PVL looking to hold games without fans

MANILA, Philippines—The Premier Volleyball League is looking at a future of playing games without any spectators amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sports Vision president Ricky Palou said that many of their plans for the coming season, which was supposed to start May 30, have been put on hold because of the virus but they are looking for alternatives once the situation gets better.

“Hopefully, we’d be able to do something before the end of the year,” said Palou told the Crossover podcast. “No audience. I don’t know how the 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. Because after all, we’ll probably come out on television. So we’re hoping that they’ll play well.”

Sports Vision is looking at protocols for the teams when group practices get a green light under the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases’ guidelines.

Team sports are still banned under the current lockdown since the said activities will be violating social distancing protocols.

“I’m preparing something for all the teams to look at, review, and come back with hopefully some feedback. We’d get all of this together, we’ll make a formal request,” said Palou.

To compensate for the games getting played behind closed doors, Palou said they’re organizing an online meet-and-greet between the players and the fans.

The PVL usually hold a fans’ day before the start of the new season with players from all of the teams present.

Palou said the meet-and-greet will be done sometime in August.