MANILA, Philippines – To return to a full calendar season, maybe including a visiting team in one conference, and to sustain Gilas Pilipinas and its goals.

These are the top priorities on the list as the PBA Board of Governors prepare for a momentous year leading up to the league’s 50th grand season by traveling to Osaka, Japan on Saturday for their annual planning session.

The league management committee members, commissioner Willie Marcial, chairman Ricky Vargas, and the other board members have all confirmed that they would be attending the summit.

Top executives from the league’s broadcast partners, including TV5 president and CEO Guido Zaballero, Cignal TV EVP Sienna Olaso, and MediaQuest top honcho Jane Basas, are also present at the meeting.

PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial announced that the league executives would meet and have a positive outlook for the approaching season. He hoped they would be able to come up with strategies and initiatives to make the PBA more exciting and appealing to basketball fans. The commissioner’s comments suggest that the league will take immediate action to enhance its products.

According to a news source, Commissioner Marcial also stated that the delegation will be finished. He went into further detail about the group’s makeup, which consists of players from many league teams. The members of the delegation are Robert Non from San Miguel Beer, Erick Arejola from NorthPort, Alfrancis Chua from Barangay Ginebra, Ronald Dulatre from NLEX, Rain or Shine’s Mamerto Mondragon, Robert Non from Terrafirma, William Pamintuan from Meralco, Rene Pardo from Magnolia, and Silliman Sy from Blackwater. The vice chairman is Bobby Rosales from Terrafirma. The treasurer is Raymond Zorrilla from Phoenix. This thorough portrayal points to a cooperative strategy for the next talks on the league’s future.

The PBA resumes its regular season on August 18 with the Governors Cup, following a two-conference schedule that was cut to accommodate Gilas’s campaign in many overseas engagements.

The Osaka conference is debating a new tournament structure that prioritizes playoff games.

The plan calls for splitting the 12 teams into two groups and having each group play two rounds. The top four players from each group then move on to the playoffs, which consist of best-of-five matches in the quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship game.

Commissioner Marcial gave the league’s viewpoint on fan preferences, saying that they think fans are more likely to attend postseason games. He mentioned that this system will be trialed by the league in the first conference. Marcial also mentioned that they will evaluate the experiment’s results, indicating a readiness to modify their approach in light of the findings and how well the new format is received.

San Miguel Beer, Barangay Ginebra, Rain or Shine, Phoenix, Blackwater, and NLEX will be in one group, and Meralco, TNT, Magnolia, NorthPort, Terrafirma, and Converge will be in the other, using the “Z format” from the teams’ results from the previous season.

The expected involvement of a Hong Kong club team in the other import-flavored tournament later in the season will add flavor and remind fans of the success of Season 47 Commissioner’s Cup, which was highlighted by the widely watched Ginebra-Bay Area Dragons finals.

A significant item on the agenda for the Osaka meeting is the schedule of events leading up to and during the league’s golden season in 2019.

It is planned that representatives from TV5 and Cignal TV will give updates on the last season and discuss how they want to best serve PBA games to TV viewers. Commissioner Marcial reaffirmed the league’s steadfast commitment to supporting Gilas, which is scheduled to compete in the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers. He underlined that they will continue to support the national team, showing their unwavering commitment to Philippine basketball on the global scene.