The NCAA is mulling the possibility of moving to a bigger venue as it eyes to open the games to more spectators.
The league management committee met Wednesday night and decided to move the supposed game between rivals the Letran Knights and the San Beda Red Lions from April 12 to April 29, the last day of the eliminations.
“We recognize the rivalry, and also it’s been a tradition that the two schools - because of that rivalry - clash during the last day of elimination round,” said NCAA Mancom chairman Dax Castellano of host College of St. Benilde in an announcement.
As a result, the Holy Tuesday schedule will only feature one game between the Jose Rizal University Heavy Bombers and the CSB Blazers while the April 29 playdate will also have the Perpetual-Emilio Aguinaldo College match which will serve as an appetizer to the titanic clash between the Knights and the Red Lions.
The game between the protagonists of the Season 95 Finals is also expected to attract a good size of crowd especially with the history between the two proud schools which prompted the league to entertain the idea of finally opening the games to the fans.
“We’ll explore that possibility of increasing our guest list.” - Dax
So far, a few members of the media and school officials are allowed to watch at the La Salle Green Hills Gym in Mandaluyong which will remain as the venue of the games until the NCAA mancom release a new decision.
Prior to the start of the season, Castellano revealed that they are looking at Mall of Asia Arena, Smart Araneta Coliseum and FilOil Flying V Arena as possible venues if the league decided to open its doors to the fans. The FilOil Arena in San Juan has been the home of the NCAA regular season games before the pandemic.