PBA to meet with Malacañang to discuss Season 46 plans

FILE – PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial together with PBA Deputy Comm. Eric Castro
during the players’ dialogue about the proposed bubble. PBA IMAGES

The PBA will meet with Malacañang on Wednesday as the league continues to explore its options in hopes of staging its 46th season at the earliest possible time.

PBA commissioner Willie Marcial said he and Barangay Ginebra team governor will sit down and discuss the league’s plans with Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Senator Bong Go.

“We’re going to talk to Sen. Bong Go and we’re going to figure out what to do with the league,” Marcial said in Filipino during Tuesday’s PSA Forum.

Among the league’s options is for games to be played in a closed-circuit set up as well as the possibility for another bubble.

Marcial had already disclosed last week that the PBA has gotten offers from a couple of local government units, including one in Ilocos Norte, to host a bubble.

Marcial hopes the success of last year’s bubble will boost the league’s chances to return to play.

“We’re going to explain that our bubble was a success,” he said.

“I hope we will be rewarded for what we were able to do. We’re going to present to them the protocols and tell them that we’re the first pro basketball league in Asia to hold a bubble.”

The PBA originally targeted an April return but the continuous surge of COVID-19 infections in the country derailed its plans.

Marcial remains optimistic that the PBA will be able to return by late May or June.