New pro basketball team a slam dunk for Moncton
Inaugural season for Eastern Canadian Basketball League to start in March
A new professional basketball team will have a home in Moncton.
The Moncton Motion is the seventh franchise to join the Eastern Canadian Basketball League. The team's launch was announced during a news conference Wednesday at the Avenir Centre, which will host the team's home games, said league president Tim Kendrick.
"Moncton has a strong history of sports, and you know they've done very well in the basketball world, as well and especially in supporting their sports, and that for us was a key," Kendrick said.
Other teams in the league include the Saint John Union and the Bathurst Bears, the Summerside Slam and Charlottetown Power in Prince Edward Island, and Valley Vipers and Truro Tide in Nova Scotia.
"The Eastern Canadian Basketball League is a community league and when we talk about community, we talk about the Maritimes as our community," Kendrick said.
"We're building our league within the Maritimes and we're going to stay within the Maritimes."
Kendrick said each team will be staffed by a coach, an assistant coach and a manager of business and basketball operations.
David Tingley, manager of business and basketball operations for the Moncton Motion, said getting the role is like a dream come true.
As a teenager he played on Riverview High School's basketball team and then played for Mount Allison University.
After graduating, he went back to coach his old high school's basketball team and also served as coach for Basketball New Brunswick.
"If you told young me I would be working for a pro league in town I wouldn't believe it, so it's pretty exciting that way," Tingley said.
Tingley said the league holds ownership of all the teams, unlike other leagues where the teams are individually owned.
He said it's a model that ensures the teams "stick around for a long time."
Moncton has been home to professional basketball before, most recently with the Moncton Magic, which was part of the National Basketball League of Canada.
In summer 2021, that team, the second biggest tenant at the Avenir Centre, announced it was leaving the league.
Season starts in March
Kendrick said the inaugural season is slated to begin March 17 and run until the end of June.
He said teams will play a schedule of 24 games with the top six set to make the playoffs.
Kendrick said an annual championship tournament will rotate among franchises each year, with league staff projecting up to $2 million in economic activity generated by the host city on the weekend it's held.
Games will be 48 minutes long split into four quarters, more in line with the National Basketball Association standard, Kendrick said.
"If we're asking people to buy a ticket, we want to make sure that it's different than a college game."
Kendrick declined to share details about player salaries, but said there will be a cap.
He also said other information about ticket prices, team budgets and coaching hires will be made over the next four to six weeks.
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