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| Candon City Mayor Eric Singson (left) received a volleyball signed by the team captains of the SEA V.League teams from AVC and PNVF president Ramon “Tats” Suzara. (Image Source: Manila Standard/Philippine National Volleyball Federation) |
Encouraged by the success of the ongoing 2025 Southeast Asian Volleyball League, Candon City Mayor Eric Singson is wasting no time taking the next steps for his sports tourism program and recently announced plans to host the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Women’s Nations Cup set to be held on June 6-13, 2025. Interestingly, the program now leads to a newly-coined volleyball tourism campaign as Singson continues to level up the games being presented at the Candon City Arena after initially hosting professional basketball and volleyball leagues.
The 2025 SEA Volleyball League, the region’s top-flight volleyball competition, is the first international sporting event held at the Candon City Arena and Singson said he is inspired by the enthusiastic local fan response. In a press conference held last July 12, 2025 at the Hotel Van Gogh Candon, Singson shared, “Our people here enjoy the matches a lot. They’re shouting, which we’ve never heard before. The people are seeing the game at a new level. Dito natin makikita yung laro ng volleyball na tama. A high standard of competition.” Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) and AVC President Ramon “Tats” Suzara is pleased to hear Singson’s willingness to help sustain the national and continental federation’s initiatives to enhance volleyball tourism, stating, “There are tourist packages now being promoted. Imagine fans from other countries coming to watch the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship. There’s a lot of interest from other countries. Same with bringing international volleyball to Candon City, this is in line with our new slogan of ‘volleyball tourism’.” From five nations, the city prepares to host 12 nations at the continental level and Singson is confident 11 months is enough after the SEA V.League experience. He said, “We are learning the ropes. The SEA V.League, ito yung umpisa para matuto kami para i-handle and host an international sports event. Of course, with Mr. Suzara with me, I am confident we can do our part.”
Ahead of the staging of the next tournament, Candon City is working with the PNVF for the hosting of a training camp for a team competing in the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championships on September 12-28, 2025 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum and SM Mall of Asia Arena. Candon City, through the PNVF, is set to send the letter of intent to AVC headquarters but is virtually assured of being awarded the hosting rites with still no standout competition for the bid. With a bigger and better competition on the way, Mayor Singson said that the city is ready to push for developments both on the infrastructure, and among their people — that is, they also want to be able to keep up with the growing interest in the sport of volleyball. Though acknowledging that there have been challenges so far after previously hosting games for the PVL and the PBA, Singson believes that they can get themselves up to par in time for next year’s hosting if they net the rights. He said, “Pa-north na ang volleyball. With this, we have to improve our work so that we really deserve to host this kind of ball game. Hosting an international competition is really a challenging one, but we’ll take our swing to any kind of challenge — we will try our best and bring the best of it into the ball game.” As far as Suzara is concerned, the AVC believes that there is ample time to prepare and do the necessary changes for Candon to be ready to host an event of that magnitude.
