Basketball fans from across Canada converged on downtown Winnipeg Friday night as the Canadian Elite Basketball League Eastern and Western Conference Finals tipped off at Canada Life Centre.
The Winnipeg Sea Bears are hosting the league’s 2025 Championship Weekend, which also includes a festival outside Canada Life Centre. Other events, including a league award ceremony, were held earlier in the week. The championship game between the Niagara River Lions and Calgary Surge, who defeated the Sea Bears 90-79 on Friday night, will be played on Sunday evening.
The Sea Bears got an automatic bye to the western final by virtue of being the host team.
“To bring people out and to be able to see all the cool things we have to offer here, also to watch the Sea Bears play and celebrate some sports on home turf, it’s great for the city and it’s great for the province, of course,” said Sea Bears fan Chris Burns.
Fans like Burns packed Graham Avenue and True North Square hours before Friday’s Eastern and Western Conference Finals match-ups at Canada Life Centre, taking in live music performances, grabbing food from vendors, and playing three-on-three basketball action on the court set up outside.
Basketball fan Martin Angel came from Montreal for the championship weekend, even though his home team isn’t playing.
“It’s my first time here and I was just walking around [and] the festival is amazing,” he said. “There’s music acts, there’s some things to do, people to see and chat with some fellow fans.”
Basketball fans Cameron Brown, left, and Martin Angel, right came from out of province to take in the festivities. (CBC )
That sentiment was echoed by Cameron Brown, who came from Calgary to watch his favourite team, the Surge, take on the host Sea Bears on Friday. Brown said it’s important for the league’s growth for fans to travel to the Championship Weekend host city, much like Canadian Football League supporters do for the Grey Cup.
“Look at the city right now, look at Winnipeg,” he said. “This wouldn’t be like this if this wasn’t going on right now. This is great.”
CEBL commissioner has high praise for hosts
The league’s commissioner is also liking what he’s seeing from Championship Weekend in Winnipeg so far.
“When we created the, the vision of Championship Weekend seven years ago, this is kind of what I envisioned,” Mike Morreale told CBC News before the Sea Bears tipped off against the Surge.
He also said Winnipeg is the “test” and “high watermark” for the league’s team standard.
“They certainly lead the way in attendance, they lead the way in merchandise, they lead the way,” he said. “And just the brand awareness, their community engagement’s huge. They’ve got a well-rounded machine. It’s only going to get better.”
Thousands of fans came out to support the Sea Bears as they took on the Calgary Surge Friday. (Gavin Axelrod/CBC)
The CEBL also announced earlier this month that the team broke its own total-season attendance record with more than 90,000 fans coming to games at Canada Life Centre this year.
Sea Bears owner and chair David Asper said part of setting that standard is making sure people of different ages and backgrounds feel like “they belong” when they come to a game.
“We’re very proud,” he said. “We put a lot of hard work into this and we’ve committed to a plan and it’s just wonderful.”
“We’re humbled. We’re grateful that people have embraced what we’re doing,” said Asper.
But despite the festivities outside the arena, the thousands of Sea Bears fans inside of it were sent home without a win to celebrate.
“Sea Bear nation showed up, they were fantastic, they were loud they were into the game,” said head coach and general manager Mike Taylor. “They were the sixth man, so we really are thankful for that.”
“Today we take ownership, we say ‘Hey, we tip our cap to Calgary,'” he said. “They outplayed us, they beat us, we weren’t as efficient as we needed to be and that’s the way our season will end.”