BOARD FLIES TO LAS VEGAS, HOLDS MIDSEASON PLANNING TO CHART LEAGUE’S COURSE NEXT SEASON

The entire leadership of the Philippine Basketball Association leaves Friday for Las Vegas in the United States for its annual planning session where the direction of the league for next year will be charted.

Led by chair Ricky Vargas of TNT KaTropa, vice Dickie Bachmann of Alaska and commissioner Willie Marcial, the body will tackle the schedule, format, activities and other things needed to ensure that the PBA stays as the best sports entertainment outfit in the coming year.

The league, for the first time in more than a decade, will end way before Christmas this season and will open next year either late in January or early February with Bachmann the likely successor to Vargas.

The body will go into marathon meetings every day immediately after arriving in Vegas from Los Angeles, its en- try point to the United States.

“This is a big part of the yearly calendar of the board and it is in this gathering that the league decides on practically everything for the coming season,” Marcial told the Inquirer prior to leaving Thursday night, a day ahead of the group.

Sure to be tackled will be the format for next year wherein it will be determined what heights of imports will be used for the last two conferences and what format the most prestigious tournament, the Philippine Cup, will be adopting.

An exploration on how to go digital will also be in the agenda as well as all the CSR projects of the league where it tries to keep taking the games closer to its fans rather than the other way around.

This is the first time since the league went out of the country for its planning session that the affair is held midseason, as the body took advantage of the break in the Governors’ Cup.