NBL Recruiting Mission

One Ontario market appears to be out and three others in as the upstart National Basketball League of Canada continues recruiting teams for its inaugural season. Andre Levingston, owner of the Halifax Rainmen and interim president of the new circuit, said Thursday that he and the other founders of the NBL remain on the hunt for other franchises to add to the lineup ahead of a June 15 cut-off date. The Rainmen, Saint John Mill Rats and Quebec Kebs broke away from the Premier Basketball League last month and announced the formation of the NBL Canada on May 12.
Cities that the NBL originally began negotiations with had until last Friday to send off a deposit cheque. Levingston, in Toronto this week for the Canadian Basketball Congress, hasn’t been in the office to open his mail but provided an update Thursday on those prospective markets.
"I know that Kingston has, I know that Oshawa has (sent their deposit)," he said. "I’m almost 100 per cent certain that London has. I’m actually meeting here with their owner very soon but they’re full-steam ahead so I’m sure that they did send theirs in. "Barrie is for all intents and purposes probably out this season. . . . We were just unable to come to any sort of agreement with a new tenant coming into the building. But we’re still in negotiations, discussions, with several other cities: Kitchener, Ottawa, P.E.I. (Charlottetown) and Moncton."
Prospective teams are still working on venue leasing arrangements that would have to be secured before they’d be granted acceptance into the league. Full franchise fees are due June 15, the deadline to apply to be a part of the inaugural campaign, which will run from late October to March "Everyone wants to make sure that they can structure an agreement that makes business sense, and crunching numbers," Levingston said. "You wanna make sure that it works. We’re giving them time to do their due diligence as those people came on a little bit later than some of the original guys that we spoke with. It’s ongoing and we’re doing everything in our power to assist them with their decision-making and hopefully we can come to some agreements with these cities." The lineup of teams for the season will be announced on June 30.