Slam-dunked by the pandemic, CEBL tries to find a way
League is looking at a multi-week tournament in St. Catharines
Unless you’ve recently invested in a new underground bunker and want to give it a try or have shares in Netflix, it’s hard to find too many positives in a global pandemic.
But, in the event you want to take the headache everyone has been suffering from and turn it into a five-alarm migraine, just imagine you’re the guy operating a sports league that’s coming off a reasonably successful first year and is getting ready to build on that. You have fan awareness, you have momentum, you have implemented improvements ...
Then, pffffffffft.
“There have been times when I’m, ‘Aw, why did this happen?’ ” says Mike Morreale. “There have been many of those times.”
The Canadian Elite Basketball League of which he’s commissioner was gearing up for its sophomore season when COVID-19 arrived. Year One had been pretty good. A female head coach in Hamilton got tons of attention all over the place. A good brand of basketball created a footprint the league could build from to bigger things and attract even better players.
In the wake of that, a new expansion team, some top-notch new talent and a new broadcast deal gave a real sense of optimism that this could turn into something.
“I think that softened the blow somewhat,” Morreale says of seeing everything shut down.
He still feels that way. And still believes things will be good.
“But,” he says, stretching out the word for emphasis, “we have to play.”
Yes, that’s important. A basketball league without basketball is, well, something even an existential philosopher would tie himself in knots trying to explain. The games are what it’s all about. In spite of everything, the former Hamilton Tiger-Cat is an optimist. He’s quick to point out the positives. Maybe there’s a silver lining in the layoff. Perhaps when things return, there will be an increased awareness of the league. Maybe the demand for sports and a distraction from everything that’s been going on will attract followers who wouldn’t have been there before.
That said, he’s also a realist. And what’s been going on has slathered a thick coating on realism all over the organization. The CEBL currently has no revenue. Zero. Yet, it continues to employ 60 people, even after 17 had to be let go (though nine have been rehired). The losses have to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“It’ll be in the seven digits,” he corrects. “It’ll be an expensive proposition.”
Good thing the owner of the entire league and all its teams really likes basketball, huh?
“Yes,” Morreale says. “Thankfully, he does.”
But then that optimism reemerges. The season hadn’t started when everything hit so that’s good because it would have left everything in limbo. Ninety per cent of the players are Canadian so few have to cross a border when things get going. That’s good, too. Perhaps there will be extra coverage and extra attention paid to the league. That’s really good, potentially.
There is a plan to make that restart happen. It was announced Monday.
With rules loosening so things can begin to reopen, the seventeam league is looking at playing a tournament in one hub city — likely St. Catharines in the Meridian Centre — through the second half of July and into August.
There would be no fans. This would be a made-for-TV event. But it would be prior to either the NBA or NHL beginning their playoffs.
“We’ll be in and out before all the eyeballs go to the major sports,” Morreale says.
Be first, be good, avoid competition and lay the foundations for 2021.
Hey, pro basketball may cost money to run. But optimism is free.