Liga Pilipinas new format announced

Teams from other legs will now get a chance to play other teams when Liga Pilipina opens its third conference August 19 at the Cebu Coliseum.

Noli Eala, president and CEO of Liga Pilipinas, announced this new format yesterday during a press conference at Yayoy’s Grill.

The league will retain the pocket tournaments but this time, the top two teams, after 10 legs, gets the incentive to move up to the final round right away while the bottom two teams are automatically eliminated.

For purpose of seeding into the next round, teams will earn points for each leg. The next round will be a knockout phase with the highest placed team going up against the lowest ranked team.

Then there’s the penultimate super leg composed of the top five squads that will play a round robin format. The top four team, that will emerge after this round, play in the Final Four to determine the two teams that will play a championship series.

 “The teams are evenly matched, and the competition is a lot stiffer. It will be a more exciting (third) conference,” Eala said.

So far, 10 teams have signed up for the third conference – four from Luzon and three teams apiece from Visayas and Mindanao. If Manila joins the tournament, it will be the eleventh team in the tournament.

Teams from Luzon include Quezon, Pampanga and Taguig. The Visayan teams are Cebu Mandaue and Bacolod. Misamis Oriental, the defending champion, leads the Mindanao contingent along with General Santos and Zamboanga.

The Mandaue Landmasters is the latest addition to the league in lieu of Ilocos Sur that begged off due to financial difficulties.

Bacolod is the former Iloilo Mang Inasal. The management of the team decided to move the franchise to Bacolod City to gain more support from fans and patrons just like the Negros Slashers of the defunct MBA.

With this new format, Eala hopes that teams will prepare its funds ahead of time. Teams will also be furnished with schedules way ahead of time so there will be no more last minute withdrawals.

Eala said that if the new format will not work then they would revert to the old format for the fourth conference that will take off in January 2010.

The tournament is also considering, for the super leg, a neutral court, but nothing is final as of this writing.

 Coach Yayo Alcoseba of the Cebu City Niños had some concerns about a neutral playing court. He said it would deprive teams of local fan support. The fans, he said, would like to watch its home team play in its home court.

In a separate development, Eala said that negotiations are underway for a possible partnership with the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

The plan is for a PBA team to adopt sister team from Liga.

“This could be mutually beneficial exchange. This is a good development. It is recognition of the league (Liga Pilipinas). It only shows how the games are competitive. This ensures long term viability and sustainability of the league,” Eala added.