THE Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) plans to bring one game of the Philippine Cup finals to the province. Commissioner Chito Salud told the BusinessMirror of that possibility because the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao and the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay are booked during the supposed first week of the finals.
“I was informed Araneta and Cuneta won’t be available and we can’t wait for one week before we play the finals,” said Salud.
“So we might play one finals game out of town. It could be Game One or Game Two,” he added.
Victorias City in Negros Occidental is a cinch to host the finals series opener.
If the plan pushes through, it will be the first in more than a decade that a finals game will be played outside of Metro Manila. According to PBA operations chief Rickie Santos, a finals game was played in the 1998 All-Filipino title series between San Miguel Beer and Alaska in Cebu City. Alaska won that series, 4-3.
An Internet report also stated that a finals game between now-defunct teams Shell and Tanduay was played in Ormoc City in the 1999 All-Filipino conference with the Turbo Chargers winning also 4-3.
Meanwhile, Salud has scrapped the knockout battle for third place starting this season.
“The fans won’t be watching that game. They’ll be interested with the championship series,” said Salud.
The third placed team will now be determined by its ranking after the elimination phase.
Joel Orellana, Business Mirror
