The CEBL is now officially a coast to coast league. The Canadian Elite Basketball League announced this week that they would be adding a 10th franchise in St. John’s, Newfoundland in time for the 2022 season.
The club will be known as the Newfoundland Growlers, a moniker they share with the ECHL’s Newfoundland based hockey team. Both franchises are owned by Deacon Sports and Entertainment and will use the same branding and logos for each entity.
By adding the Growlers, the CEBL now becomes Canada’s largest domestic pro sports league with 10 teams across six provinces. In a statement posted to the CEBL website, commissioner Mike Morreale stated “St. John’s and the surrounding area is known to be an outstanding sports community with exceptional fan support, so we’re excited to bring the best pro basketball in Canada outside of the NBA to Newfoundland…Dean MacDonald, Glenn Stanford, and the staff at Deacon Sports and Entertainment have an unparalleled passion for investing in the community through sports ownership and the Growlers Give program. With 75 percent of our team rosters comprised of Canadian players, the CEBL has the highest percentage of Canadian players of any pro sports league in the country. I’d like to thank Deacon Sports and Entertainment for stepping forward to support the development of Canadian basketball.”
According to initial reports, the Growlers will expand seating capacity at Memorial University to accommodate up to 2,500 fans for the team’s inaugural season. The club and the university will work closely with one another offering skills development sessions for the university’s players, internship and job placement opportunities, and game day operations experience.
The Growlers are part of a third round of expansion the league has seen since it debuted with 6 founding members in 2019.