AFTER 13 seasons, the Shakey’s V-League will sport a new look this 2017—primarily with a new name: the Philippine V-League (PVL).
But Shakey’s Pizza Parlor—the title sponsor of the league that boasts of the title as “having started” the volleyball craze in the country—won’t be leaving the V-League.
Instead, according to Tournament Commisioner Tony Boy Liao, Shakey’s would remain as presentor or major sponsor, a move that would open doors for a more active promotion of the league organized by Sports Vision.
“Without Shakey’s, we won’t make it this far,” Liao told the BusinessMirror. “We [Sports Vision] and Shakey’s tried it first for one year, and it was very successful. That made Shakey’s happy with our partnership and they trusted us through the years.”
Sports Vision also tinkered with its schedule in its 14th season. The import-laced Reinforced Conference would no longer close the year, but it will kick off the season in March.
The Open Conference will be moved to the midseason tournament to add emphasis to the culminating Collegiate Conference, which will serve as a preseason tournament for teams in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines and National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The men’s tournament, Spikers’ Turf, will adopt a similar format as the women’s meet when it enters its third season in 2017.
“We try to make some changes because if we keep on doing the same thing every year, the fans might get sick and tired about it,” Liao said.
“We’d like to keep the V-League going, in fact, we’d like to strengthen the commercial tournaments,” Sports Vision President Ricky Palou said.
“We’d like to have longer tournaments. We’re also really into how to improve the Spikers’ Turf. We’re studying all this things and I think in the near future, we’ll be able to make it more palatable to the fans,” Palou added.
The V-League’s 13th season experienced success in terms of television viewership after Sports Vision partnered with ABS-CBN Sports + Action Channel 23. The league enjoyed marked improvement in television and live-stream ratings and drew enthusiastic crowds to its venues—PhilSports Arena in Pasig City and Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan City.
The inaugural All-Star, whose proceeds went to victims of Typhoon Lawin, was also a success, according to Palou.
“For us, it’s good because we feel that volleyball fans have accepted us for the last 13 years and we’re still going strong, so we’re very happy about this and it will continue to grow through the years,” Palou said.