Is Canada big enough for two pro basketball leagues?
Anthony Vella thinks the answer is yes. Andre Levingston says it’s no.
Vella is business development co-ordinator for Cosmos Sports, a Mississauga-based company working with investors Robert Smeenk, Thomas Smeenk and Greg Nelson on a bid to start the Canadian Basketball League in the fall of 2014.
That group issued a media release Wednesday saying that it was seeking a minimum of eight “like-minded groups or individuals) who were interested in owning CBL franchises. A meeting of prospective owners would be held, it added, at Edmonton in mid-July.
The statement went on to say the league would have two divisions, with interdivisional play only during the playoffs. A report in Wednesday’s Edmonton Journal (http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/Groundwork+being+laid+professional+Canadian+basketball+league/8512076/story.html) said CBL roster rules would require between six and eight Canadian players on each roster, and each team would have a salary cap of $150,000.
Coincidentally, that’s the same salary cap for teams in Levingston’s National Basketball League of Canada, which this fall will begin its third season with 10 teams, including the brand new Ottawa SkyHawks.
In its first season, the NBL required all teams to have at least two Canadians on their rosters, and for 2012-13 that number rose to three. Levingston said Wednesday that the roster rules were already on the agenda for a league owners’ meeting on June 21.
Said Vella in a telephone interview from his Mississauga office: “It’s going to take some work to find them, but there are Canadians playing basketball overseas and in the U.S. that may be interested in coming back and playing at home.”
The goal, Vella added, was not to create another Canadian league in which most of the athletes were non-Canadian.
“We don’t want guys playing garbage minutes,” he said. “We want guys playing and developing and maybe moving on to the next level.”
From Halifax, Levingston the mostly U.S.-born players in the NBL helped make its Canadians better and cited the example of the Halifax Rainmen’s Joey Haywood, who last season was both first-team all-Canadian and third-team all-NBL.
“We started to see the Canadian players make an impact on our clubs,” the NBL’s president and CEO said.
Vella said the CBL’s focus would be primarily on Western Canada, although there were “interesting” markets in Ontario. No, he wouldn’t say which markets they were, but emphasized that finding the right ownership groups was key. That means having the right “financial IQ” and realizing that the business side of team operations had to be a priority.
Vella said a feasibility study was conducted earlier this year, and a “good collection” of individuals had since expressed interest in the CBL. He wouldn’t say how many or where, but he did say they included markets with Canadian Hockey League major-junior franchises and cities where NHL clubs had secondary buildings, such as practice facilities.
Current NBL homes include: Brampton; Halifax; London, Ont.; Mississauga; Moncton; Montreal; Saint John; Summerside, P.E.I.; Windsor; and Ottawa. Except for Montreal and Summerside, all those cities have major-junior hockey teams, and Ottawa has both NHL and Ontario Hockey League clubs.
“We are trying to brand the game of basketball in the country,” Levingston said. “You know that’s not an easy task in a country that is driven by hockey.”
According to Levingston, basketball participation has begun to surpass hockey by leaps and bounds — he said it, I didn’t — but there are only so many people in Canada.
“I don’t think that there is enough room or enough (financial) support in this country for two basketball leagues,” Levingston said. “We are not turning a blind eye to (the CBL), that’s for sure. That wouldn’t be smart of us.”
The CBL also has a timetable for bringing Western Canada into the fold, Levingston added, but it wouldn’t be prudent to expedite it too much. The league is already adding franchises in Brampton and Ottawa in 2013, while Mississauga has adopted the former Oshawa Power.
“If someone wants to start leagues that are not at the level of our league, then by all means,” Levingston said. “As long as we can offer opportunities for Canadians to play basketball, I think that’s phenomenal, no matter where it is.”
A statement from the SkyHawks on Wednesday said: “We have been aware that a market research company is contacting ownership groups and analyzing the possibility of launching a basketball league in Western Canada. It’s great that there are various firms researching this as basketball is one of the fastest-growing sports in our country, and, with the success of NBL Canada to date, (we) can see why many are trying to get into the business of basketball. The Ottawa SkyHawks and the NBL have no direct association with Cosmos Sports Marketing.”
gholder@ottawacitizen.com
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