Island Storm coach hopes later start to season will mean higher attendance

The head coach of P.E.I.'s professional basketball team supports a move by the league to delay the start of the season despite the challenges it's creating for player recruitment.

Teams in the National Basketball League of Canada would normally be on the court already, gearing up for the season to start in November.

I credit the league for making the change and sticking with it.- Joe Salerno, Island Storm head coach

But the league isn't starting the season until Dec. 26 this year in an effort to boost ticket sales.

"It's going to be a great kind of test in kind of seeing how it affects our fans whether positive or negative way, whether it impacts the league as far as talent goes," said coach Joe Salerno.

"But I credit the league for making the change and sticking with it."

'Smart move'

Salerno said he saw a lot of empty seats at both home and away games in late November and December in previous seasons.

"I think with the holidays there's a lot of other things for people to be doing and spending money on other than possibly buying tickets to come see live sporting events," said Salerno.

He thinks starting the season after Christmas should solve that problem, and anticipates larger crowds at playoff games, which will now run into May and June.

"I think we could see more fans coming this spring, in the months of May, when hockey isn't going on any more, certainly collegiate basketball isn't going on any more," he said.

"So I think it was a smart move, and we will see nice repercussions from it on the business end of things."

Recruitment struggles

But Salerno said there is one major drawback to the later start: teams are having a harder time recruiting and holding onto players.

"It's difficult for some of those players to turn down offers in Europe when their seasons may be starting in September or October, rather than waiting until December when our season will start," he said.

"We found some new players this summer too in the off-season that may not have wanted to wait at home until December when we start training camp. So I think it's showed some impact there."

Salerno said there will still be four or five members of the Storm roster returning this season, which is about on par with most years.