Management wants Air21 brand back in PBA

Bringing the Air21 Express brand back in the 37th Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner's Cup was purely management's decision according to Shopinas.com team manager Jovie Saddul. The Clickers will be using the Express brand name next conference, which opens on February 10 and has unlimited height ceiling for imports. "(Management) just wanted Air21 back in the PBA. It was a business decision and marketing strategy," said Saddul in an interview by GMA News. Saddul said they already filed the papers at the PBA Commissioners Office and will let league officials do the announcement. The PBA office confirmed the change earlier today to GMA News. The Shopinas.com Clickers team was born from the sale of the Barako Bull Energy Boosters franchise by Energy Food and Drinks Inc., to the Lina Group of Companies, last June 2011. The team had been in limbo under their previous owner, having been on leave since the 2011 PBA Commissioner's Cup. In July of 2011, the team was rebranded to its current name, with Shiela Lina named as the franchise's PBA board representative. Due to a provision included in the aforementioned sale, Shopinas.com's sister team, the Air21 Express, adopted the Red Bull brand name, entering the 37th PBA Philippine Cup as the Barako Bull Energy. The rookie-laden Clickers and first-time PBA head coach Franz Pumaren, however, had a dismal All-Filipino Conference campaign  after dropping all of their 14 elimination round games. "A lot of people didn’t know that we rebuilt the team from scratch. We have no players and only Ren Ren (Ritualo) was the free agent available so we immediately signed him," said Saddul. Saddul added they are also looking at two candidates for their PBA import. “We’ve been talking to two candidates. Hopefully by the end of the week or by next week we can name our reinforcement.” — Jon Perez with Adrian Dy, GMA News