MANILA — The PBA is open to adding more squads to its current list of 12 teams that are playing in the 48-year-old league.

League commissioner Willie Marcial revealed on Tuesday that the PBA is constantly receiving inquiries from some companies who plan to form their own teams.

“Meron,” Marcial said at the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum.

“Lagi naman, meron talagang lumalapit satin. Ngayon, may dalawang seryoso pero hindi ko alam kung tutuloy na dere-deretso kaya ayaw ko rin muna banggitin,” he continued.

At present, the league has San Miguel Beer, Barangay Ginebra, Magnolia, Northport, Terrafirma, TNT, Meralco, NLEX, Blackwater, Rain Or Shine, Converge, and Phoenix as its teams, with the Chun Yu Bay Area Dragons being the 13th one albeit only joining one conference in a season as a guest team.

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Marcial shared that the number of teams can be extended, but another thing that needs to be sorted out is their broadcast partner’s available days to air the league.

“Pwede tayong mag 14, 16, basta umokay yung television na hindi lang [four] times a week,” he said.

In recent seasons, the league has its games televised on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, with two games being shown on each day.

“Pag-umokay ang television pwede tayong 14 to 16.”

The last time the league expanded was in 2014, with the number of teams went up from 10 to 12 when they welcomed KIA (now Terrafirma) and Blackwater.

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The NLEX franchise also joined the league in that year but opted to enter by acquiring the now-defunct Air 21 franchise.

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Converge was the last new team who entered the league when they acquired the franchise of the Alaska Aces in 2022.

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