CEBL

Their last season in the National Basketball League of Canada coincided with the St. John’s Edge’s first season in the fall-winter league.

River Lions general managerhead coach Victor Raso was lead assistant on the team’s coaching staff during the 2017-18 season and has “fond memories” of playing in St. John’s. “It’s a fun place to play and a great city to travel to, and we did it in the winter so the summer will be great,” he said in an interview Friday.

Niagara provided the opposition in the Edge’s first home game.

“It was incredible. We sang the Newfoundland anthem before the Canadian anthem,” Raso said. “The fans really took to the basketball well. They always had large crowds.”

Raso predicted that, “right off the bat,” the Growlers will be among the league leaders in attendance per game.

“It will definitely be a tough place to play in. It was in the NBLC, and I’m sure it will be the same,” he said.

“They support their own in Newfoundland very well.”

Locating a team in St. John’s, Newfoundland’s largest city and the provincial capital, will give the CEBL a coast-to-coast footprint for the first time. Among the founding franchises is the Fraser Valley Bandits based in Abbotsford, B.C.

With 10 teams, one more than the CFL, it will become the largest professional sports league in Canada when play opens in the spring.

“We’re excited to bring the best pro basketball in Canada outside of the NBA to Newfoundland,” said Mike Morreale, CEBL commissioner and chief executive.

Deacon Sports and Entertainment, parent company of the East Coast Hockey League’s Newfoundland Growlers affiliated with the Toronto Maple Leafs, will operate the basketball team, as well.

“We’re eager to extend the success of our Newfoundland Growlers brand from hockey in the winter to a prestigious pro basketball league in the summer, delivering exceptional entertainment to our community year round,” DSE chair Dean MacDonald said in a release.

Seating capacity at Memorial University’s Field House will be expanded to 2,500 fans for the CEBL’s 10 regular-season home games.

Only the Atlantic Standard Time zone won’t be represented when the CEBL begins its fourth season next year. In addition to the Growlers in the Newfoundland Standard Time, the league will have six teams in the Eastern Standard Time zone: the Guelph Nighthawks, Hamilton Honey Badgers, Montreal, Ottawa, Niagara and Scarborough; and one each in Central Standard Time, the Saskatchewan Rattlers, Mountain Standard Time, the Edmonton Stingers, and Pacific Standard Time, Fraser Valley.

With 75 per cent of team rosters made up of Canadians, not including a designated U Sports player returning for another year of university, the CEBL boasts the highest percentage of homegrown talent of any pro league in Canada.