By: Justin Valencia
Premier Volleyball League (PVL) President Ricky Palou laid out the league’s plans once the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) allowed the sport to resume action.
Speaking on Tiebreaker Vods’ Crossover Podcast presented by SMART Sports Tuesday, Palou bared that when the league receives approval of the authorities, PVL will most likely hold a “closed-door tournament”.
“If we are able to hold a tournament this year, we’ll probably be a closed-door tournament. No audience,” said Palou in the vodcast hosted by journalist Cedelf Tupas.
“I don’t know how teams will react to that, how they will play with no audience watching. But I hope they’ll be mature enough to play and give it their all. After all, this should come out on television.”
Besides this, partner ABS-CBN has been off-air due to its franchise expiring. The amiable executive then revealed that there are other networks offering to air their games.
“Well, we have an agreement with ABS-CBN, and until we hear from them that they can’t cover us, we will keep our commitment to them. We are in constant communication and they’re telling us what’s happening to them, and all the things that they’ve been going through. But they seem to be confident that they’ll be able to get their franchise back. Let’s see what happens,” said Palou.
“There are other networks that come to us. I’d rather not say which networks, but they’re asking us if we want to play in their network. But we’re saying right now we can’t do that because we’re committed to ABS-CBN”
While waiting for training and games to resume, he reiterated the importance of players staying in shape during the course of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and being able to battle once called back.
“It is important that the teams start working out, preparing for the event, if there’s a go-signal for the competition to push through.”
But even without games to offer, PVL still has something brewing for the fans to keep them engaged with the league, despite the pandemic hitting the country for three months already.
“We are thinking of having something like a fans’ day, meet and greet fans day. The fans’ day will be of course online.” added Palou.
The league is looking to hold the meet and greet online fans day sometime in August.
Ever hopeful, Palou wishes for things to go back to normal and resume to our normal lives where fans used to flock to arenas wherever the league goes.
“Eventually, we are hoping things will get normal and everybody can come in and fill up the coliseums.”
