THE Premier Volleyball League is plotting for a three-conference slate for 2022 despite the continued challenges posed by the pandemic.

The Open Conference, tentatively set to kick off hostilities on Feb. 16, will feature at least 10 teams most likely to be played in a full bubble set up at either the Paco Arena in Manila or at Royale Tagaytay.

COVID-19 variants like Omicron, however, may disrupt plans to mount a trouble-free staging of the now-professional women’s volleyball league.

But organizing Sports Vision remains upbeat it could successfully hold the three tournaments under a tightly-secured bubble environment the way it did the first time out at the PCV Socio-Civic and Cultural Center in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte last year.

“We’re looking at three conferences this year which will start with the Open Conference, hopefully, next month in a bubble set up,” said PVL president Ricky Palou. “We have Royale Tagaytay as our backup venue in case we won’t be allowed to hold our games in Manila.”

“We are still waiting for clearance from the IATF and GAB,” he added.

The Open Conference will run through three months, featuring a single round robin preliminaries with the Top 4 clashing in a pair of best-of-three semifinal series. Winners will dispute the championship.

Chery Tiggo and Creamline, last season’s finalists, leads the cast, which also includes BaliPure, Choco Mucho, Cignal HD, Perlas Spikers, Petro Gazz, Black Mamba Army and PLDT.

Palou said that there are also two new clubs applying for the league, which will miss Sta. Lucia, which has recently filed a leave of absence.

“There are new teams that want to join. We are still deliberating on it and doing our due diligence to see if they are willing to commit to the league for years,” said Palou.

The season-ending Reinforced Conference, meanwhile, will be held from Oct. 1 to Nov. 29 with each club allowed to tap one or two foreign players. After the single round prelims, the top four will advance to the semis with the top two slugging it out for the crown.

The league’s mid-season offering will be PVL Asian Invitational, which is scheduled on July 2-Aug. 7 at a still unspecified venue. The field will be divided into two groups for the single-round elims for local teams with the top two of each side mixing it up in another single-round phase.

The top three will advance to the next round that will feature the national team and two foreign squads.

The top four teams after another single round phase will move to the semis with the top two disputing the championship.