Canadian Basketball League (CBL)?

National Basketball League of Canada

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IceManLikeGervin
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CBL Targeting Victoria As A Potential Franchise Location

Post by IceManLikeGervin » Fri Jun 21, 2013 2:02 pm

Click link for full article: http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/new ... a-1.325391

Having earned his MBA from the University of Victoria in 2010, Anthony Vella is aware of Victoria’s history in basketball, which includes the Vikes’ national championship dynasty of the 1980s and numerous Olympians produced.

That’s why he included the city in the fledgling Canadian Basketball League’s recent notification call to potential markets.

The league is proposed to start for the 2014-15 season.

“At this point, we’re looking for right ownership groups and not in terms of specific markets,” said Vella, business operations co-ordinator for Cosmos Sports, a Mississauga, Ont.-based sports marketing company working with CBL investor/founders Thomas and Robert Smeenk and Greg Nelson.

“This league would be to develop Canadian talent,” said Vella, by phone from Mississauga.

“There would be [a mandatory number of] six to nine Canadian players per team. It would be for guys not making top dollar in Europe.”

Break-even per-game attendance would be in the range of 4,000, said Vella.

The league would be pro, but only modestly so, with a salary cap of $150,000 per team per season.

A meeting is planned for mid-July in Edmonton to meet with prospective ownership groups.

Vella said he has not contacted RG Properties, which operates Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria and Prospera Place in Kelowna, the latter another potential western market that has been loosely mentioned in connection with the CBL along with Vancouver, Kamloops, Cranbrook, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg. END

Basshat
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Re: CBL Group Approached NBL About Working Together

Post by Basshat » Sun Jun 23, 2013 10:37 am

joescudda wrote:thats too bad...curious to know how they differ on vision.
A good guess would be:

- number of Canadians
- future (if any) growth in the salary cap
- expansion
- centralized control of franchises

IceManLikeGervin
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CBL Eyes Kingston?

Post by IceManLikeGervin » Tue Jun 25, 2013 8:52 pm

Click link for full article: http://www.thewhig.com/2013/06/24/fledg ... s-kingston

Someone with an interest in basketball, with perhaps some deep pockets and who wants to see a professional team in Kingston, should give Anthony Vella of Cosmos Sports Inc. a call.

Vella is the lead person from the Mississauga-based sports marketing company who is trying to gauge interest for the fledgling Canadian Basketball League.

Vella hopes that his organization gets eight to 10 owners from across Canada to form the league, which would start play in the 2014-15 season.

“A group approached us about a year ago about starting a basketball league that focuses on Canadian talent,” said Vella over the phone from his office in Mississauga.

He said a feasibility study was completed six months ago.

“Since then we’ve been talking to groups that might be interested and we’ve made good progress so far,” said Vella.

He said there will be a meeting in mid-July in Edmonton, where they’ll meet with prospective ownership groups.

“At that point we’ll decide if it is feasible to go ahead with the league with the eight to 10 groups that meet our criteria that are interested in going forward.”

Vella said according to their studies a franchise would need to attract 4,000 fans per game to break even and will go with a $150,000 salary cap per season.

Kingston’s Rogers K-Rock Centre seats about 5,500 for hockey and could probably accommodate a few hundred more for basketball. END

joescudda
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Post by joescudda » Wed Jun 26, 2013 4:08 am

I dont understand this canadian talent thing...if thats what Cosmos wants then its just gonna be an extension of the CIS, which doesn't attract people as is. You need american/foreign talent to prop up the product unless you're trying to run a charity.

IceManLikeGervin
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Pro Basketball In Vancouver?

Post by IceManLikeGervin » Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:46 pm

Click link for full article: http://www.theprovince.com/sports/baske ... story.html

A Canadian professional basketball league has long been something of a pipe dream in this country, particularly when the number of good players developed here was so few.

Import quotas would have to be high so as to make the standard of play entertaining if there was to be something on a CFL model.

Those days are gone. Canada is producing enough great players and solid coaches to render the actual personnel of such a league a non-issue. That’s why there’s a move to get one launched again.

But the real nut to crack of course is finding owners with some risk-taking capacity and in enough regions with enough interest to support attendance at the 4,000 level or more.

The cudgel is again being taken up by Cary Kaplan, the president of CosMos Sports in the Toronto area, who has been working for over a year to gauge interest in such an endeavour with a view to having somewhere between six and nine Canadian players to a team. END

IceManLikeGervin
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CBL Eyes Cranbrook

Post by IceManLikeGervin » Thu Aug 01, 2013 11:09 pm

Click link for full article: http://www.dailytownsman.com/breaking_n ... 23001.html

Can a professional Canadian basketball league thrive in Western Canada, and could Cranbrook support such a franchise?

