‘100 per cent we will have a season’
Stop-and-go nature of lockdowns isn’t fazing CEBL commissioner
If all goes according to plan, the Canadian Elite Basketball League will open its third season on time in May and then it will ...
Hold on a sec. If all goes according to plan?
Between the ongoing pandemic and viral variants and vaccine shortages and provincial lockdowns and travel bans and mask rules and physical distancing guidelines, it’s hard to find the evidence anything is going according to plan these days let alone planning for a basketball season.
If all goes according to plan? Might as well preface the story by saying, if the sun turns blue and the aliens land and children begin begging for spinach for dessert, then tip-off will happen on time.
Perhaps. Though none of this is fazing Mike Morreale. The Canadian Elite Basketball League’s commissioner isn’t just holding out hope, he’s fairly oozing optimism for what’s coming this spring.
“One hundred per cent we’ll have a season,” he says. “What kind of season we have will be dictated by public health in the four provinces we’re in.”
But a season will happen, he insists. It will start when it’s scheduled to. And it will finish when it should. Or close to the designated dates at both ends.
The obvious question is, how? He seems glad you asked.
Last year in the early days of the pandemic, before anyone really had a chance to stop and catch their breath, the season was reduced to a short tournament in a bubble. It worked well. Without a hitch is probably a better description. Morreale says that could be the case again if things had to go that way.
But plans are to have a somewhat-regular 20-game season this time, with action taking place in home arenas in Abbotsford, B.C., Edmonton, Guelph, Hamilton, Ottawa, St. Catharines and Saskatoon.
There may not be fans in the buildings and travel will be reduced by holding multiple games against the same opponent on the same trip — like the National Hockey League is doing now — but it’s important to get the league back into the consciousness of the fan bases. So that’s the aim.
Of course, this means planning for all kinds of contingencies to be ready for any unexpected twists. Which seem almost inevitable.
“Oh, we probably have iterations of 15-plus schedules,” Morreale says.
“It’s insane.”
Still, if the National Hockey League can pull it off, he figures there’s no reason his league can’t with fewer games, fewer teams to move and fewer bodies on each squad to transport and test.
Most of all, here’s where a league owned entirely by a single investor might be in a superior spot to a league in which every franchise is independently owned. As long as one man is willing to pay the bills — Morreale says financier Richard Petko is — it can keep going.
In fact, once COVID-19 is gone, the CEBL might be in a stronger position than ever, Morreale explains. The foundations being built now under these conditions and the infrastructure being designed to weather a crisis will stand up to anything when the world returns to normal.
“The strategy here is long term. It’s not survival,” he says. “It’s so, when the floodgates open again, we’re prepared.”
Make no mistake, this isn’t coming easy. The league hasn’t been eligible for financial aid from any government programs. Most of its revenue still comes from ticket sales and preparing for protocols that can be moving targets is no joke.
Having so many unknowns isn’t ideal for any business.
All this uncertainty creates stress. Morreale says he has to be nimble enough to pivot every time some government adds a new regulation or some news story breaks that might affect what’s going on.
“Fifty per cent of my time is spent on the future of the CEBL,” he says. “Fifty per cent of it is spent on making sure there is a future.”
But there will be a future, he insists. And a present. That isn’t even in question.
Beginning with this spring, even if it ultimately turns out that everything can’t go exactly according to plan.
Or who knows? Maybe it can.