The East Asia Super League formally announced on Tuesday that its house team Bay Area Dragons has been disbanded after just one season.
In a statement, the league disclosed that managing both a tournament and a team has proven challenging and is not within the company’s core competencies.
After consulting with officials from the PBA, the B.League, the KBL, and the P.League+, it was concluded that having a team owned by the league creates a conflict of interest.
As a result, the EASL has decided to cease the operations of Bay Area.
“We thank the Bay Area Dragons and the Philippine Basketball Association, and its leadership, for an excellent season during their 2022-23 campaign, which included reaching the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup Finals game seven, played in front of a record-breaking 55,000 people, and taking third place in the first season of EASL at EASL Champions Week,” said Bayer.
(c) New Taipei Kings
In light of this development, the league also announced that last season’s P.League+ runner-up, New Taipei, will complete the roster for the upcoming EASL tournament.
“The New Taipei Kings are focused on building a tradition of excellence and part of that is playing in the toughest competition available to us. We’re very excited to join EASL in the upcoming season to face off against the top professional teams from around the region,” said New Taipei team owner Phil Chen.
The Kings will be grouped with Seoul SK, Ryukyu, and Ginebra for the tournament, which is set to commence on October 11.
