New basketball league in Canada

[Anonymous]

new web site now ready. www.opbahoops.com

[Herk]

Well I wish the league well. I think it would be great to have an all-canadain basketball league to help promote it on the national level.

[Paul S]

As a former resident of Canada I can't see the good people of Ontario getting to geared up about an Ontario league. The Raptors are on TV, they're playing in hockey season which means HS gyms and not arena's and anyone anywhere near Toronto considers themselves a 'world class' city (rightfully so). A Welland vs North York game simply isn't going to fly.

Good luck to them but Canadian basketball has proven that to play US based teams is the only way to go. The last couple of attempts at all Canadian leagues (NBL) or a Canadian team in a US league that is collapsing around them so it adds more Canadian teams in a desperate effort to stave off financial doom (World Basketball League) don't work.

You need a formula like the Winnipeg Thunder, Calgary 88's, Halifax Windjammers to keep your Canuckle-head above water.

[CoachR]

The OPBA is schedule is set to run during the spring and summer months from late May through July. We will be playing in University or College gyms, not high schools. Our concept is to be in smaller cities that don't have the competition for the entertainment dollar of the fan, unlike Toronto would. All of the areas selected have a great basketball foundation at the grass roots level and with ticket prices at only $5 it will be great value. We don't have any competeing leagues to worry about in this country and Ontario is a hub for basketball in Canada. As for "keeping our head above water" the team expenses will all be inplace before the season begins, we do not have to rely on ticket sales to finance the teams. Thanks for your input and if you ever come back to visit Canada look us up and hopefully you can check out a game!!!

[not so fast]

Sounds like this league has its act together. Good luck to the OPBL.

This league has a great chance to be a hugh sucess, and it certainly has quality people involved.

[statman77]

What happen to the Canadian National Basketball League?

[Houston Caldwell]

When I click on the OPBA website address, the home page comes up, but when I click on any of the sub-pages, a message comes up saying "page disabled". I don't know what's up with that, but it doesn't look good.

[Ken, Steelheads fan]

The OPBA folded four weeks after they opened for business. Actually, they were toast only two weeks after opening when they had problems making their FIRST payroll and paying bills.

Before the website shut down, the OPBA site had its own message board. The league owners were always posting these ultra positive messages (kinda like one of the posts above), when nothing could have been further from the truth. Sunshine was blown up a poster's behind everytime a question was raised about the league...at least until the end was inevitable, then the message board was dropped.

I pretty much see the same thing with the ABA when it comes to message boards the (so-called) owners frequent. A lot of sunshine is being blown around, but not much substance sees the light of day. History is repeating itself...again.