Cignal, interrupted
In the midst of unprecedented popularity, the Premier Volleyball League is not alarmed—though saddened—that a third team has filed for a leave of absence in the last calendar year.
The league also knows that all of that has happened because of economics, and not because those three teams—the last of which being original member Cignal on Tuesday—are dissatisfied at how the PVL is being run.
Just days removed from finishing a fighting second to Creamline in the All-Filipino Conference Finals, Super Spikers’ management informed the league on Tuesday that they are going on leave, joining Chery Tiggo and Petro Gazz as high-profile teams taking a break at the height of the PVL’s popularity.
Ticklish issue
“It all boils down to economics all over the world,” Rhea Navarro, a founding member of Sports Vision Management Group that runs the PVL, told the Inquirer over the phone. “We are saddened, but not alarmed because we know those teams are not dissatisfied at how the league is being run.”
A ticklish issue that has immediately surfaced is how the Cignal players will be distributed among the nine remaining teams, with the PVL, still in its infancy as a pro league, having no clear-cut rule for dispersal drafts.
Stars like Vanie Gandler, who just won the AFC MVP, Erika Santos, and setter Gel Cayuna will be big fish in the free agent market and could make any team they join individually—or together—into instant title contenders.
Cignal still has a sister team remaining in the league in PLDT, and because Cignal has left, Super Spiker players have the freedom to negotiate and join any team they wish, like what happened when the core of the Petro Gazz Angels joined Nxled.
The Crossovers and the Angels were the first to leave, but before them, the F2 Logistics disbanded more than a year ago, taking the total to four teams that felt the economic crunch.
Navarro, a former sportswriter who now handles the media affairs of the PVL, recalled how the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA)—which she covered in its early years—thrived when there were only eight member teams.
The PVL leadership, Navarro said, is also open to admitting new members provided they can convince the league that they are in it for the long haul.
“It’s about us confirming their capability to maintain a team and their commitment to long-haul participation,” Navarro said.
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