MANILA, Philippines -- The 2022 season of the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) is confirmed to start on March 16, with the Open Conference to take place at the Paco Arena in Manila.

PVL president Ricky Palou said on "Power and Play" on Saturday that they will hold the Open Conference in a "semi-bubble" set-up, with teams following a strict home-venue-home format to ensure the safety of everyone involved.

Nine teams will compete in the Open Conference, with the PVL implementing a pool format. In Pool A are: F2 Logistics, Chery Tiggo, Choco Mucho, Army, and Cignal. Pool B is composed of Creamline, Petro Gazz, PLDT, and BaliPure.

The top four teams in Pool A will join the Pool B squads in the quarterfinals, where the top two seeds will have a twice-to-beat advantage.

"Tuloy na tuloy na," Palou said of their competition.

However, the Open Conference will have a compact schedule as the league is making way for the national team's training camp in Brazil, set for April 12-26.

"We have to have a shorter conference this time around," said Palou. "We have to end by April 10… dahil aalis 'yung national team, pupunta sa Brazil para mag-training. So kailangan tapos kami before they leave."

"That's why we had to shorten the tournament. We made it into two pools, to accommodate the national team, which is preparing for the Southeast Asian Games," he added.

The competition will be held behind closed doors at the Paco Arena.

The league wanted to hold the Open Conference in its usual venue, the FilOil Flying V Centre in San Juan, but those plans were put on hold as the arena is still being used as a vaccination center.

"Right now kasi gusto namin sana sa San Juan Arena, San Juan FilOil Arena maglaro, kasi 'yun ang magandang coliseum for spectators. It's big enough, hindi masyado nakakalapit sa mga player 'yung mga tao," said Palou.

"Kaya lang, hindi pa available because they're using it as a vaccine center. So in the meantime, dito kami sa Paco Arena. Medyo maliit 'yung Paco Arena," he explained.

"Siguro kung may mga spectators doon, mga 300, punong-puno na 'yun. So, we decided na wala munang spectators until we are able to transfer to San Juan FilOil Arena."

The Open Conference is the first of three conferences that the PVL plans to hold in 2022.

They are also working on an Invitational Conference later this year with two foreign teams set to participate, as well as the Reinforced Conference in October where each team will feature two foreign players.