How much will the PVL bubble really cost? Not as much as PBA’s

Mounting the Premier Volleyball League’s bubble will not cost as much as the P65-million shelled out by the Philippine Basketball Association during the 2020 PBA Philippine Cup.

It won’t even be close.

League president Ricky Palou announced on Tuesday morning during the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum that their partner Cignal will be in charge of the majority of the expenses the league will incur for the 2021 Open Conference, slated to begin late May.

“Revenues and sponsorships will belong to Cignal. We will rely on them to fund this tournament,” he told the session which is powered by SMART, with Upstream Media as official webcast partner, and presented by San Miguel Corp., Go For Gold, MILO, Amelie Hotel Manila, Braska Restaurant, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).

So how much will it be?

First off, Palou shared that the PVL contingent will be at most 325 people, consisting of players and team officials from Creamline, Petro Gazz, Perlas, Army, Choco Mucho, BaliPure, UAC, PLDT, Cignal, Chery Tiggo, Sta. Lucia, and F2 Logistics; television crew, and league and table officials.

So for testing, the league has allocated P10-million. Salaries of the league and table officials have a budget of P5-million.

Then there’s the video challenge system, which is now set at almost P2-million.

Finally, how much is the rent in Inspire Sports Academy?

According to Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 officials, the 2020 President’s Cup spent at most P7-million during their 15-day stay in the state-of-the-art venue. This included food and, of course, the lodging for their almost 200-man contingent.

Based on their computation, a 60-day stay in Inspire for 320 people is estimated to cost around P29- to P30-million.

All in all, the total cost of the Open Conference will be at most P47-million — still a substantial amount, but far less than the PBA’s.

To make the most of their stay in Inspire, Palou revealed that there will be two games a day from Tuesday to Sunday. Monday will be rest days.

As for the format?

“We are looking at a single round robin tournament, or [to] divide those teams into two groups of six. It will take about two months with single round robin,” said Palou.

“If we put them inside the bubble for so long, the doctors said it will be hard especially mentally.”