It may have been a bit of a rough start for the fledgling Canadian Basketball League, but that wasn't evident Sunday at the Mitchell Athletics Centre.
The upstart four-team professional league made its Guelph debut, with the Wellington Basketball Club losing 79-78 to Durham in a thrilling and entertaining game.
Most of all it was attended by roughly 600 people in the brand new University of Guelph athletics complex that only opened for action earlier this month.
"Very pleased. Very pleased with the support the crowd gave us and very pleased with the faces that showed up. I believe this is where the league is going," said Butch Carter, coach of the Wellington team and co-owner of the entire league.
"The make-up is important. We want the families and we want the kids. We want the youth basketball teams," Carter said.
"Even if we're not accepted into the national basketball community we're going to force our way into the national basketball community," Carter said.
"I want to see it grow. I hope to add a fifth team in Ontario eventually."
The new gym was perhaps the star of the show.
"This stadium is wonderful. We're very fortunate to have this facility. It's one of the outstanding facilities in Canada," Carter said.
It has been a bit of a rough start for the fledgling league, owned by Carter and a business partner from the United States.
It was supposed to start last year but ran into difficulties. Then the league was sued by people brought in to help run a Waterloo franchise.
It got going this year with teams in Guelph, Durham, Scarborough and Hamilton. There is also a game of the week on YES TV every Saturday night.
But attendance has been poor, the league web site is lacking even basic information such as league standings and scores and marketing has been virtually non-existent.
Getting information from the league has also been a chore at times and its social media presence is spotty at best.
On the court, the Guelph team has already brought in three new players and its head coach quit after two games, putting Carter behind the bench.
Still, Carter hopes Sunday's game in Guelph is a sign of better things to come.
Not only was it a relatiely decent size crowd, it was also the type of crowd the league wants and needs to attract - your local hard core basketball fans but also a lot of families.
It was a great game, with Wellington leading by 10 at the half, only to see it dissipate and the lead go back and forth in the fourth quarter.
Ashton Smith's driving layup gave Durham a 79-77 lead with about 10 seconds left in the game, then Wellington's Devon Scott was fouled with three seconds on the clock.
He hit the first of his two free throws but missed the second that would have tied the game.
Wellington is now 0-5 on the season.
"They played last night and I think fatigue caught up with them," Carter said, "but they're going to be okay I think.
"On a scale of one to 10 I think it was a seven. We can do things better. But the two teams competed and did an outstanding job and that's all you can ask for.
"People are starting to see the image of the kind of national basketball league I want."
Wellington plays at Durham on Saturday then will host Scarborough on Sunday at 1 p.m.
