Canada’s new professional basketball league has run into problems before its inaugural tip-off set for October 14.
The situation invokes memories of failed sports leagues such as the former Vancouver-based Canadian Baseball League. It also highlights the difficulty of launching a new, profitable and sustainable sports league.
The seven-team National Basketball League of Canada (NBLC) cancelled its October 3 news conference, where it was expected to announce a new commissioner.
The league’s CEO, Andre Levingston, said in a statement that financial considerations prompted an 11th hour pivot and that the league is “committed to finding the best possible suitor for this position.”
Despite Vancouver once having the National Basketball Association team Vancouver Grizzlies, the city was left out of the NBLC, as were all other cities west of Ontario.
The league’s teams are in:
- Halifax, Nova Scotia;
- Quebec City, Quebec;
- Saint John, New Brunswick;
- Oshawa, Ontario;
- Summerside, Prince Edward Island;
- Moncton, New Brunswick; and
- London, Ontario.
Starting a new professional sports league requires a hefty investment. Vancouver Whitecaps co-owner Jeff Mallett was part of a consortium that launched the Canadian Baseball League in 2003. That Vancouver-based league immediately rolled up deep losses and sold all its assets by year-end.
Mallett, who also owns part of the San Francisco Giants, then teamed up with Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash in 2009 to launch Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS).
That six-team, top-tier women’s soccer league is now centred on North America’s Eastern Seaboard because its only West Coast teams – the Los Angeles Sol and Bay Area Gold Pride – have folded.
Media have speculated that Mallett wants the WPS to expand to either Seattle or Vancouver.
“I don’t comment directly on the operations of the WPS,” Mallett told Business in Vancouver earlier this year. “The awarding of the women’s World Cup to Canada in 2015 should have a positive impact.”
Glen Korstrom
@ GlenKorstrom