Image: Tara Clow

Pro basketball is returning to Moncton.

On Wednesday morning, Eastern Canadian Basketball League President Tim Kendrick announced the seventh franchise in the league called the Moncton Motion, “They’ll join two other teams from New Brunswick, the Saint John Union and the Bathurst Bears. Also, they’ll join the Summerside Slam and the Charlottetown Power, and from Nova Scotia, the Valley Vipers and the Truro Tide.”

The Moncton Motion will play out of the Avenir Centre.

“The Eastern Canadian Basketball League is a community league.  We are not looking at going outside the Maritimes,  we’re building our league within the Maritimes and we’re going to stay within the Maritimes,” Kendrick says. “We have rules in place in our league that are going to make sure that local players are certainly prevalent on our teams. We have a 50/50 split in our teams.  Fifty percent will be international and about 50 percent will be Canadian players.  Of those Canadian players, at least two of those players will have to have ties to the Maritimes.”

The team’s inaugural season will begin in March of 2023 and run until June.

The President of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Moncton is a big fan of the game.

John Wishart says this adds another entertainment option for the city, “Cities like Moncton deserve, I think, and almost expect quality sports entertainment. We have the Wildcats here and now we have pro basketball back and I think it is very positive.”

Wishart adds, it’s also beneficial to the Avenir Centre, “At least 12 homes dates, maybe the championship tournament and the All-Star game, training camp. it just adds more acclivity in this building, which is good for the Avenir centre and the city as a whole.”

(Photo: TDCB)

Ravi Verma, Executive Officer of the ECBL says, “Over the past couple of months, we have worked with a great team here in Moncton to make this all possible.  We are excited to call the City of Moncton and the Avenir Centre our new home.”

The previous pro-basketball team, the Moncton Magic was a part of the National Basketball League.  It won the championship in the 2018/2019 season, but COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the season in the following year.  The team withdrew from the league in August 2021.