PBA set to welcome Welcoat new member

The Wellbest group will be formally accepted as a new member of the Philippine Basketball Association as the league board of governors meet today at the Red Table restaurant of El Pueblo in Ortigas Center, Pasig.

"Welcoat’s application is up for formal approval and I don’t see any hitches since they have accepted all the terms and conditions imposed on them by the league board," PBA commissioner Noli Eala told The STAR.

Shell and Welcoat have earlier informed the board in a formal letter of the franchise transfer deal between the two parties. They refused to divulge the amount in the deal.

But whatever the amount is, Welcoat, who is co-owned by cousins Raymund Yu and Terry Que, will pay the league an extra amount of P13 million for entry fee and equity contribution.

Welcoat, a multi-titled team in the PBL which counts Don Allado, Yancy de Ocampo and Renren Ritualo among their finest products, makes its debut in the pros at the start of the 2006-07 PBA season in September or October.

The Paintmasters are allowed to automatically elevate only three amateur players to the pros. These could be JR Reyes, Junjun Cabatu and Ronjay Enrile.

Still, Welcoat could well keep the core of its squad intact since Marvin Ortiguerra, Jojo Tangkay, Gilbert Malabanan and Eugene Tan are all PBA free agents.

In the same meeting to be hosted by Red Bull for winning the Fiesta Cup, the board is also to discuss the slight change in the format of the coming All-Filipino tourney.

The nine teams will still play double round robin in the classification phase but with two teams automatically making it to the semifinals and three to the quarterfinal round.

The last slot in the quarterfinals will be disputed by the Nos. 6, 7, 8 and 9 teams in a single round robin in the wildcard plays

The wildcard competitors will carry over their classification-round win-loss records. The team which is able to sweep the wildcard round gains an automatic playoff berth.

"It’s now wildcard in the truest sense of the word,"said Eala.

Eala said they decided to do away with the survival playoff, which they introduced in the Fiesta Cup, because of its poor appeal with the fans.

"It seems the fans really like double-headers so we make the slight change. But we’ll still play practically the same number of games as in the Fiesta Cup," said Eala.