Reporter

THEY have successfully brought the billiards fever in the country, but organizers of the 2007 World Pool Championship (WPC) must be feeling sick with the unexpectedly low turnout of the crowd at the cavernous Araneta Coliseum.

Before the start of the tournament, local organizer Raya Sports had expressed confidence that the event could attract a huge number of people, a live audience at that.

Raya Sports chief and Billiards and Snooker Council of the Philippines chairman Yen Makabenta said he and the Araneta group expect some 6,000 fans to troop the Big Dome.

THE organizers of World Pool Championship are finding a hard time translating pool fever into turnstile numbers. --NONOY LACZA

“We are very confident of getting that number. I don’t think the world has seen that kind of number of people watching pool. That is why we held this event in a big venue. We want to create that kind of atmosphere in Araneta. I hope this experiment will work,” Makabenta was quoted as saying.

So far, it’s not working.

Based on the data provided by Ticketnet, the first three days of the so-called biggest pool show on earth has had only 852 fans paying to watch the event, way below the Big Dome’s 9,100-seating capacity.

In Saturday’s opening, when legendary Efren “Bata” Reyes and defending champion Ronnie “The Volcano” Alcano saw action, there were only 356 fans who showed up. It went down to 283 on the second day, and plummeted further to 213 Monday.

“It’s kind of disappointing, I guess, for the local organizers, but I don’t think there were decreases on the number of audience. I, in fact, believe that it has increased. It just seemed that way because this is a much bigger venue than what we had last year,” said Luke Riches, spokesman of Matchroom, the event’s chief organizer.

“But it’s still too early, and maybe as the tournament progresses with the Filipino players advancing, it could generate more,” he said, adding the number of live audience could be one of the factors they would consider in choosing next year’s venue.

Another reason for the low turnout could be the relatively high cost of tickets.

For the preliminary round up to the Last 16, a seat at the TV table costs P840, with the Lower Box A, Lower Box B and Upper Box priced at P525, P315 and P158, respectively. The TV table seats, which total 278, will increase to P1,575 in the semifinals and P2,100 in the finals.

Last year at the Philippine International Convention Center, a TV table seat was priced at P500 for the preliminary rounds and P1,000 for the finals, while the General Admission was pegged at P250.

Jeff feels it’s his time

Jeff de Luna looked dead serious in his quest to top the 2007 World Pool Championship (WPC).

“Kahit sino pa s’ya gagahasain ko s’ya,” said de Luna on the eve of his return to the table for the start of the knockout phase of the $400,000 tournament.

The 23-year-old Doha Asian Games silver medalist takes on compatriot Lee Van Corteza in the most intriguing Last 64 match—at least for the host country’s campaign.

“Si Van-van ba? Sabihin mo sa kanya, hindi lang gahasa ang gagawin ko sa kanya, kakatayin ko pa s’ya,” de Luna boldly declared.

“Hindi sa pagyayabang, pero tingin ko talaga kaya kong mag-champion dito, at pakiramdam ko ngayon na ’yung time na ’yun,” he added.

Said to be the hottest among the 15 Filipino participants in the tournament, de Luna breezed through the Group Stage, trouncing Serbian Sander Tot, 9-5, and Taiwanese Fu-che Wei, 9-3, in succession to advance into the KO phase as the No. 2 seed in Group Five Monday.

Corteza, on the other hand, struggled past the preliminary round, needing three matches to make it through. He lost his opening match to Goran Mladenovic of Serbia, 9-7, before rebounding by scoring back-to-back 9-4 victories over Chang-pe Wei of Chinese-Taipei and Jeremy Jones of the United States to clinch the No. 3 spot in Group 12 Sunday.

De Luna, actually, could have avoided Corteza had he blanked Fu, which he almost did when he raced to a 7-0 lead.

“Ganun din ’yun, sa dami naming Pilipino, siguradong may magkakatapat sa amin,” said de Luna, who won the Manny Pacquiao 9-Ball Open last week.

What epicenter of pool? They’re coming in trickles to the Big Dome

THEY have successfully brought the billiards fever in the country, but organizers of the 2007 World Pool Championship (WPC) must be feeling sick with the unexpectedly low turnout of the crowd at the cavernous Araneta Coliseum.

Sulaiman planes in today

WORLD Boxing Council (WBC) president Jose Sulaiman is expected to arrive today from Mexico to kick off the 45th annual convention of the renowned boxing organization.

RED BULL lost three marquee players in trades last season. Today against Talk ’N Text, the Barakos lose—though only temporary—another in Junthy Valenzuela who suffered a pulled hamstring in their previous game.

FILIPINO-AMERICANS Diane Pascua and Heidi Illustre want nothing less than the gold medal in the 24th Southeast Asian Games in Thailand this December.

Norwood in, 4 others to boost RP 5

THE Southeast Asian Games-bound men’s basketball team is hoping the addition of five new players which include highly touted Gabe Norwood will recharge the Nationals.

Ask Coach E: Looking for tall men

A READER, Keith Daryl Goroza, informed us about the forum thread in the web site interbasket.net.

Goroza, whom this writer would surmise to be true-basketball fan, said they are looking out for tall players who could possibly help the Philippine team in the future.