PBA could allow vaccinated fans in attendance

FILE – Fans fill up the Araneta Coliseum during a finals game between Barangay Ginebra and Meralco.

MANILA, Philippines — Once deemed as nothing but a dream, fan attendance could return in the PBA for the first time since the pandemic.

PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial said the possibility of having fans in attendance during games could happen as long as those coming into the playing venues are vaccinated.

The PBA is still seeking approval from the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases for its proposed July start for the 2021-22 season, and Marcial said that they’d study the prospect of having fans inside the venues once they get the nod from the government.

“If you’re vaccinated then you may enter the venue, they just have to present their vaccination cards or if we already have those vaccine passports then they can show it,” said Marcial in Filipino. “We’ve never even dreamt of this before, but now I am.”

Fans could enter playing venues at the start of the semifinals of the second conference but Marcial said that any proposal of allowing fans into games still depends on the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

He said that the current landscape in Metro Manila, which is under general community quarantine, has to hold up for them to stage the season and subsequently allow fans.

“Right now, we’re okay,” said Marcial. “But once the cases spike then it’s over. That’s why I always tell the players to be careful.”

As for the players, Marcial said that he’s expecting that nearly all of them would be vaccinated by July.

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