The PBA now looks to resume its stalled 2021 Philippine Cup competitions in the first week of September in Pampanga.
In a report on its official website Friday, the league is simply waiting for the official nod of the province’s local government unit after having satisfied the requirements asked of by Gov. Dennis ‘Delta’ Pineda.
A closed-circuit set-up within the province is what the league plans to do, far from the full bubble it did in Clark for last year’s All-Filipino cage wars.
However, six ball clubs are looking to return to the Quest Hotel, while the other six are looking to book their own places somewhere else.
The teams will be training at the Don Honorio Ventura State University Gym in Bacolor, Pampanga.
Strict health and safety protocols, along with hotel clearances for teams, the league staff, and members of the television crew are among the documents already submitted to the Pampanga LGU, the report added.
The PBA had to look for ways to continue its season as NCR Plus, where Pasig City belongs, got placed by authorities under much stricter lockdown measures due to the more virulent COVID-19 Delta variant.
It initially planned to go to Batangas but quarantine measures were also heightened there, thus the move to Pampanga which is just under the more lenient Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ).
Should things fall into place for the league, then all its member ball clubs could return to practice a week before the eyed Philippine Cup resumption.
“Bibigyan namin ng isang linggong ensayo, then resume na ang laro,” PBA commissioner Willie Marcial told PBA.ph.
