Overtime

PBA sets to start 45th season in a bubble at Clark Pampanga

The Philippines Basketball Association (PBA) has announced yesterday, September 17, that it would hold the 45th season in a bubble set-up at Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone in Pampanga starting October 9.

/ 18 September 2020

The league, though, is still waiting for the approval of the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases.

“We looked at all those who are interested to host and we thought the one with a more complete offering from the safety standpoint, protocol control, and nearness to hospitals and our ability to take care of the mental health of our players during the bubble, so we decided to go with Clark,” said PBA Chairman Ricky Vargas in a Zoom press conference.

PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial said there will be two games a day and matches will be held every day once the league resumes.

The games are to be held at the Angeles University Foundation Gym said Vargas as travel time from Clark to AUF is only 10 minutes. 

“One of the locations for practices would be a makeshift tent. The main game would probably be at the Angeles University Gym which is fully air-conditioned,” Vargas said. 

Players, coaches, league officials, staff, and selected media members will be housed at the Quest Hotel and each team will have buses to transport them to the facilities of AUF gymnasium. 

Marcial stressed that the league will abide by the government’s protocols, thus everyone inside the bubble is not allowed to leave once the season has started. 

The teams will be scheduled to arrive in the confined environment on September 26 and start team scrimmages the day after as the compressed season will end in the middle of December. 

“If everything pushes through by September 26, we should be able to proceed to our bubble area and start the scrimmages by the 27th and the games by the 9th of October,” Vargas said.