THE Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) will resume its 46th season in Bacolor next month, according to Commissioner Willie Marcial.
Marcial also expressed confidence that the league will complete a two-conference season despite the disruption in the Philippine Cup because of the surge of Covid-19 infections.
“Once we resume by September without disruption, I think we can achieve our goal of having two conferences this season,” Marcial told BusinessMirror on Thursday.
He also announced that Pampanga Governor Dennis Pineda approved of the league’s resumption at the Don Honorio Ventura State University gym under a semi-bubble environment.
“We are already allowed to play by the local government units [Bacolor and Pampanga] and the university,” Marcial said. “University officials already agreed in principle for the use of their gym.”
Marcial, however, didn’t mention a date for the season’s resumption, but said that he gave the teams a week to practice.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases allowed the PBA to open its 46th season last July 16 in areas under general community quarantine (GCQ) or modified GCQ.
But the games at the Ynares Arena in Pasig City were suspended last August 6 because of the surge in virus infections in Metro Manila and neighboring areas.
The 12 teams, Marcial said, will be billeted in different hotels in Pampanga during the conference. The league will return to its original venue once Metro Manila reverts to GCQ.
“If everything goes okay in the last week of September or by October, we will go back to Manila,” he said.
Marcial also said that almost all of the 350 members of the PBA family are fully-vaccinated.