PVL president Ricky Palou confirmed the development on TV5’s Power and Play with Noli Eala on Saturday that the league will conduct the games in a “semi-bubble” set-up, with teams following a mandatory home-venue-home format to ensure the safety of everyone involved.

Nine teams will take action in the forthcoming Open Conference, with the league implementing a pool format.

Teams included in Pool A are F2 Logistics, Chery Tiggo, Choco Mucho, Army, and Cignal while Creamline, Petro Gazz, PLDT, and BaliPure will play in Pool B.

The top four clubs in Pool A will join the Pool B squads in the quarterfinals, where the top two seeds will have a twice-to-beat advantage.

“Tuloy na tuloy na,” Palou said in assurance of the start of the new PVL season.

The original plan for the new season was to hold the games in its usual venue, the FilOil Flying V Centre in San Juan, however, the league can’t use the arena yet as it is still being used as a vaccination center.

“Right now kasi gusto namin sana sa San Juan Arena, San Juan FilOil Arena maglaro, kasi ‘yun ang magandang coliseum for spectators. It’s big enough, hindi masyado nakakalapit sa mga player ‘yung mga tao,” said Palou.

“Kaya lang, hindi pa available because they’re using it as a vaccine center. So in the meantime, dito kami sa Paco Arena. Medyo maliit ‘yung Paco Arena,” he explained.

“Siguro kung may mga spectators doon, mga 300, punong-puno na ‘yun. So, we decided na wala munang spectators until we are able to transfer to San Juan FilOil Arena.”

The Open Conference is one and the first of three conferences that the league eyes to conduct in 2022.

The PVL is also working on an Invitational Conference later this year with two foreign teams expected to join, as well as the Reinforced Conference in October where each team will feature two foreign players.