International recognition of one of the country’s newest stadiums could boost Filipino interest and excellence in sports that get less attention.
Senator Imee Marcos expressed this belief after the Ferdinand E. Marcos Memorial Stadium in Ilocos Norte won its third award as Gold Winner in the sports architecture category of the 2024 Urban Design and Architectural Design Awards.
Earlier awards also prop up its bid to host the Palarong Pambansa in 2025, including a Special Mention in the Architizer + Awards 2023 and a Highy Commended citation in the World Architecture Festival 2023.
Unlike the closed, oval structures familiar worldwide, the track and football stadium features an open southern end for free-flowing public access to and from Laoag City’s Rizal Park and a geometric design inspired by the Ilocos region’s loom-woven “abel” wrapping the exterior.
“I am confident another Lydia de Vega or Elma Muros will arise. Until EJ Obiena came along, who ever thought that a Filipino could excel in other track and field sports like the pole vault, long dominated by Westerners?” Marcos pointed out.
“Well-designed sports venues, the right training, and unstinting government support as in the heydays of the Palarong Pambansa and Gintong Alay can bring out the Olympian in every Filipino athlete,” the senator reminisced.
Inaugurated in February last year, the stadium was designed by WTA Architecture + Design Studio and was among the “Big 3” projects initiated by the senator when she was Ilocos Norte’s governor.
Punning on the famous quote from the film Field of Dreams, Marcos argued: “If you build it, they will come and excel.”
