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The future of professional basketball in Halifax remains uncertain with the start of the National Basketball League of Canada’s season just over two months away. According to league commissioner Dave Mangley, next week a group of local businesspeople will announce a new Halifax team set to play this season.
The city’s previous team, the Rainmen, filed for bankruptcy in July, with debts totalling $695,567. This came weeks after the team forfeited game seven of the league championship against the Windsor Express because of safety concerns.
Trade Centre Limited, which operates the municipally owned Scotiabank Centre where the Rainmen played, isn’t on the list of creditors owed money. But documents obtained and published by the Canadian Taxpayer Federation through a Freedom of Information request leave questions unanswered about the financial agreement between TCL and the basketball team.
The fee the Rainmen payed TCL for each game—redacted in the documents—covered the box office, ushers, security, cleaning and other services. The Rainmen also provided TCL with 20 tickets per game, including playoffs, and another 200 complimentary tickets for staff appreciation events last season (half the total of the year before). Also redacted, the percentage of food sale commissions TCL paid to the Rainmen.
Though attendance woes hampered the Atlantic Division’s top team even before the playoff and off-season drama, TCL does not appear to be owed money by the now-defunct Rainmen.
Professional basketball has had a confusing and rough go in the city lately, but it appears the last chapter has yet to be written.
This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2015.
good. i personally don’t understand the comments on the bankruptcy articles saying “good halifax is a hockey city.” Why can’t we have TWO sports teams and support them both!
Out with the old owner and in with the new! Halifax professional basketball needed a facelift so the fans can have a fresh start with a new team, new uniforms and new management! We love basketball in this city and I will be cheering the loudest! I just hope that we can have Joey Haywood back so we can finally see what this young man can do when given the proper playing time. He has never had the freedom to play his game in any of his previous seasons. There was always a cap put on his minutes and the amount of points he was allowed to score! Please bring back one of our own!!!