Same PBA format on tap next season
By Musong R. CastilloPhilippine Daily Inquirer
MACAU—The Philippine Basketball Association will not meddle with a winning formula and gave the coming season’s format just a little tweaking to keep the momentum of a record-breaking year.
There will still be two import-spiced conferences to follow the Philippine Cup with the league retaining the height limits of reinforcements—unlimited for the Commissioner’s Cup and at 6-foot-5 for the Governors’ Cup.
The tweaking will happen in the Governors’ Cup where a more interesting playoff round will be played compared to the last edition which proved to be the most boring part of the entire year.
From six teams advancing to a single round in the semifinals, this season’s Governors’ Cup will have eight squads marching to the playoffs, the first round of which will be the quarterfinals where No. 1 clashes with No. 8; No. 2 with No. 7 and so on, with the higher ranked teams needing to win just once.
Those making it to the Final Four will knock it out a in best-of-five series with the survivors of No. 1 vs No. 8 and No. 4 and No. 5 clashing and the winners in the No. 2 and No. 7 and No. 3 and No. 6 squaring off.
The title series, as usual, will be a race-to-four affair.
“The third conference was the weakest,” commissioner Chito Salud said, adding that the league still broke all existing records as far as gate receipts were concerned.
“We are looking at holding the playoffs (of the Governors’ Cup) everyday as a treat to the fans,” he added.
The league grossed slightly over P114 million last season and could have done a lot better had it not been for several no-bearing games in the semifinals of the Governors’ Cup.
Daily games were first offered during the playoffs of the Philippine Cup won by Talk ‘N Text, and in the Final Four of the Commissioner’s Cup ruled by B-Meg in seven pulsating contests over the Tropang Texters.
Of course, the seven games that were played in the Rain or Shine-B-Meg title series in the Governors’ Cup helped at the tills, but it was clear that the bottom line was affected by the conference’s semifinals.
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