MANILA — The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) has rescheduled the opening of its 45th season a week later than the original date due to the threat of the deadly novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD).
On Monday, the league announced that the opening day of the 2020 season will now be on March 8.
"It's a preventive measure against nCoV. It's now in place and will be implemented. The safety of our fans, teams, players, and officials remain to be our utmost priority," Commissioner Willie Marcial said in a statement.
Despite the rescheduling of the opening day rites, the PBA activities will still take place.
The opening ceremonies will begin with the Leo Awards, where the Most Valuable Player of the past season will be named.
It will then be followed by the formal opening program, and finally, the early Philippine Cup Finals rematch between San Miguel and Magnolia will cap the night.
The opening event will happen at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
Also, the PBA resolved to postpone the opening of the D-League season to March 2.
The PBA D-League was actually scheduled to begin its 2020 cagefest on Thursday.
The PBA and the D-League openings are not the only sporting events that were postponed to another date due to nCoV as the Philippine Sports Commission already postponed the National Sports Summit, the Philippine National Games, and Batang Pinoy. (PNA)
