funding,” he added.

Angping, who was with the Chief Executive during yesterday’s state banquet with a top Papua New Guinea official, said the national athletes currently training there would be relocated either to the PhilSports Complex in Pasig or at its training facilities in Baguio where weather and training conditions are far more conducive.

“I think they can train better in Baguio,” said the former softball chief and Philippine Olympic Committee executive board member.

Also part of the plan is reconstructing the grass court tennis court located at the side of the Rizal Tennis Center into an artificial beach volleyball sand court.

Angping said the fund, which was estimated to cost the agency P1 million, that would use in the beach volley project would be generated internally.

These projects are in line with the PSC’s plan of helping unproductive sports get back to their feet and possibly turn them to medal winners in international competitions like the Southeast Asian Games, the Asian Games and even the Olympics.

To date, Angping has returned the monthly salaries of athletes in indoor volleyball and pledged financial support to athletes in table tennis.

Football, though the most popular sport in the world, remains unpopular in the country and its national teams are the laughing stock in Southeast Asia.

The same goes with table tennis and indoor volleyball, which has been eclipsed by its beach volley counterpart after fruitless campaigns in past SEAG editions.

“We’ll spread our support not just to prominent sports but to other disciplines as well,” said Angping.

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