The PBA is set to hold a board meeting next week to decide the fate of the season-ending Governors’ Cup following the indefinite suspension of its games due to the surge in COVID-19 cases.
Commissioner Willie Marcial had a talk with Chairman Ricky Vargas regarding the crucial meeting of minds among members of the Board of Governors to talk about plans of whether to push through with the stalled season or not.
Marcial bared the timeline of the league moving forward when he appeared as special guest in the virtual session of the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum on Tuesday.
“Magtatawag kami ng board meeting next week para pag-usapan na kung ano ang dapat gawin kung saan patungo ang PBA,” he said.
“‘Pag nag-meeting kami next week, malamang ‘yan na ‘yung fate ng PBA kung saan tayo patungo. Malalaman kung ano ba, itutuloy natin or hindi natin itutuloy? Anong gagawin natin sa imports, anong gagawin natin sa players? By next week, siguro may kaunti nang liwanag.”
The spike in COVID-19 cases after the holiday season forced the league to shut down the import-spiced tournament indefinitely, an obvious setback for a league that just a few weeks ago welcomed back its beloved fans live inside the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
But a ray of hope shone on the league a few days ago when the Games and Amusement Board endorsed before the Inter-Agency Task Force the resumption of the PBA games behind what Marcial referred to as a ‘Type C bubble,’ or the home-venue-home setup which was similar to the arrangement done by the league during the early part of the Philippine Cup last year.
Currently, the National Capital Region and nearby provinces are under Alert Level 3, where professional leagues are still allowed to play but under a full bubble.
“Nag-endorse na sila (GAB) ng letter sa IATF na payagan na tayong maglaro,” said Marcial in the weekly Forum presented by San Miguel Corporation, MILO, Amelie Hotel Manila, Braska Restaurant, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, Unilever, and social media and webcast partner Prime Edge.
“From there, tignan natin ano ang gagawin. Pero may kakausapin na tayo and magko-consult na tayo sa iba.”
At the same time, the commissioner is not discounting the possibility of holding games in a bubble outside of Metro Manila like it did in the past two editions of the Philippine Cup where it was held in Clark and Bacolor, Pampanga, respectively.
“Malamang yan pag-uusapan ‘yan next week. Pero ang sinasabi ko nga, kapag nag-bubble ba tayo sa labas (ng Metro Manila), sigurado ba tayong hindi tatamaan? ‘Yun ang isang pinangangamba naming,” Marcial said.
For the meantime, it’s still standard operating procedure for all of the teams, which remain prohibited from doing scrimmages and are only limited in practicing under a small cluster composed of seven persons, namely four players, coach, safety officer, and utility.
Hopefully, once the league gets the go-signal to resume playing, team scrimmages will immediately follow with consent of the local government units where practice facilities of the respective ballclubs are located.