Shakey’s Super League eyes regional tournaments

MANILA, Philippines – The Shakey’s Super League (SSL) could be headed to the provinces in the near future, a league official said on Friday.

The championship league, organized by Athletic Events and Sports Management Inc. (ACES) with its president Dr. Adrian Laurel at the forefront, will be launched on Saturday, July 29, at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

Aside from top teams from the UAAP and the NCAA, there will be two universities each from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao that will participate in the league.

At a press conference on Friday afternoon, Laurel said that they will look into holding regional tournaments in the future.

“We have to look into having regional tournaments as well. In partnership with the [Commission on Higher Education], anything could be possible… It is not too far out there in the future. It is a very, very realistic possibility,” Laureal told reporters.

“This is the first time [provincial teams joined the SSL.] We just want to have teams represent the Visayas, Mindanao, Luzon and the National Capital Region. But we are aiming to have the league in a bigger scope in the future,” he added.

Asked about possibly bringing the SSL to Visayas and Mindanao, Laurel said it was what they initially wanted.

Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc., (SPAVI) president and CEO Vic Gregorio said that they will be supporting the plan to bring the invitational league to the provinces, but he acknowledged that it might be “easier said than done” since they want the competition to be balanced.

“In the future, when there are more capable teams outside Metro Manila, I think we should be open to inviting more teams,” Gregorio said.

“We are just beginning... What I can assure our partners here is, as we see the opportunity to grow and add more teams, we will be open to it. We will be open to supporting it, but we will leave it up to our partners, our organizers to plan on how to execute it so the matches will be exciting to watch,” he added.

“We will support such a move to expand when the opportunity presents itself.”

The invitational league will have four pools.

Pool A will have the DLSU Lady Spikers, the University of Perpetual Help System Lady Altas and the University of Southern Philippines Foundation Panthers.

Pool B will have the UST Golden Tigresses, the De La Salle University-Dasmarinas Lady Patriots and the University of San Jose-Recoletos Lady Jaguars.

The Adamson Lady Falcons, Lyceum of the Philippines University Lady Pirates and Jose Maria College Foundation are in Pool C.

The College of St. Benilde Lady Blazers, Enderun Lady Titans and Notre Dame of Dadiangas University comprise Pool D.

The league will have a single-round robin format, with the top two teams from each pool going to the knockout quarterfinals.

The semifinals will also have a knockout format, while the finals will be a best-of-three affair.