That is the question that a company out of Ontario is asking in a proposal to create the Canadian Basketball League, an entity designed to cultivate and showcase professional hoops talent in the western part of the country.

Cary Kaplan, president of Cosmos Sports Inc, which is based out of Mississauga, Ont., has completed a feasibility study that seeks a minimum of eight individuals or groups to set up franchises that could be in action by 2014. END

joescudda
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Post by joescudda » Thu Aug 01, 2013 11:34 pm

I feel like this is a recipe for disaster...."a company from Ontario seeking to franchise in Cranbrook"

...do all the feasibility studies you want but this league isn't going to be engrained into the "local fabric". I dont know much about Levingston?(NBLC CEO) but my understanding is that he has a foothold in Halifax and is within basketball circles to a certain degree. His league has evolved more out of organic growth if you will (moreso than CBL). Cosmos, on the other hand is trying to plant teams with no prior connection to the towns. I have a hard time believing any of these Western Canadian markets will buy in.

Its never going to be successful as a biz venture. Especially when the league is on the other side of the country from the "head office".

IceManLikeGervin
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Start Date: Fall 2015

Post by IceManLikeGervin » Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:40 pm

https://twitter.com/RyanDickison7
Ryan d*** @RyanDickison7
Canadian Basketball League To Start Play Fall 2015 http://app.scsend.net/?q=e/v/3rhy5 @TOButchCarter #CBL #CoachCarter #FIBA #CanBball #WeTheNorth #RTZ

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Last edited by IceManLikeGervin on Tue Jan 20, 2015 11:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

IceManLikeGervin
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Butch Carter Supporting CBL & More

Post by IceManLikeGervin » Mon Dec 15, 2014 4:48 pm

Ottawa Citizen http://ottawacitizen.com/sports/basketb ... all-league
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Click link for Ottawa Citizen site: http://ottawacitizen.com/sports/basketb ... es-capital

Butch Carter thinks professional basketball can be viable in Ottawa.

All the founder and promoter of a proposed Canadian Basketball League needs to prove it are an appropriate arena for home games and 1,000 people who believe in pro basketball as much as he does, and, no, he’s not worried about any carry-over from failure of the Ottawa SkyHawks.

The team was ousted from the National Basketball League in July. In response, team owner Bytown Sports and Entertainment Inc. filed suit on Sept. 30, alleging breach of contract by the NBL, which as of last Wednesday had not filed a statement of defence. The allegations have not yet been tested in court.

A former coach of the Toronto Raptors and still based in that city, Carter is moving in a different direction. He has been talking with a local group that includes Tony House, a former Ottawa high school star well-known in the area basketball community, Carleton Ravens head coach Dave Smart and Leo Rautins, a television commentator and former NBA player.

Carter and House met this past week with representatives of Ottawa Sports & Entertainment Group and toured TD Place arena, after which Carter spoke at a reception. The objective is to assess levels of interest within a few months.

“It’s not the Raptors, it’s not the Sens. It’s the 67’s, it’s a Junior A hockey model,” House says. “It’s getting out there, it’s rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty. Group tickets, family tickets, making it a fun place to go for a day. Basketball, I think, the timing is right.”

Carter’s CBL plan will start in Ontario and eventually expand across the country. The goal is to tip off next fall with six teams. Ottawa would begin in 2016, to allow time to assess sponsorship possibilities and issue a proposed public ownership with 1,000 non-voting preferred shares to be sold — think $5,000 each — to raise capital that would cover startup costs estimated at $1 million and provide financial backing for more than one season.

A managing partner would direct the franchise. Public ownership is not new in Canada. The Ontario Hockey League’s Kitchener Rangers, Canadian Football League’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Eskimos and National Football League’s Green Bay Packers are publicly owned. Carter says perks for Ottawa shareholders are still being discussed, but could include season tickets, parking passes and pre-game lounge access.

“Ottawa is not the only (potential CBL site) waiting,” said Carter. “The reality is, as I told the OSEG group, let’s do something for 20 years and let’s take the time to do it right. Ottawa will be the foundation on the eastern portion of Ontario, so it needs to be set up correctly.”

House was in discussions with SkyHawks ownership, but withdrew before that team was voted out of NBL Canada. He says public ownership might not be for everybody, “but, in the Ottawa landscape, I think it can work just because you have more people taking a stake in its success.”

