Kitchener home to newest basketball team in National Basketball League of Canada

All they need is a name and a place to play.

A Kitchener basketball team will hit the court this winter in its first season with the growing National Basketball League of Canada.

"I think that we have a lot of great basketball fans here," said NBL Canada commissioner David Magley.

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"I think the irony of having Jamal Murray drafted last week is just a great coincidenceand I think we're about to blow up this whole country with basketball. So I think that this market deserves to be one of our primary ones."

Home games could happen at the Aud

The team is in negotiations to play their home games at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

Other teamsplaymost of theirgames at mid-sized arenas connected to hockey teams. Most players are of NBA-age and hope to make it into the big league.

TheNBL of Canada just ended their fifth season and isa completely different organization than the semi-proCanadian Basketball League,headed by former Toronto Raptors coach Butch Carter.

That league hoped to haveWaterloo franchise when itlaunchedlast fallbut couldn't assemble a team in time.

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The KitchenerNBLteam will be part of the central division of the league which includes London, Niagara, Windsor and Orangeville.

There are also five teams inthe atlantic division,located in Saint John, Moncton, P.E.I., Halifax and eventually Cape Breton.

The owner of the London Lightning and President of NBL Canada Vito Frijia saidKitchener is an important part of the hisexpansion plans in the coming years.

"We want to expand our league. This is a critical market for us because it's central to our existing markets. And it's a great jump-start to expand to Hamilton. We've got applications from four or five other centres which we're probably going to announce next year. This is a great group of guys and it's going to be extremely successful here."

Hockey vs.Basketball

Frijia saidwhen they launched its NBL of Canada team in London, critics said basketballwould never be successful in ahockey town. He said the London team now averages about 6,000fans a game during the regular season and 9,000 during the playoffs.

CameronBall, of Ball Construction and a majority shareholder of the team, saidthere's enough room for both games in Kitchener.

"There's some crossover with the two sports. But there are fans dedicated to one sport. But I think our region is big enough and supports sports enough that I think we have a lot of hockey and a lot of basketball support as well."

The next step for the team is to find a name. That will be done through a contest where fans can send theirsuggestions to info@kwnbl.com before July 15.

Season Six of the National Basketball League of Canada will beginDec.26, 2016.