Why you should join the ‘last’ Thirsty Cup
It’s amazing that the tournament that blazed the path for football festivals in Cebu City can still come up with something new in its 14th edition. The Thirsty Football Cup, the grand daddy of all football festivals in Cebu started this fiesta weekend in the early 2000s, and will have its 14th edition next month. Or the last. “Last na ni...” said John Pages, the section shoo-in candidate for a Mr. Sports Universe (if there ever was one), after the press con for the 2017 edition.
They started the trend, now they’re redirecting the trend with a couple of unique innovations this year. First up of course is the charity angle; this year, teams are required to identify a charity as their beneficiary should they win their divisions. Thirst will folk over a yet-to-be-determined amount for the champions’ charity of choice and no, The Saturday Red Horse or San Mig Light group doesn’t count.
“We can come up with a list of known charities, so the team can just choose,” said John.
“If that charity or foundation is not that known, we will require the team to submit the SEC papers of the charity, so we can be sure the money goes to where it should go,” said Neil Montesclaros.
This innovation, for me, addresses one of the core critique of the Thirsty Cup that players and some coaches say to me, especially during the time when the games went past midnight.
“Pang-warta ra man ni oi, daghan kaayo teams dawaton,” they’d say variations of that theme year in, year out. (Come to think of it, I haven’t heard that song since the organizers decided on a cap on the number of teams.)
Before the SunStar Cup came about and I learned how expensive it is to hold a football festival at the Cebu City Sports Center—want to know how much it is to rent the CCSC for a day?—I sympathized with those who said the Thirsty Cup may have over-stretched themselves when it aimed to be the biggest festival in the country.
“We achieved that but it also brought about some ‘logistical nightmare,’” Neil said. Logistical nightmare, of course, is a euphimistic way of saying how games ended up at 4 a.m.
The Charity angle should abolish all doubts. Mind you, 14 years on, the registration fee is only P1,200 (P1,800 with insurance). In the past, I’ve heard of two or three-year-old tournaments charge P2,000 or P2,500 per team for half the Thirsty Cup experience and perks.
Aside from that, the other innovation this year is the mixed- open division. It’s going to be an interesting division and we’ll see if this is going to be a one-time deal or will return in other editions.
Oh, by the way, the organizers were joking that this year will be the last because Thirsty is branching out in other sports. There’s a run in March and another major event in May. What is it? Let’s wait for John to make the announcement.
“Before the SunStar Cup came about and I learned how expensive it is to hold a football festival at the Cebu City Sports Center—want to know how much it is to rent the CCSC for a day?—I sympathized with those who said the Thirsty Cup may have over-stretched themselves when it aimed to be the biggest festival in the country.”