‘Liga’ merges 2 regional leagues

By Nelson Beltran
Philippine Star
Thursday, October 18, 2007

The National Basketball Conference (NBC) and the Mindanao Visayas Basketball Association (MVBA) have merged to form a super league geared towards boosting grassroots development of the sport.

Leaders of the two cage regional leagues sealed the unification in a meeting also attended by former PBA commissioner Noli Eala the other day at the Traders Hotel in Pasay.

Eala played a key role in the merger and is likely to be the founding commissioner of the new league named “Liga Pilipinas.”

“This is the idea of SBP executive director Patrick Gregorio and I was just asked to help out. I believe there’s room for this league. We don’t want to compete and we want to help grassroots development of Philippine basketball,” said Eala.

“We’re committed to help Philippine basketball and we’re relying on the expertise of Noli in running the league,” said Cebu Councilor Yayoy Alcoseba, representing the MVBA.

“We at NBC surely want a stronger and better league. This is it,” said NBC president Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla.

Liga Pilipinas is envisioned to become a 16-team super regional league which is like the defunct MBA (Metropolitan Basketball Association) playing a home-and-away format.

Halfway through establishing the league, Eala and company are looking to launch it in the first quarter of next year. Games will be played Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays with the league also having a TV component.

“This is not company-based, but commercials are welcome to help our teams representing geographical units,” said Eala.

“We know the follies MBA got into. We don’t want to commit the same mistakes ,” added Eala, explaining they intend to put up a tight salary cap.

The MVBA has an ongoing tourney with six teams competing. The NBC, meanwhile, was supposed to launch a new tournament in February with 16 teams in the field.

“We’ll limit Liga Pilipinas to 16 teams. So some of the existing teams in the NBC and MVBA may merge,” said Eala.