Teams can’t wait to be Alberta bound

CEBL chooses Edmonton as 2021 championship weekend site

There’s nothing like Alberta in late August, especially if you’re a member of a team competing in Canada Basketball’s first men’s division.

Edmonton’s Expo Centre will be the site for the 2021 Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) Championship Weekend. The four-team tournament at the 4,857-seat arena is scheduled to take place Aug. 18 to 22, and there’s no place the Niagara River Lions would rather be for those five days.

Besides confirming the venue for the semifinal and final rounds of this year’s playoffs, the league also unveiled its playoff schedule in a news release.

All but one squad in the seventeam spring-summer pro league will remain in contention for the title after the regular season wraps up Aug. 10.

Two teams are getting automatic byes into the semifinals, the team with the best won-loss record over the 14-game regular season and the host Edmonton Stingers, who are also the defending champions.

Rounding out the final four will be the winners of quarterfinal playoff games between the next four teams in the standings. These qualifiers will be played on the Aug. 14 and 15 weekend.

Mike Morreale, CEBL commissioner and chief executive, said championship weekend won’t be limited to the semifinal doubleheader Friday, Aug. 20, and the final two days later. A family-friendly street festival

and a three-on-three basketball tourney are also on the agenda, as is a concert, the league’s annual awards banquet and an NBA 2K gaming tournament.

“This five-day event promises to be a fun-filled celebration of basketball, music and entertainment along with the top CEBL teams battling it out to win the coveted CEBL championship trophy,” Morreale said. “I am thrilled to have championship weekend come to Edmonton this year.”

Championship weekend will be hosted in partnership with the Province of Alberta, the City of Edmonton and the Expo Centre.

“The entire Edmonton region has shown great support for their Stingers, and the community knows how to host major events. Championship weekend will be an event not to be missed,” Morreale said.

All playoff games will be broadcast nationally on CBC TV and available for livestreaming on the CEBL’s OTT streaming service, CEBL+, cbcsports.ca, the free CBC Gem streaming service, the CBC Sports App for iOS and Android devices, and on Twitch.

Choice of the Alberta capital for this year’s final four continues a trend to alternate between Eastern and Western Canada.

Last year’s Summer Series championship tournament was played without spectators at Meridian Centre in St. Catharines while the inaugural championship weekend was held in Saskatoon, home of the Saskatchewan Rattlers.

League play gets underway Thursday with the River Lions visiting the Ottawa BlackJacks. Two games are on tap Saturday: the Hamilton Honey Badgers at

Edmonton and Saskatchewan at the Fraser Valley Bandits in Abbotsford, B.C.

CBC is broadcasting the Hamilton-Edmonton game nationally beginning at 4 p.m. ET.

This years fans will be treated to every game ending in a winning basket, either from the floor or the free-throw line.

Under the Elam Ending, teams will be playing to a target score rather than playing out the clock.

After the first stoppage in play with four or fewer minutes remaining in regulation, nine points will be added to the leading team’s score. The target, for example, in an 80-73 game at the stoppage would be 89.

The River Lions are heading into their third season in the CEBL — and their sixth overall as a professional basketball franchise — hoping to rebound from a 2-5 record as the host

team at the 2020 Summer Series. They qualified for the playoff round but were defeated by Hamilton in the quarterfinals.

Niagara went 15-5 and finished first in the CEBL’s inaugural season. It was upset by Hamilton in the semifinals.

Saskatchewan went on to defeat the Honey Badgers for the championship.

Before the launch of the CEBL in 2019, the River Lions played a fall-winter schedule for three seasons as a member of the National Basketball League of Canada.

Canada Basketball designated the CEBL as its first division for men’s professional hoops because of the league’s commitment to developing homegrown talent. Seventy-five per cent of roster spots must be filled by Canadians and each team is required to dress a player who is eligible to return for another season at a Canadian university.