EXPANSION TEAM APPLICANTS’ FATE KNOWN APRIL
Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner Chito Salud has set an April deadline to determine whether applicants Ever Bilena Cosmetics Inc., Columbian Autocar Corp. and North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) could be accepted as expansion teams.
Salud said he is now in the process of reviewing the company profiles of Ever Bilena Cosmetics Inc. and Columbian Autocar Corp. while still awaiting the same documents from NLEX, which officially signified its intention to join the league on Wednesday.
“The PBA Office as of yesterday has received three formal letters of intent from – Columbian Autocar Corp., Ever Bilena Cosmetics Inc. and North Luzon Expressway – to join the PBA next season as expansion teams/new franchises,” Salud told sports scribes Thursday after coming out from the three-hour Board of Governors meeting.
Salud said his task is to evaluate and assess the capability of the three applicants and it’s up to the Board to decide whether to accept them as newest members of the pro league or not.
“I’ll start conducting due diligence on these three corporations to determine if they are capable of operating, maintaining and sustaining a competitive PBA team.”
While he is in the process of checking the financial backgrounds of the three applicants, Salud said the PBA will not issue any statement “because it might pre-empt the Board.”
Salud believes his work on the three applicants will be done in time for the regular Board Meeting in April during which he will make his recommendation.
He said ¾ votes of the existing membership is needed for the approval of an expansion team.
Salud said the PBA’s 5-year plan is to accept an expansion team by 2015 and another one in the next two to three years. (DBC)
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