River Lions welcome CEBL into their jungle
Downtown St. Catharines arena will host single-site basketball championship tournament
Meridian Centre in St. Catharines will become a haven for hoops next month when the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) becomes the first professional league in Canada returning to play following COVID-19 shutdowns.
Training camps for all seven teams in the spring-summer league will open Wednesday, July 15, with a round-robin tournament tentatively set to tip off Saturday, July 25, at the downtown arena.
Exact timing for the Summer Series, which will culminate in the crowning of the CEBL’s second playoff champion, remains subject to the phased-in reopening of the Ontario economy, the league said in a news release Thursday.
“After exhausting all contingencies to get our teams back on the court this summer, a single-site competition closed to fans but with all games available for free to viewers across the country and internationally, will enable us to again showcase the players who help make Canada the secondleading producer of pro basketball talent in the world,” said CEBL commissioner and chief executive Mike Morreale.
Each team, including the host Niagara River Lions, will play each other once, and the team with the worst record will be eliminated from title contention. After that, the six remaining teams will be seeded into a bracket, with the third and sixth seeds and the fourth and fifth seeds facing each other in elimination games.
Winners advance to play the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds in the semifinals. The championship game is tentatively set for Sunday, Aug. 9.
Since games will be played without fans, general manager-head coach Victor Raso doesn’t think his host Niagara River Lions will have that much of a home-court advantage competing in Meridian Centre.
“While we will be the host city, unfortunately we will not have our fans in the arena to support us,” he said. “There will be familiarity for our returning players but, at the end of the day, the structure of the tournament will make it as neutral of a site as possible.
“All the players will have the same advantages throughout the tournament.”
Raso, the reigning coach of the year, is looking forward to basketball coming back, albeit in an abbreviated format.
“This is an incredibly exciting time for our organization as we not only get to play this season but that the CEBL will be hosting the tournament in our hometown, as well,” he said.
CBC Sports will offer live streams of all games across Canada via the free CBC Gem streaming service cbcsports.ca. CBC will also broadcast select games under a three-year partnership with the league.
In addition to the St. Catharinesbased River Lions, the league has three other teams from Ontario: the Guelph Nighthawks, Hamilton Honey Badgers and the expansion Ottawa BlackJacks. Representing Western Canada in Canada Basketball’s first division are the defending champion Saskatchewan Rattlers, Edmonton Stingers and the Fraser Valley Bandits based in Abbotsford, B.C.
All seven teams will be accommodated in St. Catharines, with practices taking place at a nearby facility. Teams will be separated from the general public and strict screening and COVID-19 protocols will be followed.
Morreale praised Lisa MacLeod, Ontario heritage, sport, tourism and culture industries minister, and St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik for their roles in championing the league’s return.
“This is a huge undertaking that could not happen without their support, as well as that of medical officers, the staff of the Meridian Centre, and our training and accommodations partner,” the commissioner said.
Originally, the league had planned to play a 20-game regular season culminating in a championship final-four weekend in Edmonton on Aug. 14 to 16.