PBA eyes expansion to 14 teams (Sabong News)
Author
Jonas Terrado
Date
MAY 04 2022
Expansion could be in the offing for the PBA as it revealed plans to increase its membership from the current 12-team field to 14.
PBA chairman Ricky Vargas said one company has expressed interest in seriously joining the big league, but added that the league will need to add one more team in order for expansion plans to push through.
“When it was reported to us that there are some interests of new teams, new owners coming in to join the PBA, we said ‘Why don’t we start at expanding to 14?’,” Vargas said during a virtual press conference held Wednesday, May 4.
“The board agreed that we should be on the lookout to expand to 14. There’s interest, there’s one team that’s strongly interested. If we do that, we would like to expand to 14.”
The PBA expanded to 12 teams back in 2014 when it welcomed Blackwater and Kia, now known as Terrafirma. NLEX would have made it 13, but purchased the Air21 franchise instead for a lesser fee.
Previous expansions happened in 2000 with Red Bull, 1999 with Tanduay and 1990 with Pop Cola and Pepsi.
Red Bull, Tanduay and Pop Cola eventually sold their franchises to other companies while TNT continues to carry the lineage of Pepsi based on league records.
Recent times have seen the sale of existing franchises, with the league approving the take over of Converge from Alaska last March.
