River Lions host party

It may be eight months away from the start of the inaugural season of the Canadian Elite Basketball League, but the Niagara River Lions have already started to party.

The former National Basketball League of Canada franchise, known for its fan friendly environment at its home games, hosted a launch party Friday at Market Square in downtown St. Catharines.

“The River Lions are in a unique situation in the CEBL because we are the only existing team of the six that are starting out in May 2019,” Niagara director of operations Michelle Biskup said. “We obviously have our fanbase and our partners and everyone was wondering what does it mean, what is it all about, why, and what does it mean for my partnership or my sponsorship?”

The launch party seemed to be a good way to answer many of those questions.

“We wanted to throw a party to get everyone informed and excited about what is going on and answer any questions,” Biskup said.

River Lions staff have been out and about this summer at festival and events spreading the word about the CEBL, which will include teams in Niagara, Hamilton, Guelph, Edmonton, Abbotsford, B.C., and Saskatoon.

“As soon as we have a conversation with people, they leave really excited and with a completely different tone than how the conversation started,” she said. “Change is hard for everyone, but this is change for the better and we are super excited about it and want everyone to be just as excited as we are.”

So what does it mean?

“Now we are in the summer so it is a completely different season. We’re competing with teams out west and different teams,” Biskup said. “We are going to have better talent and better availability of players.”

Many of Canada’s top players compete overseas and then return to Canada in April and May.

“They sit around for the summer trying to figure out what’s next and do odds and ends jobs to make some money,” she said. “Now they have the opportunity to play in the summer months and we have had an amazing response from the players.”

Because the games will be in the summer, it will allow the River Lions to host pre- and post-game festivities outside. The team is hoping to make use of Market Square for some of the festivities.

“This was a trial to have something pre-game here with drinks and a band and everyone can walk over in the sunshine to the Meridian Centre,” she said.

Biskup describes the CEBL has a whole new entertainment experience.

“In the past, the River Lions have done a really good job of engaging fans and even if you weren’t a basketball fan, you had a good time,” she said. “We’re looking to build on that with more excitement and more going on and it’s going to be a league-wide mandate that every team is like that.

“It will be a consistent product no matter what city you go to to watch a game.”

Another huge benefit of the CEBL is that it will be affiliated with FIBA. The National BasketballLeague of Canada wasn’t and because the league’s contracts weren’t recognized by other international leagues, the players could come and go as they please. River Lions fans would warm up to a player and then that player would leave without warning when a more lucrative contract came along.

“A lot of fans would be upset when a player left and a lot of it was out of our control,” Biskup said. “Now being a FIBA-sanctioned league, if a player wants to leave they have to buy out their contract and it’s not a shock to us if they are leaving.”

“We can stop it from happening or let them go, but there will definitely be less turnover with players.”

The big challenge for the River Lions is to remain in the minds of its fans until the league launches next May.

“We’re hoping over the next several months that we can keep the fans engaged and this is one of the events,” she said. “We might have another event around the holidays and we are running kids camps and we have the availability of (former River Lions) players.”

On Friday, it was former player Clinton Springer-Williams at the launch party. He is a trainer with No Limit Performance and played with Niagara in its first season.

“The CEBL will be releasing significant announcements at certain times to keep fans wondering what is next,” Biskup said.

In its third season, Niagara averaged 2,000 fans per game and had 600 season’s tickets holders, according to Biskup.

“Our goal is much higher this year,” she said.

The team has hired more staff to make that a reality.

“In the past we didn’t have enough staff in place, but the CEBL has mandated that every franchise have certain positions,” Biskup said.

The league has also hired a marketing firm, Oryx Agency, to assist teams with marketing.