Venus, Gary V to spice up PBA opening

PBA commissioner Chito Salud is making sure everything will unfold like clockwork in the league’s 36th season opening at the Araneta Coliseum on Oct. 3. He will leave nothing to chance because he’s determined to succeed in his new job and besides, his father Rudy is expected to be at courtside.
The league’s surviving former commissioners will be among the special guests at the affair. Salud’s father served as the PBA’s third commissioner after the late Leo Prieto and the late Mariano Yenko. Other commissioners invited to grace the inaugurals are Rey Marquez, Noli Eala and Sonny Barrios. Jun Bernardino, who served from 1993 to 2002, has passed away.
President Aquino has been invited as the guest of honor with former Pasig Mayor Mario Raymundo closely monitoring if the Chief Executive will be free to attend.
Only one game is scheduled on the first day of the All-Filipino conference, one of three tournaments set this coming season. It will be Barangay Ginebra versus the Meralco Bolts.

Miss Philippines-Universe Venus Raj will host “major, major” pre-game festivities with Gary Valenciano as the featured performer.
“Our opening program will be very different from anything we’ve witnessed in the past,” said Salud. “We’re presenting a high-tech light-and-sound show. It will be something to remember.”
Salud has big shoes to fill because his predecessors left very distinct footprints in the league’s storied history. But from all indications, the 48-year-old lawyer will be up to the task.
Fans can expect a more vibrant PBA with Salud’s ascendancy. He has plans to tweak the rules to assure fans of a free-flowing game and bring out the best of every player.

Salud will submit his plans for approval to the PBA Board of Governors during the annual planning session in Bangkok on Sept. 19-21. To be discussed in the agenda are the PBA Development League, rule changes, tournament formats with height limits for imports, out-of-town games, the financial report and business matters.
Since last week, Salud has been busy conferring with PBA team managers, coaches, referees, beat reporters and Solar TV on what to expect from the league and what is expected from them this season.

“I’ve sat down with Solar TV and they’ve agreed to enhance the sights and sounds of the game with more strategically-placed microphones and two more cameras to make a total of eight,” said Salud. “We talked about clarity and brightness and bringing the emotion of the game from the stands and from the court into the TV set. We’ve got the best commentators in the country so our goal is to enhance the coverage with more graphics, more camera angles and more emotion.”

Salud said the league is bringing back the three-conference schedule, which was abandoned in 2005-06. “It will mean more playoff games and more chances for the top teams to play which is what the fans want,” he explained.

“We’re motivating every team to play hard and win because in the first conference, we’ll strike out the last two after the inter-intra eliminations and in the second and third, the last four after the single round eliminations. We’re striving for parity of teams. We want our games to be unpredictable like the college game where anything can happen.”

In the All-Filipino Cup, the 10 teams will be split into two groups.The first group will be made up of Alaska, Ginebra, Talk ‘N’ Text, Meralco and Air 21. The second will be composed of B-Meg, San Miguel Beer, Rain Or Shine, Powerade and Barako Bull. Under the inter-intra scheme, teams will play groupmates once and others twice in the eliminations. The last two finishers bow out at the end of the eliminations (where each team plays 14 games). In the quarterfinals, No. 3 faces No. 6 and No. 4 battles No. 5 in separate best-of-three series while No. 1 carries a twice-to-beat advantage in a playoff against No. 8 and No. 2 a similar edge against No. 7. The survivors advance to the best-of-7 semifinals and the winners move on to the best-of-7 finals.