TD Place arena, Carter and House say, is the area’s only suitable venue for what would be minor-pro basketball. Canadian Tire Centre is too big, and the university and college gyms are too small. Upper sections of Lansdowne Park’s indoor facility can be curtained off to create capacity of 6,200, as has been done for 67’s games.

It would be great to draw crowds of 7,000-8,000, House says, “but I think, if you get 2,000 people coming to games and paying for tickets, I think it can work.”

Carter says CBL needs at least half of its franchises in non-hockey arenas such as Pan-Am Games facilities in Scarborough and Markham and gyms at McMaster University in Hamilton and Durham College in Oshawa. This would allow CBL clubs to alternate weekend-heavy schedules with hockey tenants in other arenas such as TD Place. END

Rally Doug
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Post by Rally Doug » Tue Dec 16, 2014 11:35 am

I can't see this working in Ottawa. Why would anyone put up $5,000 when you can buy a season ticket for Carleton or Ottawa games for around $100? I also suspect that the university game in Ottawa would be a higher quality than the CBL.

IceManLikeGervin
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In The News

Post by IceManLikeGervin » Sun Jan 18, 2015 1:04 am

Click link for The Record site: http://www.therecord.com/sports-story/5 ... oo-region/
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Is semi-professional basketball coming to an arena near you?

Waterloo Region is high on the list of possible destinations for former Toronto Raptors head coach Butch Carter, who is leading the charge for a new winter-time league.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Vikings are one of six Ontario-based cornerstone franchises Carter said he needs for his proposed Canadian Basketball League.

"I've always wanted to bring the league to Kitchener-Waterloo," said Carter, noting this area is a highly regarded basketball hotbed and already features at least two suitable arenas, the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium and the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex, along with additional practice facilities.

Carter, who coached the NBA's Raptors to their first playoff appearance in the 1999-2000 season, said his upstart league could be on target for a November launch.

He said he has no intention of wiping out the rival National Basketball League of Canada and a merger with Canada's existing semi-pro hoops league is his preferred option.

While successful in places like London, Ont., the NBL has struggled to attract fans in many other markets.

Carter, a former Indiana University Hoosier with a marketing degree from the university and a former pro with the Los Angeles Lakers, has prepared an exhaustive 111-page business plan for his league and said he already has secured a long-term television deal with Hamilton broadcaster CHCH.

The proposed league could feature a community-owned franchise in Waterloo Region, much like the OHL's Kitchener Rangers, Carter said.

The CBL's teams would play a 36-game schedule mostly on weekends. Their 12-player rosters would consist of six Canadians per team. The loop's teams would also have a league-imposed spending cap of between $350,000 and $500,000 each.

The league's other five founding teams would ideally be located in places like Brampton, Durham Region, Hamilton, York Region and Ottawa-Gatineau, he said.

Once established, the league could expand into national markets such as Montreal, Vancouver-Victoria, Edmonton and Calgary, he said.

"I'm way down the path on this," added Carter, who said he has already met with city representatives in Kitchener.

"But as much as I've done, there's probably that much more to do," said Carter, who confessed this league has become his "obsession."

"No American in Canada can say they are more committed to the game of basketball than me," the Toronto-based Carter said, adding his wife is from Markham and he has close friends in Waterloo Region.

"This is my last hurrah at age 56,"said Carter, who launched a business career in car dealerships and with a designer and distributor of electronic controllers for automobiles following his NBA run.

Greg Francis, head coach of the men's basketball team at the University of Waterloo and an assistant coach with Canada's senior national men's team, said he thinks Carter could be on to something big.

"Butch is a pretty serious guy, a very interesting man. He really knows the business aspect of basketball," said Francis.

"At the very least, the way the club system has exploded here, I think there's some untapped potential for more basketball to happen in K-W.

"Can the area support a pro league? Only the Butch Carters of the world would know that."

Carter plans to unveil details of his plan before a local audience at the Kitchener Sports Association dinner Tuesday night.

Other semi-pro leagues have eyed Waterloo-Region in the past. The Canadian Lacrosse League, or CLax, along with the NBL have been sniffing around the Aud and the Waterloo Rec Complex for years looking for investors. END

IceManLikeGervin
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In The News

Post by IceManLikeGervin » Tue Jan 20, 2015 11:35 pm

Brampton Guardian http://www.bramptonguardian.com/sports- ... sponsors-/

https://twitter.com/canballreport
Can Ball Ray @CanBallReport
Butch Carter pitching startup Canadian Basketball League, but will he find sponsors? http://on.thestar.com/1BBxvxg #CanBall

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IceManLikeGervin
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Joined:Wed Apr 04, 2012 4:42 pm

CBL To Benefit From NBLC Finals Game 7 Fiasco?

