San Miguel-Magnolia showdown kicks off new PBA season

San Miguel vs Magnolia. INQUIRER PHOTO/TRISTAN TAMAYO

MANILA, Philippines — Heavyweights San Miguel Beer and Magnolia are set for an early finals rematch on March 1 when the 45th Season of the PBA tips off at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Beermen and the Hotshots meet in the only game on opening day of the 2020 Philippine Cup.

Last season, San Miguel Beer outlasted Magnolia in seven games behind Finals MVP June Mar Fajardo.

The Beermen will be gunning for their sixth straight all-Filipino championship but their bid to extend their reign won’t be easy with the rest of the league retooling their roster.

The Philippine Cup will last not later than June 17 and will be followed by the Commissioner’s Cup on June 24 to Oct. 4 and the season-ending Governors’ Cup, which runs from Oct. 11 to Jan. 29.

This year’s playing calendar is patterned from last year’s, with the PBA continuing to show its all-out support for Gilas Pilipinas, which begins its campaign in the 2021 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers later this month.

“We’re trying to move from a calendar year to a flexible year,” said PBA chair Ricky Vargas during the Board’s planning session in Milan, Italy that concluded on Friday in a story on the PBA website.

“We’re going to extend to January 2021 because this (calendar) will accommodate the window of qualifiers for the FIBA Asia Cup. So we organized it on that basis.”

The All-Star game will take place in Passi, Iloilo on July 10 to 12.

The league also intends to play more provincial games and another outside the country this season following the turnout of last year’s doubleheader in Dubai.

Five Philippine Cup games are already scheduled to be played in Bataan, Cagayan de Oro, Panabo, Dipolog and Iloilo.