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| (Image Source: ABS-CBN News/Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup) |
Aspiring and established basketball players from Visayas and Mindanao are set to shine on their own anew in hopes of further promoting and growing the sport in southern Philippines as the inaugural edition of the Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup, the first professional basketball league based in the south, will pit six Visayas teams and six Mindanao squads vying for the inaugural championship starting April.
The Visayas leg of the league will begin on April 9 with six Visayan teams clash in a double round robin elimination which will take place in the municipality of Alcantara in the province of Cebu, while six Mindanao teams will likewise play in a double round robin elimination sometime around May with Zamboanga City or Zamboanga Del Norte vying to host the said leg. The Visayas and Mindanao champions would then collide in a best-of-three duel for the elusively inaugural Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup crown. The games will take place inside a bubble within their respective venues as mandated by the Inter-Agency Task Force Against Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID). According to Super Cup CEO Rocky Chan during the TOPS Usapang Sports online forum, all players, game officials and technical staff shall remain in the bubble and will be subjected to strict safety and health protocols for 20 to 25 days.
Chan has three goals for the establishment and the staging of the league: discover new talents from Visayas and Mindanao, generate opportunities for basketball players and game officials, and promote sports tourism in the region. Of course, due to the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, the third goal may be difficult to achieve but Chan is confident that basketball aficionados in the south will patronize the league and eventually support their teams in the long run. On the other hand, when it comes to discovering talents, a participating team shall enlist at least six players born and raised in the municipality or city it is representing. The rules also stated that Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) veterans, Fil-foreigners whose parents are both Filipino citizens and Fil-foreigners carrying Philippine passports are allowed to enter and play in the league.
The Visayas leg of the Super Cup is set to take place in the municipality of Alcantara situated in the southern part of Cebu province while some of the teams shall be billeted near a popular tourist destination within the town. For Super Cup Secretary-General Chelito "Carz" Caro, some of the participating teams are yet to seek support and sponsorship from any local government unit within the region. The inaugural champion of the Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup will receive Php500,000 while the runner-up team will take home Php100,000.
