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OPINION: So why did the Guelph Nighthawks not work out?

Guelph did not embrace the Nighthawks, but the league has to take some of the blame
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Really, the question isn't why did the Guelph Nighthawks leave town? it's why did they come here in the first place.

Canadian Elite Basketball League president Mike Morreale pretty much laid it out in a TSN article shortly after it was revealed the team was moving to Calgary for next season.

Morreale pointed to the fact that Guelph is the 46th largest market in the country and couldn't sustain a team on the level the league aspires to one day be.

Knowing that, one has to wonder why they came to the Royal City in the first place.

Despite the romantic notion that Guelph is a 'basketball town,' the interest just isn't here, never mind the population. Two other leagues drew flies before collapsing. The University of Guelph Gryphons, which sold out the barn in the late 80s, now draw tiny crowds.

There isn't the dedicated fan base nor the level of corporate sponsorship needed to sustain a professional team that has to pay and board players, fly the team across the county and run a game-night operation.

The team averaged 1,500 paid fans this season, although many nights there were less than a thousand in the seats, with a portion of those usually free or subsidized. They peaked at 3,000 for a game against a team featuring well-known rapper, and on that night two-thirds of the fans in attendance were likely from out of town.

Let's preface this by stating one thing: they tried hard to make it work. The people at Ground Zero at the Sleeman Centre worked their butts off to provide a very enjoyable night and a quality product, as the basketball games themselves were really excellent entertainment.

If you went to a game, you enjoyed it.

But the league has to take some ownership for it not working. There were a number of things working against the team and the league has to accept some of the responsibility for that:

- tickets starting around the $30 range makes it tough to bring a family or to come more than once a week.

- ticket-driven leagues face an uphill battle and the lack of a major corporate sponsor locally hurt.

- the team should have played out of the University of Guelph, not the more costly and cavernous Sleeman Centre, at least until it outgrew it.

- lack of a dedicated home night (10 home games were played on six different days, including Sunday and a holiday Monday), does not contribute to growing dedicated a fan base.

- basketball is not a summer sport in Canada.

- four other pro basketball teams within 90-minute drive (Scarborough, Hamilton, Niagara, Kitchener) doesn't create any regional attraction.

- an odd playoff structure that made it difficult for teams to host playoff action.

Morreale also took a shot at lack of local media coverage: "There is no local media from a print or news point of view," he inaccurately stated.

GuelphToday alone ran 82 articles over their tenure here, but I wholeheartedly agree it wasn't the kind of coverage the league wanted or hoped for. Surely they couldn't have expected daily beat coverage usually offered professional teams with near-daily coverage and blanket coverage of games.

It's third-tier basketball. Don't expect top-tier coverage.

It wasn't even the regular coverage given to the the Guelph Storm. Nor should it have been. You have to earn that kind of coverage by proving there is a demand for it. With limited budgets and limited staffing, newsrooms have to be selective in what they cover and how they cover it. Generally speaking, sports is not a priority unless the numbers prove it should be. The Nighthawks never got there.

If the Guelph Nighthawks had been drawing 4,000 fans a game like the Guelph Storm does and creating the community interest the hockey team does, they would have gotten coverage closer to what they hoped for. But it didn't. Or couldn't.

Here's hoping that happens in Calgary, as the league's commitment to establishing a much-needed professional basketball league in Canada is admirable. But it wasn't ever going to happen in Guelph.


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Tony Saxon

About the Author: Tony Saxon

Tony Saxon has had a rich and varied 30 year career as a journalist, an award winning correspondent, columnist, reporter, feature writer and photographer.
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