05 October 2019

Floodlights at Binan Football Stadium

By Ivan Saldajeno

BINAN--PFL teams have to deal with playing early kickoffs at the Binan Football Stadium, either in Stallion Laguna's home matches or in times the said club allows its foes to use the said venue for their matches, due to the venue's floodlights not cleared for usage.

Even no less than Risto Vidakovic, the coach of defending champion Ceres Negros, has been vocally airing his concerns about his club's road matches at Stallion Laguna being played at 3:30 p.m. especially that during that time, the temperature is hot when the weather is fine.

"It's very hard to play in this kind of weather conditions because the players cannot perform," Vidakovic said recently.

Also because of the floodlight issue, the PFL had no choice but to move the matches at the Binan Football Stadium at another date in case of adverse weather, like what happened in the scheduled Stallion Laguna-Air Force match on Wednesday.

However, this problem could come to an end real soon as no less than Vice Mayor Gel Alonte said that the floodlights at the said venue will finally be turned on by next week.

"This coming Tuesday," Alonte said specifically on Wednesday night after the league announced the postponement of the Stallion Laguna-Air Force game.

The first operation of the floodlights will come at a right timing as the national women's football team will be in town.

"Dito magpa-practice ang Philippine team starting Monday," Alonte continued.

The Binan Football Stadium will host the women's football competition of the Southeast Asian Games, and the full operation of the floodlights is a major step forward in its preparations for the said event, which will begin on Nov. 26, four days before the Nov. 30 formal start.

"Syempre, busy lahat kahit si Mayor (Arman Dimaguila), LGU, [at] yung mga partners namin para mag-prepare nga ating football field," Alonte shared how the gear-up has been so far. "Ngayon, focus muna kami sa pagaayos ng field para sa darating na SEA Games."

However, he is open to the idea of holding Stallion Laguna's home stand against Green Archers United next Wednesday at nighttime or when the floodlights are on.

"Alam naman ni Coach Ernie [Nierras]. Kasama siya sa team na magha-handle for the SEA Games dito sa Binan," Alonte quipped.

The said venue will also be the site of Stallion Laguna's match against Global Makati in the final day of the season on Oct. 19 with the latter as the designated host.

Aside from fully functioning the floodlights, the Binan City government is also adding some upgrades to the field's facilities.

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