CEBL commissioner on moving team from Guelph: 'I'm upset that we had to do it'
Published
The story should have been about the Hamilton Honey Badgers hoisting the trophy at Championship Weekend in Ottawa, capping a successful fourth season for the Canadian Elite Basketball League.
Instead, less than 24 hours later on Aug. 15, word leaked that a rival Ontario franchise was headed to a new beginning in Calgary.
The following day, CEBL commissioner, CEO, and co-founder Mike Morreale was left in the unenviable position of releasing a statement to confirm the rumour and announce that the Guelph Nighthawks were indeed leaving for Western Canada.
Morreale was not happy to pivot from the way he had planned to handle a sensitive situation involving the relocation of one of the league's original teams.
Several weeks later, Morreale isn't kidding around with his thoughts on how things unfolded for his upstart professional basketball venture.
"This is bigger than just the team move," Morreale told TSN. "That's the upsetting part. I very much value the people of Guelph and the people that helped us have a team there for four years.
"So, to not be able to tell them properly and have it get leaked was not how we do business. That's the one thing I think that upsets me more than anything. And the other fact is it put a damper on an amazing Championship Weekend. We should have been talking about that, but instead we're talking about a leak, and it gets ahead of it and Calgary. So, if you want to quote me on anything, you can quote me on that."
In the statement, the league explained that Guelph has just the 46th-largest population and 26th-largest media market in Canada. Furthermore, the league pointed to the Honey Badgers, along with the Scarborough Shooting Stars and St. Catharines-based Niagara River Lions as being in close proximity for Guelph fans wanting to attend CEBL games in the future.
Having said that, Morreale charges himself with a task that is bigger than any particular market, namely ensuring that his 10-team league thrives in the way he envisioned years before the CEBL took to the court.
"At the end of the day, I have to do what's best for the overall business, which means playing in markets that are sustainable and allow us to expand," says the Hamilton native. "I have to manage our growth and make sure that we're able to be moving towards a divisional model and other factors of being in the West Coast and all that. So, everything is taken into consideration and knowing that our staff was doing anything and everything to make Guelph work, we just knew it wouldn't be able to catch that fire."
The former CFL star, who later became president of the CFL Players’ Association, is well versed in the landscape of professional sports
"Attendance aside, you just look at everything – fan engagement, social media, websites, newsletters. When you have a team that's at the bottom and it just doesn't get any better, or they're limited in terms of the growth and you just know at the same time [other teams] are taking off, you just have to sometimes make tough decisions,” he said.
"Coming out of COVID, we were watching it like we watch all of our teams and how they rebounded out of COVID and how they were versus 2019 before COVID and how they were trending in terms of season tickets and everything. Regardless of the overall numbers, you just want to make sure people are trending in the right direction and things are keeping pace. Then you realize it just can't keep pace."
Morreale expanded on leaving a market that was simply too small for a league striving for global recognition.
"There is no local media from a print or news point of view," Morreale said. "We knew that going in. I guess we underestimated that a little bit because it becomes very difficult to get your message out when you don't have that. It was a tremendous time. I saw some of the best basketball played and the fans got to see four years of incredible basketball. I believe we're going to leave Guelph a better place from a basketball perspective. At least, I hope we will, and I hope we did."
Morreale says most fans he has spoken to in Guelph aren't happy to see a professional sports team depart the community, but they understand the bigger picture of leaving for a larger population base in Calgary.
"I'm upset that we had to do it. I'm upset it didn't play out the way we anticipated. At the same time, I have to protect 500 [player and front office] jobs [league wide] and I have to make sure we're playing basketball the next day," he said.
"I know the roadmap includes being in major markets and that was a decision we had to make. It was a decision that benefited us on both ends. It presents us an opportunity in a very big market and also on the West Coast, and it helped in the Ontario market by just changing who is in that market. There is just a lot of teams concentrated in the small area and one of them wasn't performing very well. So, that's a business decision."
While Morreale continues to search for suitable local ownership, he says the plan is in place for Calgary to be up and running next season.
"We're talking to multiple groups in Calgary, but at the same time, we're prepared to launch the team as a league-owned team, like we've launched nine other ones," he said.
"Our focus doesn't change. We're going to be bouncing a basketball in Calgary in May of 2023 and it may be under league ownership or under local ownership. Either way, we're going to be playing on that date."