Sea Bears set standard for success

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This article was published 20/07/2023 (1165 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On the surface, it seems like a bit of a magic trick.

The Winnipeg Sea Bears are leading the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Western Conference standings while also setting attendance records that would have been impossible to fathom for an expansion team in a minor-pro loop most Winnipeggers had never heard of a year ago.

What exactly is going on here?

The secret of Winnipeg’s success comes in several parts. A winning team — with veteran basketball lifer Mike Taylor at the controls — was a good start, but wise planning and a serendipitious arrival on the local sports scene has contributed to the Sea Bears’ rise.

Since their debut on May 27, when a league-record 7,329 fans watched the home club beat the Vancouver Bandits 90-85 at Canada Life Centre, Winnipeg has established a new standard for success in the CEBL.

With one regular-season home game remaining, the club has attracted the five largest crowds in CEBL history and its average attendance of 5,196 also leads the league.

“Our brand from the CEBL perspective has been really well received across the country and in Winnipeg, it just caught fire,” says CEBL commissioner and CEO Mike Morreale. “Sometimes those things happen, and you try and figure out why and sometimes you just don’t know why and you just go with it. You ride the wave.”

Orginally, Sea Bears owner David Asper had a more modest plan to launch his team at the University of Manitoba’s 3,200-seat Investors Group Athletic Centre but the opportunity and lure of playing in the city’s downtown was too much to resist.

“We made very conservative assumptions to introduce this team to the market and once we made the decision to play at Canada Life Centre, we knew that if it was better than we anticipated, we could progressively grow, right up to 7,400,” says Asper.” I’m almost superstitious about anything beyond that and thinking anything beyond that. I’d like to go back and make sure that we have 3,500 or 4,000 or 5,000 committed (fans) that are going to come back next year.”

Playing in the downtown arena has added a big-league feel to what is a minor league sport, with appropriately low ticket prices (starting at $24 per seat), a quirky rule to end games called the Elam Ending (which has been an instant hit) and rosters consisting of a mostly of Canadian talent and some previously unknown import players.

“They also created a really big family atmosphere where everyone’s welcome,” says Morreale. “They’re all part of something bigger. The decision to go to Canada Life Centre was a big factor as well. Because now you’ve got professional basketball in a professional arena.

“Instantly you’re taken to an environment that you know it’s going to be a lot of fun. It feels right, it looks right and I think that it’s talked about and passed around from fan to fan and I honestly believe we could be doing bigger numbers than what we’re doing there. But we’re trying to take a very smart gradual approach, not trying to do too much, too soon.”

The CEBL, which began play in 2019 with six franchises run by a single owner (Richard Petko), is now 10 teams strong with five of those under private ownership. The Edmonton Stingers, previously one of the teams operated by Petko, was sold in March to a trio of Edmonton businessmen, including former Winnipegger Jamie Burns.

Burns, a Stingers season-ticket holder since the club’s inception, says the franchise has enjoyed an uptick in business at the 4,000-seat Expo Centre since the transfer to local ownership. He consults frequently with Asper and believes Winnipeg’s business model makes sense for the Stingers, too.

“We probably had the same 800 to 1,200 people coming to every game — hardcore fans (under the previous ownership),” says Burns, whose club sold out its final four home dates in 2023.

“We had a very similar approach (to Winnipeg): these are hockey towns although basketball is played extensively, especially by a lot of people who are new Canadians or cultures that don’t have a connection to hockey the way long-term Canadian citizens would have… we both decided, somewhat independently, but we talked a lot as well, too — to make it a family event because the price is right. Our motto is affordable, family-friendly fun.”

Asper has spent time on the road observing what other franchises are doing while his league brethren are also visiting Manitoba with an eye on what has made the Sea Bears the talk of the league. Prospective owners of an expansion team in Quebec City have been studying Winnipeg’s success with the hope of establishing an expansion franchise in the 18,000-seat Videotron Centre next summer.

“I was just dying to see how it worked in the big venue and it works fantastic,” says Burns of a recent visit to Canada Life Centre. “That obviously puts ideas in our head but, you know, you’ve got to walk before you can run. So over time, (a bigger venue) certainly might be an option (for us).”

For the uninitiated, going to a Sea Bears game can be a bit of sensory overload. A pre-game party followed by in-game promotions, music and half-time shows have been embraced enthusiastically by what is a diverse fan base. The proliferation of team merchandise worn by fans is remarkable.

“There’s a playbook of what this league is designed to be and I bought into it literally, which is a fusion of high-level pro basketball, art, music, life, culture, food, all those things — entertainment,” says Asper. “We’re all trying to literally do that and where other team owners have done it and invested in it — and this is happening in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Scarborough as well — it’s working.”

The Sea Bears’ marketing approach seems to have hit a sweet spot, too.

“The cool thing I’ve noticed is that the overall branding and marketing of the team is catered to the hype of the game…,” says Gina Contreras-Ruiz, a marketing manager at Winnipeg’s UpHouse agency. “Their branding on social media kind of appeals to that same style, that same piece, which is really cool. I think that appeals to a younger demographic and it feeds well on Instagram reels and on Tik Tok because of the content that they can create.”

Asper is from an older demographic but he set the table early, consulting with grassroots organizations such as Basketball Manitoba before the team was announced.

“I’d say it shows that there has been a pent-up demand,” says Basketball Manitoba executive director Adam Wedlake. “We went a whole generation since the Cyclone and Thunder (pro basketball) days (in the 1990s), and it shows that there was obviously an audience that was starved for this kind of stuff.

“The discussions that David and I had very early — just over a year ago now — about sort of hitting these demographics that for the most part were not being served by the other sporting franchises in the city — sort of tapping into areas that are excited for sport but are not the biggest football fans or hockey fans.”

Wedlake believes the Sea Bears-Basketball Manitoba relationship is good for both parties.

“I’ll probably know every fourth person in the crowd as I’m wandering through,” he says. “I’ll recognize they’re in our system: they play, they coach, they referee or do whatever. Now there’s also a lot of people that are just casual sports fans and I would just say, for them it’s affordable night out with the kids. To see the excitement on their faces — that to me, is the intangible piece that this is bringing that we’ll start seeing. Our (enrolment) numbers are on the climb.”

The arrival of the Sea Bears appears to be a tipping point for the CEBL, which began four years ago with a plan to start small and build slowly.

“I think David and Winnipeg have really created almost a new path to where the CEBL can go in major spectator facilities, in the major arenas, in these major markets, where you’re going to attract let’s say, thousands more people, because of where you play,” says Morreale. “And then once they come and they experience it in an A-level building, then they’re more likely to return.”

The overwhelming public acceptance will come with growing expectations. For example, will Asper choose to open the upper level of Canada Life Centre, thereby creating the potential of a record-shattering crowd for a likely home playoff date next month?

“We’re trying to be responsive and that’s a whole new level of expense and management,” says Asper. “If we get to that point, then that’ll be a wonderful thing but the people are going to determine that.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14