Post by IceManLikeGervin » Thu Apr 30, 2015 9:47 pm

CBC http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/w ... -1.3056448

https://twitter.com/peteyannopoulos
Peter Yannopoulos @PeteYannopoulos
Coach @TOButchCarter gained precious leverage tonight with the circus in the @NBLCanada tonight.

https://twitter.com/tobutchcarter
Butch Carter @TOButchCarter
We are fully aware of all parties strength's. But Canada has to create Fiba Nationalized League. #CBL2015

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IceManLikeGervin
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Joined:Wed Apr 04, 2012 4:42 pm

Butch Carter

Post by IceManLikeGervin » Thu May 21, 2015 10:47 pm

Click link for Yahoo site: https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/eh-ga ... 4-nba.html
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Butch Carter believes he has workarounds for two of the main hurdles posed for minor pro basketball in Canada.

One, it is a challenge to find suitable venues in a country that often only seems to have the resources for games played on ice; second of all, there is the matter of cohesion at the league level (as the National Basketball League of Canada's forfeit fiasco three weeks ago illustrated, indirectly).

The former Toronto Raptors coach has spent more than a year pitching a business plan for the Canadian Basketball League. Carter says the CBL will begin holding tryout camps within the next 30 days ahead of Year 1, which is slated to tip off in December. So far, franchises are planned for Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Scarborough and Ottawa.

"The challenge is making sure we can find enough grassroots people in the communities where we're going to play to organize a community's team," Carter said on Thursday."I met with over 24 mayors and city commissioners. It's going to get done because we're putting in a model that's financially viable. We just to have to work through other people's processes so that we have a chance. This is going to be a Canadian league. It's going to be a Canadian league, viable for young Canadians to play at home. Rome wasn't built in a day."

"The reality is that we're trying to make sure that the communities have ownership in the teams, at least three of the first four [franchises]," Carter added. "I should have the first four leases done by June 15. The way the business model works is the lease is the backbone of financial stability.

"I'd like to do four teams the first year, maybe five, then maybe four more. Then get to the point where we're eventually in 16 teams across the country.

Carter's plan calls for a single-entity structure similar to the early days of Major League Soccer, where teams would be leased from the league in order to assauge the high cost of running a franchise and foster trust between partners. The CBL plans to start out in college and university basketball gyms, rather than in arenas where a basketball floor has to be placed down over ice. The Toronto Starreported in January that the CBL has a long-term broadcast agreement in place with Hamilton-based CHCH-TV. It also plans to increase advertising inventory by having team benches on the same side of the court as TV cameras.

"If you look at Major League Soccer, the two guys who started it were very experienced in professional sports with the NFL and NBA. They made sure the owners didn't do things that would hurt everyone. The whole thing for me is if you're dealing with nine or 10 different entities, you find out really quickly what's good and what's bad.

"The NBA didn't realize the cost of ice coverage until [Detroit Pistons owner] Bill Davidson built the Palace of Auburn Hills in 1988," added Carter, who has made his home in Toronto since coaching the Raptors from 1998 to 2000. The success of The Palace really drove the value of all the franchises."

Selling the league to sponsors is in hockey-first, hockey-second Canada is no fait accompli.

Contrary to what one might presume, Carter doesn't view the NBLC's disastrous default on April 30, where the Windsor Express were declared champions when the Halifax Rainmen refused to play Game 7 of the final due to safety concerns, as a boost to his startup league. Basketball is basketball to a potential sponsor or fan.

"I would like to say that it didn't affect us at all, but that would not be true. They left a large black mark within the sponsor community with what they did."

The NBLC's nine teams, including expansion Niagara, are independently owned. Most play in arenas where the main draw is a Canadian Hockey League team. The thrust of the CBL's plan, not to say there's one hard-and-fast way to build a brand, is to start small and build sustainably.

"I think the people that I'm working with appreciate that we're trying to do it right," he said. "We're not trying to play in buildings that are too big where we have a lot of empty seats." END
Last edited by IceManLikeGervin on Wed Jun 10, 2015 4:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

IceManLikeGervin
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Joined:Wed Apr 04, 2012 4:42 pm

Butch Making CBL Moves On The WestCoast

Post by IceManLikeGervin » Wed Jun 10, 2015 4:16 pm

https://twitter.com/TOButchCarter
Butch Carter ‏@TOButchCarter
Great week out in western Canada, with all my heart I believe in a Canadian League. Just like in 1998 #CBL2015

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