NBL UPDATE: BOWLING INN’S NBL’S HOME

The National Billiards League (NBL) has found a home for its much-awaited inaugural season next year.

The AMF-Puyat Bowling Inn and Billiards in Malate, Manila is undergoing a P2.5-million renovation to make it a state-of-the-art venue for this world’s first season-long professional league.

Located in Taft Avenue, between Quirino and Remedios, Bowling Inn, as it is popularly known, will have what would be astonishing and lively set-up as the proponents of the league want it to be more than just a plain billiards competition, but also to provide fascinating entertainment.

“The NBL is definitely a go,” said Philippine pool godfather Aristeo “Putch” Puyat. “We may have failed to meet our initial target date to start it because we want to make sure that we’ll cover all the bases before we launch it, but there’s really no turning back.”

“In fact, all of us, especially the players, are all excited to begin this new era of Philippine billiards,” added the Puyat Sports top honcho.

The NBL is a brainchild of Puyat, which he conceive almost a decade ago, and is now nearing realization thanks to the support of fellow billiards patrons Perry Mariano of Bugsy Promotions and Jonathan Sy of the Negros Billiards Stable, and the rest of Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines.

According to Mariano, the next step will be distribution of players to the participating corporate team, which will be done through a draft scheduled on the first week of January.

“There will be eight teams with six players each, so a total of 48 players, not counting the reserves, will have a regular income. That would make billiards really a professional sport,” said Mariano.

“As I’ve said before, the NBL will be the next big thing in Philippine sports entertainment,” added Mariano.

Patterned after the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), the NBL will have the country’s top cue artists, led billiards legend Efren “Bata” Reyes, fellow former world champions Ronnie Alcano and Alex Pagulayan and current world no.1 Dennis Orcollo, along with a bunch of up and coming stars playing for corporate teams in a season-long team competition.

Just like the PBA, the NBL will also have the fledging Solar Sports as its broadcast partner

BY: Bmpap Release