D-League powerhouse NLEX applies for PBA

By: Celest R. Flores - 10 years ago

Photo by Celest Flores/ INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Another team has expressed its interest of joining the PBA.

NLEX, one of the powerhouse-champion squads in the PBA D-League, is making a jump to the big league as it submitted a letter of intent to the PBA on Wednesday.

“The PBA Office as of yesterday [Wednesday] has received three formal letters of intent to join the PBA next season as expansion teams/new franchise,” PBA Commissioner Chito Salud said.

Last week, Everbilena Cosmetics Inc., which owns D-League champion Blackwater, and Columbian Autocar Corp. (Kia Motors) formally tendered their application.

Salud met with the PBA Board of Governors on Thursday at the league’s office to discuss the league’s expansion.

Salud said he is now in the process of reviewing the company profiles of Everbilena and Kia Motors while still awaiting the same documents from NLEX.

Salud’s office will make his recommendation to the PBA board based on his assessment of the applicants.

“I’ll start conducting due diligence on these three corporations to determine if they are capable of operating, maintaining and sustaining a competitive PBA team,” Salud said.

Salud said that he believes his work on the applicants will be done in time for regular board meeting scheduled in April.

The application is subject to three-fourth (3/4) approval from the Board of Governors.

Originally posted at 8:14 pm | Thursday, March 6, 2014