Designated Commissioner Nolan Bernardino of Sports Vision, league chairman Ding Camua and Jean Alabanza of Pharex are keen on rebuilding the league with a six-team field to kick off the resurrection of the 28-year old amateur cage league.

"We have several plans to make this conference viable but at this point, we'd rather wait and see what happens to our end product," said Camua during Tuesday's PSA Forum at Shakey's UN Avenue.

This year's tournament will be managed by Bernardino's Sports Vision Management, the same group that handles the operation of the popular Shakey's V-League. They are hoping to do the same in the PBL.

"Sports Vision is still very confident that it can bring the PBL to the next level of competitive basketball," said Bernardino. "It's a matter of producing good games and great teams and we believe we can provide quality basketball for PBL fans."

League officials see no problem with the newly-launched PBA DLeague which starts on March 15 although they are open to any talks of possible talks of a merger in the future.

"Right now, we're open for any talks about a potential merger but for now we're focused on starting this tournament," said Bernardino.

Five teams have confirmed their participation led by Excelroof, Pharex, Cobra Energy Drink, Ani-FCA and new team CafeFrance. Hobe Bihon initially announced its participation but backed out recently.

Bernardino and Alabanza said that the tournament will be a doubleround elimination format with the top two teams advancing to the semifinals.

The bottom four teams will then square off in the quarterfinals for the last two semis berths.

Jonas Terrado, Manila Bulletin