Canada Day/NBL Meeting/Congrats
Got home after the penultimate edition of Offsides and I have to update this post. Why?
“BREAKING NEWS: The ownership group originally looking to bring professional basketball to Kingston, Ontario was unable to come to an agreement with their city for the 2011-12 season. The ownership group and league President & CEO, Andre Levingston, are in serious negotiations to bring the franchise to Moncton, New Brunswick as we type this.”
Well, that’s a great way to end the month. Just when I think the city might have their act together with the K-Rock Centre. This happens. Fronts, by their own admission, in rebuilding mode which means not great crowds. So you’d think another tenant would help. Apparently not. Tomorrow being a holiday I don’t expect much of an update till Monday. Maybe Saturday’s Whig-Standard depending on things. Back to the regularly scheduled post from this morning.
—
Back in the chair on Friday. Going with my original plan for 2 hours of Hey Rosetta! with them being part of the Canada Day Tragically Hip show in Toronto. For those of us who can’t make it.
Probably sticking with more rare stuff. They just released for free some live tracks you can download from a recording session at The Verge in Toronto. Recently got the original EP they put out in 2005 which you can’t find anywhere. Even CFRC doesn’t have this and they have the original printing of ‘Plan Your Escape’. Look forward to that on Friday. I will upload that show too [which I haven’t done in a while].
Was writing a blog on a variety of topics which I will post next week. With the NBL Canada Owners meeting I thought I should write an update on that. Especially with Canada Day tomorrow. These were posted on Twitter and Facebook at the following links.
http://twitter.com/NBLCanada
http://facebook.com/nblcanada
Owner’s Meeting Voting Results, June 29, 2011
• Established active team rosters of a minimum of ten players and a maximum of twelve.
• Established the minimum number of Canadian players on active rosters at two per team.
• The National Basketball League of Canada will play under FIBA rules, but with 12-minute quarters.
• The number of regular season games is set at 36, with each team playing each other during three home and three away games.
• Established the playoff format to consist of the top four teams based on their regular season record. The first round of playoffs will be a best of three series, with the championship round being a best of five.
• Voted on holding the inaugural NBL Canada All Star Weekend in mid-January 2012, and establishing a process for cities to bid on hosting.
• Returning franchises will be permitted to submit a protected list to the league of five players from the previously established teams.
• The NBL Canada Pre-Draft Combine will be held on August 20 and 21, 2011, at Seneca College in Toronto. The first day will be a free agent combine, while the second day will for Canadian players only.
• On the night of Sunday, August 21, 2011, the NBL Draft will be held at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. The Draft will consist of three rounds: the first being a free agent player, while the second and third rounds will be for Canadian players only. All draft candidates must pre-register and attend the combine that pertains to their status to be drafted.
• The order of the NBL Draft 2011 was established by lottery for the four expansion teams, followed by the reverse order of the founding teams last season records. The official draft order will be released when 2011-12 NBL teams are formally announced.
Also mentioned was Maurizio Gherardini, VP and Assistant GM of the Toronto Raptors, stopped by the meeting. He was also involved in starting the Euro League.
The franchises will be announced in 2 weeks but as of now it looks like Oshawa, Kingston, London and a team from PEI would join Quebec, Saint John and Halifax. Talk of expanding in 2012-13. If you read the earlier posts you will remember interest from Moncton, Fredericton and Barrie. To me sounded just a matter of a tight schedule for some of those places.
Here in Kingston we are lucky in that we have an arena that is only 3 years old. And only permanent tenant is the Frontenacs. Reduces the facility headaches. Majority of OHL schedule are Friday night games.
Now time for a few well wishes.
Congrats to CFRC Alumni Julie Stewart-Binks on her move to Winnipeg. She’ll be part of Fox Soccer Report which is made in that city. Now she gets to be there when the Jets return this fall. And remember the Jets will be in the Eastern Conference this season since they didn’t have time to realign things. Visits from the Bruins, Leafs, Habs, Penguins, Captials, etc. Tickets might be hard to get, but not as hard as getting Leaf tickets are. I would think. Good luck Julie, not that she needs it.
http://twitter.com/jstewartbinks
Finally a congrats to Tyler King who is leaving Kingston soon. Radio job in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Full time news and gets to call junior hockey. Does mean my helping out on ‘Offsides’ Thursday afternoons will come to an end. Tyler called Voyageurs games this past season and worked at CKWS in town along with the CFRC show. So I think the year will be less busy for him. Matt Bisson is now in Edmonton and the computers were acting up a few weeks ago. On Twitter I used a joke about Queen’s Football that works for Tyler too ‘could be worse, at least you don’t have a blown out tire on the 401’. I will explain that comment another time. 🙂
And yes Fort Mac. ‘Little Newfoundland’ as I have joked. Which isn’t really a joke if you know that town any. Just look on WikiTravel about the place.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Fort_McMurray#b
“The Fort McMurray Newfoundlanders Club – A very popular spot with the locals. All kinds of music are played here. Club mix, country, rock, and yes, Newfie music. Be sure that if you’re going to show up on a Friday or Saturday night, come early, as this place fills up quickly.”
Realized this week there is a streak of Western Provinces grabbing CFRC people I’ve worked with since I’ve been here. Tyler, Matt and Julie the latest ones. First year I started helping out Richard Zussman was wrapping up his work on the football broadcasts. He went to CityTV in Edmonton then onto SunTV in Vancouver. Guess the West is getting bigger every year.
That’s it for this week. Enjoy the long weekend.
Salt Water Music 