MANILA – The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball Pilipinas (MPBL) is postponing its upcoming season due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
In a memo sent to the teams on Monday night, Commissioner Kenneth Duremdes announced, "The 2020-21 MPBL Season is hereby suspended, and we will start our next season on June 12, 2021."
Supposedly the fourth overall since the league was founded in 2018, the MPBL has already set June 12 as the start of the new season, but the opening was initially postponed due to the pandemic.
While the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) can further relax provinces with at least one MPBL representative each into a modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), the soonest where sporting events can resume, the MPBL did not wait for that to happen and went on with the suspension of the season.
Meanwhile, Duremdes asked the teams to honor their existing contracts with their players by paying them at least 20 percent of the salaries they agreed upon.
Closed-door Lakan Season finale
On the other hand, Duremdes said that he is still keen on finishing the current Lakan Season, which has been halted due to Covid-19.
Before the postponement of games on March 12, the MPBL played Game 2 of the division finals the night before.
Davao Occidental and Makati scored road wins in Lamitan and San Juan Cities, respectively, to send the two best-of-three national semifinals to deciders.
However, Duremdes said that fans cannot be physically present in the rubber matches as both Game 3s are likely to be held behind closed doors in only one arena.
"Based doon sa napagusapan namin, one venue lang (Based on what we discussed, they will be held in only one venue). We will look for a neutral venue," Duremdes said in the ClutchPoint Podcast of veteran sportswriter Rey Joble recently.
The said case will be the same for the best-of-five national finals.
While he did not rule out a possibility of letting fans in although only at a 50 percent arena capacity as what the IATF ruling states for MGCQ, Duremdes assured that the remainder of the Lakan Season will be aired live even if ABS-CBN, the broadcaster of the MPBL, is currently off the air due to the expiry of its broadcast franchise, whose extension is currently being tackled in the Congress.
"As long as it's live, we're OK," he quipped, adding that the games will be streamed live in the MPBL Facebook page with the possibility of also broadcasting it in ABS-CBN's cable television affiliate Liga. (PNA)
