Canadian Professional League

[BasketballCoach]

I am sure the headline will catch most peoples attention thinking that there is a new league starting up. However I am trying to figure out why there isnt a league in place?

Did the OPBA (or whatever the name was) ruin relationships in the Ontario Region? I thought the bone heads in charge of the league were well bone heads, but who am I to think that? Did you read their marketing plan? Besides being filled with errors, it was not fool proof.

What other leagues in Canada started/failed/never got off of the ground? I hope something can be done in the country without the ABA becoming the 'league' that takes Canadians by storm!

Now theres a dream come true.

[BCRantzilla]

Any Canadian league would need to steer clear of Ontario and Quebec and concentrate on Western Canada and the Maritimes. It can work but any league like this needs serious promotion and solid owners or it will go the way of the old CBL in the early 90's.

[BasketballCoach]

If you could spare some more information on the previous leagues and its failings. Those are two areas I was interested in finding info about.

Where were the teams located?
Who owned them?
Why did it fail?
Salaries for players?
Season it operated in?

Thanks in advance.

[Ken, Steelheads fan]

The Ontario Professional Basketball Association had 6 teams located in London, Niagra, and four other Ontario towns that escape my memory. All the teams were owned by the same two gentlemen. In my opinion, they failed because these two gentlemen didn't have a clue beyond holding try-out camps for money in the States...most of the players were from the states. Often, there was no one to collect tickets at the gate once the season started. Salaries on average were zero since the league folded immediately after the first payroll was due. The season operated in the summer of 2004.

not so fast can provide additional information on this failed league and its owners since he was once a big booster. 8)


From not so fast:
To all of you basketball agents and coaches, if you know of a player thats quality and needs a chance to play, I encourage them to come to our OPBA camp.

This league is being run by quality people and this camp will be run by yours truly, and it is designed to give players right on the verge of the CBA/NBDL a chance to showcase their talent.

They have a fabulous Website, so go to it and then contact players and send them out.

The USBL was offered chances to run a camp in Chicago but they all turned it down (bad move).

The camp will be on April 3, so see you all there.

not so fast does not like to be quoted, but... :P

[Shootmaster_44]

If you could spare some more information on the previous leagues and its failings. Those are two areas I was interested in finding info about.

Where were the teams located?
Who owned them?
Why did it fail?
Salaries for players?
Season it operated in?

Thanks in advance.

The early 90's NBL played only 1 complete season 1993. It tried for a second season in 1994 and folded in early July part way through its season. It was created out of the ashes of the WBL. The teams were:
Saskatoon Slam (1993-94)
Hamilton (1993 regular season)/Edmonton (1993 playoffs and 1994) Skyhawks
Cape Breton Breakers (1993-94)
Winnipeg Thunder (1993-94)
Montreal Dragons (part of 1993)
Halifax Windjammers (1993-94)
Calgary Outlaws (1994)

They also had some touring teams in 1993:
Canadian National Team
A.C.C. All-Stars
Big East All-Stars
Athletes In Action

The teams were all owned locally I believe. I'm not sure how much players were paid exactly, but I believe that it would be comparable to the USBL. The main reason it failed was travel costs coupled with low attendance. It was so bad that the entire 1993 Championship Finals were held in Saskatoon as the Cape Breton owners could not afford to fly the players home. In fact after they lost, the Cape Breton players were stranded in Saskatoon, to this day one of the players continues to live here. Saskatoon was one of the bright spots for the league however, they averaged 4,000 fans per game and during the '93 championship they had closer to 10,000 fans per game.

If a new minor league were to emerge in Canada, I would say they either need to have major corporate sponsers ala Air Canada kicking in free travel, a hotel chain kicking in free accomodations etc. or they need to be very localized. Unlike the United States, Canada is a very large country with major cities being large distances away from each other. One model that should've worked that they could look at is the Canadian Baseball League, they had the funding right, just not the promotion. If a pro basketball league took their business plan and added proper promotion, it could be successful. The only condition that would be needed is that it be a summer league. A winter league is doomed to fail as its hockey season in Canada. This was illustrated by the Saskatchewan Hawks failure in the CBA a few years back.

If I were running a national league, I'd have an Eastern, Western and Pacific divisions. It would run from mid-June until early September with each team playing a 1 home and 1 road game against the teams outside its division. I'd place teams like this:

Pacific Division
Victoria, B.C.
Kelowna, B.C.
Kamloops, B.C.
Calgary, Alta.

Western Division
Edmonton, Alta.
Saskatoon, Sk.
Regina, Sk.
Winnipeg, Mb.

Eastern Division
Halifax, N.S.
Fredericton, N.B.
Charlottetown, P.E.I.
Saint John, N.B.

The longest in-division direct trip would be Edmonton to Winnipeg and Victoria to Calgary. However, the easiest way to combat any long drives would be to have them play a 6 game road trip, 3 games on their way out and 3 on their way back. This would make the longest trip 6 to 7 hours at the most. Then have them fly when going from one division to the other and then bus between those cities. The cost would be fairly cheap as WestJet flies out of all these cities except Kamloops and the two cities in New Brunswick. However, Kamloops is only a 2 hour drive to Kelowna which WestJet serves and its an hour and half to 2 hours from Saint John and Fredericton to Moncton which WestJet serves. Therefore travel could be had cheaply.

As far as arenas go, all have big enough arenas to serve the needs of minor league basketball:

Victoria - Save-On Foods Memorial Centre (7,000 capacity)
Kamloops - Sport Mart Place (5,158 capacity)
Kelowna - Prospera Place (6,000 capacity)
Calgary - Pengrowth Saddledome (17,000 capacity)

Edmonton - Rexall Place (18,000 capacity)
Saskatoon - Credit Union Centre (11,300 capacity)
Regina - Regina Agridome (6,080 capacity)
Winnipeg - MTS Centre (15,015 capacity)

Fredericton - Aitken Centre (3,685 capacity)
Saint John - Harbour Station (6,139 capacity)
Charlottetown - Charlottetown Civic Centre (5,000 capacity)
Halifax - Halifax Metro Centre (10,600 capacity)

[CJPhillips]

Check out www.frozenhoops.com where I have more than 300 pages pertaining to the history of basketball in Canada the majority that I have researched and had published the last 30 years. Includes stories I have wrote for the NBA. A whole section on Canada and its involvement in the world of minor league basketball.... Also selecting the Top 100 Canadian players of all time...right now at 380+ nominations....
Enjoy