Concerts, a festival and a big trophy up for grabs, the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) Championship Weekend is officially here.
“I know this is going to be the biggest and best. It certainly has the biggest support from a fan perspective, from a community perspective,” Mike Morreale, the CEBL commissioner, said.
The top three teams across the CEBL, along with the Winnipeg Sea Bears as the host team, will be playing to clinch the league championship title. On top of the games, Graham Street will be full of entertainment with music, food trucks, a market and more.
“It’s an amazing opportunity for us to show the rest of Canada how great the Sea Bears and their basketball fans are,” Winnipeg Sea Bears president Jason Smith said.
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The CEBL championship weekend is just one of many big events Winnipeg is hosting this year.
“It’s great from a tourism perspective, hotel stays — we are seeing dollars from outside our community come into our community,” Loren Remillard, president and CEO of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said.
Smith adds they are expecting 900 hotel room nights as a result of the weekend.
“I’m going to guess that’s about 400 to 500 visitors through that,” Smith said.
As for the Sea Bears, their first test is Friday night when they play the Calgary Surge.
“I think we have to take care of the ball, defend, play with aggression, and I think we will be good,” Sea Bears forward Emmanuel Akot said.
Winnipeg currently sits fourth in Western Conference standings.
“We have great confidence in our team. We’ve beaten everyone in this league. We’ve beaten Calgary. But let’s respect our opponent. Calgary is an outstanding team. They’re really good,” Sea Bears head coach Mike Taylor said.
Exciting, close games are exactly what Morreale expects, too.
“The one thing we have in our league is parity. We have some incredible teams, some incredible athletes. It can go either way tonight,” Morreale said.
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