BCBusiness

22 BCBUSINESS MAY 2019 And it was almost exactly a decade ago in this very building that the American Hockey League's Abbotsford Heat began play. But the Calgary Flames' farm team couldn't draw much of a crowd, bleeding money from the start. Five years later, the Heat and the City went through an acrimo- nious divorce that had the latter paying $5.5 million to skip out on what was origi- nally a 10-year pact. Today there are a few remnants that hint of the Heat's existence—a framed auto- graphed jersey sits near the o‰ces, while a wall recognizing former season ticket holders adorns the concourse level. But the $64.7-million, 7,046-seat centre has mostly sat dormant since the Heat left, save for concerts and other special events. Well, until this month. When the newly formed six-team Canadian Elite Basketball League ( CEBL) begins play on May 9, the Abbotsford Centre will house the Fraser Valley Bandits. The league, which will roll out its 20-game schedule in the summer, is populated by a cavalcade of Canadian players (rosters must be at least 70-percent Canadian), including Joel Friesen, a gradu- ate of Abbotsford's Yale Secondary School and the Bandits' rst overall pick in the March entry draft. He and 12 teammates will have a large hand in shaping the team's debut campaign. Genier, president and COO of the league's western operations (he also over- sees the Edmonton Stingers and the Sas- katchewan Rattlers; the other three teams are in Ontario), believes the Bandits will be a long-term tenant at the centre. He has a convincing pedigree. The Calgarian was president of the NLL's Sas- katchewan Rush when the team joined the league in 2016. After winning Executive of the Year Award in the club's inaugural sea- son, Genier quit a year later to look after his brother, who had been diagnosed with cancer. When he left the Rush, they were second in attendance in the NLL. Now, with his brother's cancer in remission, Genier is ready to prove the doubters wrong. "I didn't go into Saskatchewan selling lacrosse; I went in there selling entertain- ment," he says. "Basketball is huge in the Fraser Valley and in Vancouver. It's on a major upward curve. So one, you're going to attract the basketball fans, because you're putting a pro team there. But you're also going to attract those people that are going to come for a night out." Of course, the Heat thought it was enter- ing a no-lose situation. At the time, the group behind it said market research had shown that an AHL team in Abbotsford was a smart business venture. Like many, Genier believes a major rea- son for the Heat's failure was that it was aligned with the Flames in a market domi- nated by the Vancouver Canucks. But he also points to a changing demographic in Canada. "I grew up watching hockey, but the diversity of our country has changed dra- matically and will continue to change," Genier explains. "Basketball is very popu- lar among a lot of di¢erent cultures, and we're in a very culturally diverse area of Canada. It's a very enthusiastic basketball crowd. I'd rather be on that curve climbing up than be part of a league that's declin- ing. And that's where a lot of the research is done in advance of placing these teams." The case for the Valley Dylan Kular, the Bandits' director of busi- ness operations, notes that there was never any discussion of putting the team in B.C.'s largest city—or anywhere other than Abbotsford, for that matter. "In terms of pro sports, if you enter into Vancouver, we're also competing with the Canucks, [B.C.] Lions, Warriors, [Vancouver] Whitecaps. "In the Fraser Valley, in the summer, we're the only show. And with hockey, you have the boards, you have the barriers, you can't provide as much entertainment value as you can with basketball. Before and during the game, we'll provide a lot of activations for families to have fun. We can replicate a lot of stu¢ that the Harlem Globetrotters do, for example, but the bas- ketball is going to be legit." And unlike with other professional sports, the cost of going to Bandits games won't be especially prohibitive. Season tickets can be had for $179, including taxes, with the low for single games hovering around $22. Kular and Genier both talk about the Valley as a hotbed for basketball, and there's some evidence to back that up. For instance, this March the provincial high school basketball championships tipped o¢ at the Langley Events Centre. The nal, featuring Kelowna Secondary School and Surrey's Lord Tweedsmuir (the eventual champion) drew an announced crowd of 4,518, well above what the Vancouver Giants bring in at the same arena. Len De Julius, president of the Fraser Valley Basketball Commission for 11 years, is in charge of organizing leagues and play- o¢s for the more than 400 school teams in the region. Although the Valley has a storied basketball history that goes back decades, De Julius says, he doesn't know if that will translate to the Bandits. "Even when the [Vancouver] Grizzlies were here, we didn't spend a lot of time in our basketball community talking about that, because everyone is focused on coach- ing and playing," he notes. "Everyone's busy guring out how to break a 2¨2¨1 zone press. I think [the Bandits] probably face a bit of an uphill battle to get people to come out. Largely because the Lower Mainland is very much a top-level type of area, as evi- denced by the fact that the Abbotsford Heat are no longer in Abbotsford." But his cynicism doesn't mean he has no hope. As former Vancouver Canucks general manager and current Sportsnet analyst Brian Burke likes to say, "Vote with your feet." De Julius plans to do just that.

• Cover