PBA set to resume season in Clark, Pampanga on Oct. 9

PBA Board of Governors’ meeting about the planned restart inside a bubble this October. INQUIRER PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The PBA is back.

The Philippines’ premier basketball league announced on Thursday that it set to resume its season in a bubble set-up in Clark, Pampanga on October 9.

The teams will be scheduled to arrive in the confined environment on Sept. 26 and start team scrimmages the day after.

The league, though, is still waiting for the approval of the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases.

“We looked at all those who are interested to host and we thought the one with a more complete offering from the safety standpoint, protocol control, and nearness to hospitals and our ability to take care of the mental health of our players during the bubble, so we decided to go with Clark,” said PBA Chairman Ricky Vargas in a Zoom press conference.

PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial said there will be two games a day and matches will be held every day once the league resumes.

The Quest Hotel in Mimosa will house the league and each team will have a dedicated bus that will ferry them from the designated lodging facility to Angeles University Foundation where the games will be held.

Marcial said that San Miguel’s opening day win over Magnolia at the start of the Philippine Cup will be carried over into the Bubble.

The league is also looking at the middle of December as the end of the season restart.