PVL mulls site options for next meet

MANILA, Philippines — It won’t be until possibly in February next year when the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) starts another conference but PVL president Ricky Palou said he’s hoping to enlist up to 12 teams, including comebacking F2 Logistics, with site options in Clark, Subic, Tagaytay, Batangas, Ilocos Norte and Metro Manila depending on IATF guidelines.

Palou shared the PVL’s experience and best practices in the Open conference that was held from last July 17 to Aug. 13 in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte during the third GAB Professional Sports Summit in a virtual conference attended by over 250 participants last Wednesday. GAB chairman Baham Mitra said PVL’s successful staging of the bubble tournament is a model template for other sports organizations to follow.

Palou disclosed that PVL put up a P37 million budget for the Ilocos Norte event but because the playing schedule was compressed, the actual amount spent was down to P31 million. He said 16 tourist buses were mobilized to ferry the 10 teams and crew from Manila to Ilocos Norte with two hotels booked to accommodate the entire group for almost a month. Palou said without Ilocos Norte Gov. Matthew Manotoc’s support, PVL wouldn’t have been able to pull it off.

“Planning to do a bubble was the hardest part because it involved making sure we set up the proper safety protocols,” said Palou. “Our priority was to keep everyone safe and healthy according to the guidelines of the IATF, DOH and GAB. At first, we planned to hold the games in Laoag and practice in Bacarra. But when Laoag was placed under MECQ, we moved all the games to Bacarra which was under GCQ. That meant doing practice and playing tournament games in one venue. We consulted the teams because the adjustment limited practice time to only one hour each team. Everyone was OK with it.”

That wasn’t the only adjustment PVL made. Midway the competition, it was announced that the whole province of Ilocos Norte would be under MECQ, including Bacarra, starting Aug. 16. “We studied the balance of our schedule and we figured out that if we removed the break days in between games, we would be able to finish the finals before Aug. 16,” said Palou. “It was a big sacrifice for the players. We called for a meeting and discussed the options – either pack up and go home or continue playing with a compressed schedule. Everyone decided to play on.”

As it turned out, the finals ended on Aug. 13 and PVL finished the tournament just in time. “We’re grateful for the cooperation of everyone,” he said. “Even GAB chairman Baham took a land trip to Ilocos and stayed to watch games. The three GAB staffers (Reginald Capareda, Daniel Badajos, Ronnie Flores) assigned to us were of great help. We used to think GAB was like a policeman looking for violations to order fines and suspensions. Now that we’re a pro league, we realized GAB is with us to assist and help us succeed.”

Palou said PVL has a cap of 12 teams. “That’s the ideal number to give every team the proper exposure,” he said. “For the men’s side, right now, we have only four possible teams. We’ll check if Army, Navy and Air Force can join as guests with GAB’s Special Guest License (SGL). We can also find out if NCAA teams would like to participate since NCAA allows SGLs. Nothing is final on the men’s league at the moment.”