MACAO – It’s gonna be a bigger and better East Asia Super League once it unveils its Home and Away Season 4 later this year.
EASL CEO Henry Kerins disclosed the likelihood of four more teams expecting to come in by the 2026-27 calendar as the regional tournament continues with its expansion program.
Kerins made the announcement during the official EASL Finals presser on Thursday at the Studio City featuring the four teams seeing action in the semifinals in Ryukyu Golden Kings, Alvark Tokyo, Utsunomiya Brex, and the Taoyuan Pauian Pilots.
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“Our expansion will be coming and we’ll be making announcement on that. And I think it will benefit all things seeing work, more high quality games on a regular basis and add to the pool of solidity and incredible growth of the basketball scene across Asia. So that’s definitely in the works,” said Kerins.
The EASL top executive wouldn’t name from which countries the expansion teams would come pending final negotiations, but mentioned about basketball-crazy Philippines being under its radar.
“The Philippines is really a big part of our focus,” he said. “We’ll be selecting partners who have the same vision and commitment to excellence.
“The Philippines is obviously a core of our league and has been there since Day 1."
For Season 3, only one team from the Philippine Basketball Association saw action in the Meralco Bolts as Asia’s first ever professional league had its calendar full of activities in celebration of its 50th anniversary and the corresponding windows for the FIBA World Cup qualifiers and the 20th Asian Games.
Previously, the PBA has always been allotted two slots by the EASL.
But two new teams from other league were added to the mix in Mongolia’s Ulaanbaatar Xac Broncos and the New Taipei Kings from the Taiwan Professional Basketball League.
The increase in the number of teams led the league to rebrand, making it a three-team group stage and delving away from its original Final Four format into a post-season play featuring the best six teams from the eliminations.
It likewise increased its prize money to $1.5 million.
Kerins wouldn’t want to preempt the course of negotiations with teams from other leagues.
“We don’t have anything formal yet, but it would be soon,” he said.
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