Superliga planning to invite PVL teams to 'bubble' beach volley tourney

MANILA, Philippines -- Pending the Inter-Agency Task Force go-signal, the Philippine Superliga (PSL) eyes to allow several set of squads from its eight member clubs along with interested teams from the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) for its planned bubble beach volleyball tournament in Subic this November.

Each PSL club would be open to field 2-3 teams while any PVL team would also be welcome to join the three-day weekend tourney by the third week of November in the Zambales hub under a more relaxed modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).

“We have invited the PVL. We’re all in this together so this is the time to really help each other in trying to bring back sports. This is the time that we should make sure the players get a platform to be out there and perform,” said PSL president Dr. Ian Laurel in Noli Eala’s Power and Play radio program Saturday.

“This is also for the fans. As PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial said, sports resumption will serve as inspiration for the people knowing we can have some sort of normalcy back.”

Taking a cue from the model PBA bubble in Clark, Pampanga, the PSL initially bat for an indoor tourney but restrictions on non-pro leagues led to the shorter and more manageable beach volleyball tourney plan.

“This concept followed what PBA has presented. This is more plausible. It’s easier to manage compared to an indoor event that would run for about 2-3 months," he added. 
”We also don’t want zero tournament for PSL this 2020. We want to have strong launch point for 2021. We hope that we can restart as soon as possible"

The PSL first presented the bubble beach volleyball request to the Joint Administrative Order (JAO) group of Philippine Sports Commission, Games and Amusements Board, and Department of Health last week, which welcomed it with positivity.

It’s now on the IATF court to decide on PSL’s restart bid after a long hiatus since the cancellation of its just-opened 2020 Grand Prix last March.