Countrywide Basketball League
| Sport | Basketball |
|---|---|
| President | Rey Gamboa |
| Commissioner | Pablo De Borja |
| No. of teams | 6 |
| Country |
 Philippines |
| Continent | FIBA Asia (Asia) |
The Countrywide Basketball League or the CWBL was an upcoming regional basketball league in the Philippines.[1]
On July 2016, it was announced that the planned first conference of the Countrywide Basketball League, which was tentatively set on August 7, 2016, has been cancelled after broadcast partner ABS-CBN's withdrawal of support, due to financial difficulties, according to CWBL vice president of operations Joe Lipa.[2][3]
Season format
The basketball league was planned to be patterned after the NBA's model of having an East and West conferences or PBA's tournament based on a creation adapted for regional semi-commercial professional basketball league formatted like the now defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA), Liga Pilipinas (LP) and Philippine Basketball League (PBL). The league in any seasons was planned to have three conferences and a "National finals" to determine the overall the National champion. For its supposed inaugural conference in 2016, CWBL had limited the number of participants to six teams maximum, was supposed to play in a league with a double-round robin elimination format.
Teams
The following teams were expected to participate in the supposed inaugural 2016 season before the league was cancelled.
| Countrywide Basketball League teams | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | City/Province | Arena | Capacity | Head coach |
| Power Serve-Anak ng Laguna | Laguna | |||
| Cebu Landmasters | Bogo, Cebu | Bogo City Sports Complex | 3,500 | Jun Tan |
| Flying V-Davao Thunders | Davao City | USEP Gymnasium | 4,000 | Aric Del Rosario |
| M. Lhuillier-Cebu | Cebu City | Cebu Coliseum | 5,000 | Yayoy Alcoseba |
| MP Warriors-GenSan | General Santos City | Kenneth Duremdes | ||
| Mighty Sports-Bulacan | Bulacan | Malolos Convention Center | 5,000 | Mike Fermin |
Rules
The CWBL was meant to prioritize college graduates and tournament regulations stated that players were only eligible to participate until they reach the age of 32. Foreign players are ineligible although Filipino-Foreigners are allowed to participate if they fulfill a set of given documents.
Media coverage
Before the league's cancellation, CWBL chairman, Rey Gamboa, stated that the coverage of the games was to focus on localities. The league was supposed to be exclusively covered by ABS-CBN Sports to aired live coverage on ABS-CBN Sports+Action and its regional counterparts with telecast nationwide and all ABS-CBN Regional Network Group. ABS-CBN Later withdrew support which also led to the league's cancellation
Playing venues
Most of the games of the CWBL were planned to be played in the provinces.
References
- ↑ Naredo, Camille (July 20, 2015). "New basketball league to unfold in 2016". ABS-CBNnews.com. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- ↑ Panerio, Jonas N. (July 8, 2016). "CWBL CANCELLED". Cebu Daily News. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
- ↑ Badua, Snow (July 9, 2016). "Regional league CWBL forced to cancel opening after pullout of TV coveror ABS-CBN". Sports Interactive Network Philippines. Retrieved July 9, 2016.