Fans nearly fill out the allowed seating areas at the Big Dome, a welcome surprise for the league that was expecting a much lower Wednesday turnout. —PHOTOS COURTESY OF PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines—The PBA made a decision to postpone the going 2021-22 Governors’ Cup indefinitely amid the rapid spread of COVID-19 anew in the country.
The league initially stopped the games, which were set to resume January 5, just for the week but extended the delay further as it was left with no choice after the Philippines, especially Metro Manila, recorded massive spikes in the number of infections after the holiday season.
“It’s always a painful decision to postpone PBA games but at this time, when the infection rate is rising, the risk of continuing with the games for our players, officials and staff far outweigh our financial losses and teams’ increased cost,” said PBA chairman Ricky Varga in a statement Thursday.
The league only recently welcomed fans back to the stadiums beginning games at Smart Araneta Coliseum and had been planning on returning to Mall of Asia Arena this January.
The national government put Metro Manila and the neighboring provinces under Alert Level 3 due to the rise of infections, which have reached 10,626 on Wednesday.
Team scrimmages are also postponed as the government allows them to be held in Level 2 areas.
Team practices are also reduced to individual workouts with only four players allowed to train with one coach, one safety officer, and one staff at a time.
“The PBA will be back. It’s just a temporary pause to allow for healing. This way we can assure our fan the quality of games will be sustained,” said Vargas.