Eala to push for reforms, major face-lift

The Philippine Basketball Association, the country’s No. 1 sports entertainment, will hopefully evolve into an entirely new league with an expanded one-tournament season and open to foreign players, specifically Asians, in the near future.

That’s the vision of incoming PBA commissioner Noli Eala for the league in answer to the board of governors’ bid to re-launch the PBA and heighten the interest of basketball fans in Asia’s first play-for-pay loop.

"The feeling I got when I talked to team owners was to have no more of the same. We have to do something different huag lang masyadong radical dahil baka magulat ang mga tao," said Eala in a talk with sportswriters after his appointment as the successor of the outgoing commissioner Jun Bernardino.

"The board is open to change, so it’s time to strike," added Eala, stressing he’ll push for reforms to make the league up to challenges of the changing times.

Eala said his immediate concerns are the league’s day-to-day operation, the status of the TV rights granted to NBN-4/IBC-13 and its marketing.

Eala was to meet with the league executive board yesterday and expound on his plan to re-package the league.

If his plan is approved by the board, the PBA, under his watch, will be reduced to a two-tournament league next year before eventually becoming an expanded one tourney probably in 2006 or 2007.

"We’d seen the Ateneo-La Salle games this year. Putok ang UAAP pero naglaro sa PBL at sa Champions League, hindi ganoon kalaki ang interest ng tao. Alam na ng tao kung alin ang panonoorin nila," said Eala.

In the prolonged one tourney, Eala envisioned the PBA expanding to 14 teams playing at least 32 games each in the eliminations.

Allowing the entry of a minimum number of foreign players in the expanded league is Eala’s idea of eventually opening the PBA to globalization.

"PBA is basically entertainment and marketing, eh ang ibang PBA products may market din sa abroad. Do you know that the Dallas-Denver game attracted the biggest number of crowd in the NBA last season? That’s because of the Chinese cheering for Wang Zhizhi and Bateer Menk," said Eala.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola hopes Jeffrey Cariaso would respond to acupuncture treatment on his injured groin to be able to boost the Tigers’ bid against San Miguel Beer in Game Two of the Selecta PBA All-Filipino Cup Final Four.

A red-hot Red Bull team likewise tries to end Alaska Milk’s bid in their own side of the semis in the 7:30 p.m. mainer.