The defending CEBL champions are moving to Brampton. Photo credit: Facebook/CEBL
The Hamilton Honey Badgers are permanently leaving Hamilton for Brampton according to the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL).
The move comes after the team was informed that they would be temporarily forced out of the FirstOntario Centre (their home stadium) for the 2024 and 2025 seasons due to renovations. It was the late timing of the news of their displacement that left the team scrambling.
Despite the team knowing about the FirstOntario Centre renovations, it was originally believed that the Honey Badgers, and the other teams that play at the stadium, would be able to continue playing at the arena while renovations were taking place since construction was going to occur in stages. But that is no longer the case since the project became significantly larger in July 2022.
Yet teams were only given official notice of their pending displacement on Friday, November 11, 2022.
The Hamilton Urban Precinct Entertainment Group (HUPEG), which is in charge of the revamp, originally projected approximately $50 million in upgrades.
However, global sports and entertainment company Oak View Group (OVG) became involved in the project, a move that allowed HUPEG to announce an even larger scope for the arena refurbishments. The total investment is now expected to be somewhere between $100 million to $200 million (all privately funded and at no cost to the taxpayer).
As a result of the project’s larger scope, it became less likely that teams would be able to keep playing at the arena during the revamp.
But while all three teams knew that they might have to find temporary homes, they were only given official notice of that fact last month, leading to some confusion and anger from the team officials involved.
At the time, Michael Andlauer, the owner of the Hamilton Bulldogs (who will also be displaced), went so far as to tell the Hamilton Spectator that he was “pissed off”. Likewise, Mike Morreale, commissioner of the CEBL, said he was “angry” and that “the communication breakdown has just been incredible.”
It’s a combination of the miscommunication and the impact that displacement would have on the Honey Badgers’ market that has resulted in the decision to permanently move the team. The Honey Badgers will now play at the 5,000-seat CAA Centre in Brampton.
CEBL Commissioner Mike Morreale said that there are no alternative venues in Hamilton that meet the league’s technical requirements (which include a condition of amenities for food and beverage services as well as a proper playing surface).
Since the CEBL is a relatively new league seeking to establish itself, it is less than ideal to have to move the team to another city for two years and then come back to Hamilton when the renovations are over.
“Rather than playing elsewhere on a temporary basis during that time and relaunching the team again in 2026, the City of Brampton made it an easy decision for us to establish a permanent new home in one of the best basketball markets in Canada. The opportunity to play in a basketball hotbed and near Mississauga, Toronto, and our Scarborough franchise is a welcomed solution that we’re very excited about,” said Morreale.
Founded in 2017, the CEBL began play in 2019. With COVID, the 2020 season was postponed and conducted in a “bubble” without fans.
The timeline of the renovations and the fact the team has only played 14 home games since arriving to the city in 2019 because of the pandemic means that it would be too hard for the team to continue to make progress becoming “part of the fabric of the community,” Morreale told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton.
The Hamilton Honey Badgers, now officially called the Brampton Honey Badgers, are the defending CEBL champions. The league’s season runs from May to August and has twenty regular season games. There are ten teams from six provinces with a six-team playoff that includes a Championship Final Four weekend.
Other teams are the Calgary Surge, Edmonton Stingers, Montreal Alliance, Niagara River Lions, Ottawa Blackjacks, Saskatchewan Rattlers, Scarborough Shooting Stars, Vancouver Bandits, and Winnipeg Sea Bears.
Game format is similar to a regular basketball game except for the end of the fourth quarter when the clock is turned off and teams play to a target score to determine the winner.
Morreale said there is a possibility that the CEBL could bring a franchise back to Hamilton in the future, but it would likely be under a different name.
The other two teams that play at the FirstOntario Centre are the Hamilton Bulldogs of the Ontario Hockey League and Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League. Both teams will also have to temporarily relocate and, like the Honey Badgers, officials say that it will be difficult to keep the teams in Hamilton during that time due to lack of alternative stadiums. Neither team is yet to announce their temporary plans.
Hamilton sports fans should know, however, that there is no indication from the Bulldogs or the Rock that they are planning a permanent move out of Hamilton.
Based in Hamilton, Ontario, Kevin Geenen reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on social media. He is a regular contributor with The Hamilton Independent and has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. He is known for Hamilton Neighbourhood Watch crime updates and no-nonsense news graphics. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa and later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. He also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal from Governor General David Johnston and formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. He is currently employed as an Office Administrator at RE/MAX Escarpment. His journalistic work is independent of his other positions.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
