PBA season unwraps ‘new package’

By Nelson Beltran
Philippine Star
Tuesday, October 9, 2007

With a season coming on the heels of a failed bid in the FIBA-Asia Championship, the Philippine Basketball Association is banking on an improved product to keep the league exciting when it opens shop Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.

Traditionally, the PBA suffers a dip in both live gate attendance and TV viewership every time its players fail to deliver in an international competition.

League officials, however, are hopeful they can weather the ninth-place finish of the RP team in last August’s Tokushima joust with a package that could sustain league gains the last two years.

“We have exhausted every possible idea to come up with a total winning package,” said PBA interim commissioner Renauld “Sonny” Barrios during yesterday’s press conference launching the season.

Board chairman Tony Chua said the coming year would easily be a big draw due to the parity of the teams coupled with marketing thrusts designed to lure the fans.

“Games would be unpredictable and exciting. The return of the national players and arrival of young, talented amateur recruits have more or less balanced the rosters of the teams,” said Chua.

The league chairman and the acting commissioner promised a spectacle Sunday, ushering in the season which will last till July next year.

Twenty-two new faces and 15 old names in new uniforms join the parade during the opening ceremonies to be hosted by wacky duo Jose Manalo and Wally Bayola. Kyla, who sang the national anthem in the Pacquiao-Barrera fight in Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas Sunday, will reprise the number in the PBA rites.

Magnolia (formerly San Miguel Beer) and Air21 clash in the opening game, kicking off the Smart Philippine Cup where Barangay Ginebra is the defending champion.

The Beverage Masters and the Talk n Text Phone Pals are the consensus favorites while the Alaska Milk Aces, the Purefoods Giants and the Ginebra are the dark horses. The Welcoat Dragons and the Sta. Lucia Realtors are tipped to improve on their previous finish.

The 10 teams play two rounds in the elimination phase with the top two teams automatically making the semis and the next three gaining early passage to the quarterfinals. The worst team is eliminated while the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth teams figure in the wildcard playoffs.

The last two finishers in the tourney will be given a special handicap in the import-laced Fiesta Conference, allowed to field two imports each.

The annual All-Star Week and a short invitational tourney are also set in the season where the league’s main thrust is to conform all its campaigns with the season’s theme “Laban ng mga Bida.”

“Expect the players to play with their hearts out in each game. The refs will avoid unnecessary calls. The theme is laban, so it would be action-filled season,” said Barrios.

Meanwhile, Purefoods and Red Bull finally reached a deal yesterday paving the way for Brandon Cablay’s transfer to the Giants. The Bulls acquired a draft pick in the trade.