St. John's Edge won't be part of National Basketball League of Canada when it resumes play (original) (raw)
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St. John's Edge won't be part of National Basketball League of Canada when it resumes play
League says team is taking a leave of absence as Atlantic division disappears entirely
Brendan Mccarthy, PNI Atlantic
Published Nov 04, 2021 • Last updated Nov 04, 2021 • 3 minute read
In this May 16, 2019 file photo, Jarryn Skeete of the St. John’s Edge scoops up a rebound as he’s guarded by Nick Evans of the Moncton Magic during Game 4 of the National Basketball League of Canada final at Mile One Centre. Looking on is Moncton’s Corey Allmond (3). Neither the Edge or Magic or any of the other teams that had made up the NBLC's Atlantic Division will be part of the league when it resumes play in February. — File photo Photo by Contributed /Contributed
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. The St. Johns Edge will not be part of the National Basketball League of Canada when its new season launches in early 2022.
On Wednesday, the NBLC announced it will begin its 10th season on Feb. 5, 2022, but only with four Ontario-based entries.
It will be a return to action after nearly two years of downtime because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the hoops circuit will look much different than it did in March of 2020 before the shutdown.
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A news release from the league said the Edge are taking a leave of absence due to the fact the team was unable to secure an appropriate venue for home games.
The team had played out of Mile One Centre (now Mary Browns Centre) for three seasons and had been seen as a success story within the NBLC, but a failure to secure a new lease agreement with St. Johns Sports and Entertainment (SJSE), which operates the facility, led to the Edge losing its exclusivity at the arena.
SJSE later announced it had struck a deal with an American Basketball Association team eventually to become the Newfoundland Rogues to become its new hoops tenant.
The NBLC says the Edge are taking a leave of absence due to the fact the team was unable to secure an appropriate venue for home games.
That also put an end to a planDeacon Sports and Entertainment principal owner Dean MacDonald says would have seen Deacon, which owns the ECHLs Newfoundland Growlers, negotiate a lease deal for then-Mile One that would have covered both pro teams.
The Growlers eventually signed a three-year, hockey-only lease with SJSE, although the team is now alsoout of the downtown St. Johns arena pending the investigation of charges of disrespectful workplace conduct brought against members of the hockey teams front office by SJSE employees.
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Instead, the Growlers are playing their first homestand of the 2021-22 season at Conception Bay South Arena, beginning Friday.
As for the Edge, Deacon still maintained an interest in taking over the team after its ousting from Mile One. In early September, the NBLC announced MacDonalds group had a tentative deal to buy the rights to the Edge from Irwin Simon and Rob Sabbagh, with MacDonald saying plans were to operate the team this upcoming season.
However, the deal was never finalized amid the difficulty in finding a suitable home court, meaning Simon and Sabbagh still officially own the Edge.
Even if an alternate facility had beensecured, there would have been other challenges to keeping the St. Johns team playing in the NBLC. The leagues Atlantic Canadian wing, which had included six teams afterthe Edge arrived as an expansion franchise in 2018, has dwindled to two.
In this file photo, the Edge’s Karrington Ward goes high for a basket at Mile One Centre in St. John’s. St. John’s Edge file photo/Ryan MacLellan
In August, the defending champion Moncton Magic who had defeated the Edge in the last NBLC final in 2019 announced they would no longer beplaying in the league. Two months later, the Halifax Hurricanesmade a similar announcement.
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In both cases, the organizations said they would be pursuing other basketball opportunities.
The Cape Breton Highlanders and Saint John (N.B.) Riptide had been each granted a hiatus by the league in 2019, but have not been heard from since.That left only the Edge and P.E.I.-based Island Storm as NBLC teams east of Ontario. The Storm are also taking a one-year absence.
The NBLCs four remaining teams the KW (Kitchener-Waterloo) Titans, Windsor Express, Sudbury Five and London Lightning will instead have schedules that will feature interlocking games against teams from another minor-pro circuit the TBL (The Basketball League) headed up by former NLC commissioner Dave Magley.
But while the future of the NBLC in eastern Canada looks dire at present, the leagues vice-president of operations, Audley Stephenson said It’s time to shift our attention on moving forward so that we can rebuild the Atlantic Division to make it even better than what it was.”
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