St. John’s to become part of Ontario … at least in the NBL

New entry will compete in a division with London, Niagara, Windsor and Kitchener-waterloo, but will face Maritime teams just as often

St. John’s basketball fans will get a good look at all the talent the National Basketball League of Canada has to offer.

Sources have confirmed for The Telegram that even though St. John’s will be the NBL Canada’s eastern-most entry, the city’s expansion team will be slotted in a division with the league’s Ontario-based teams.

That news was first reported by Morris Dalla Costa of the London Free Press.

The unorthodox arrangement is designed to address a geographic skew as the league has five teams in the Maritimes. Had St. John’s become part of what would have been a sixteam Atlantic division, it would have left four in Ontario and an operational problem.

However, the chosen solution doesn’t mean the yet-tobe-named St. John’s team will be spending most of its time in Ontario facing the London Knights, Niagara River Lions, Windsor Express and KW (Kitchener-waterloo) Titans.

While the rest of the NBL Canada entries will have schedules that see them play most of their 40 regular-season games within their respective divisions, St. John’s will have one with more balance — facing the league’s nine other teams four times each, with the remaining four games being made by meetings against Maritime clubs.

Full details were expected as early as Wednesday night after the league completed conference calls designed to finalize its 2017-18 schedule. With the new season set to open in less than two months, clubs are anxious to release game dates to begin ticket sales.

It is known that, as was the case with American Hockey League teams in St. John’s, the new basketball club will have a schedule that has visiting teams playing doubleheaders at Mile One Centre.