The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) announced that the 2023 season will open on March 10, 2023. The venue of the opening ceremony, however, is yet to be announced.
Prior to the formal opening of the MPBL 2023 Regular Season, the 32 franchise teams are given until January 06, 2023 to confirm their intention of joining the 2023 MPBL Season. To recall, 22 teams participated in the 2022 season which was eventually dominated by the Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards.
The MPBL has not released yet the official number of confirmed teams but there were indications that all 32 franchises will again participate in the MPBL, the biggest professional basketball league in the Philippines in terms of number of participating teams.
To spice things up coming into the 2023 season, a pre-season tournament will be held from February 23 to 27, 2023. This will be a great opportunity for the teams to gauge their capabilities vis-a-vis the other teams.
Obviously, the team to beat for the coming season is the Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards who crushed the Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines, 3-1, in their best-of-five national championship battle last December 2022. Nonetheless, several teams are already beefing up their rosters in their bid to unseat the Rice Vanguards from the throne.
See the summary of the MPBL 2023 Off-Season and Pre-season Tournament Schedule below:
2023 MPBL OFF-SEASON AND PRE-SEASON TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
| DATE | Activity | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 01/06/2023 | Deadline of confirmation | N/A |
| 02/23-27/2023 | Pre-season Tournament | TBA |
| 03/10/2023 | Opening Ceremony | TBA |