The Eastern Canadian Basketball League racked up more than $180,000 in debt by the time its inaugural season ended abruptly in May, according to a league official, and nearly two months later, several players, staff, and vendors are still waiting to hear when — or if — they’ll get paid.
David Tingley, former manager of business and basketball operations for the Moncton Motion team, says when the league started, everyone was excited.
He said they were told that the owner, New York-based Ravi Verma, was “financially viable and had big plans.”
After the first couple of weeks when people didn’t get paid, they chalked it up to “regular first-year issues,” said Tingley.
He alleges explanations ranged from delays because the money was based in the U.S., to arenas being behind on their payments.
But as he and the Moncton coaches pushed for answers, those “quickly evaporated into … serious financial problems.”
When the league announced in May it was cancelling all remaining regular season games and the championship tournament, it said it was to restructure and come back stronger and more secure in 2024.
The affected teams included the Moncton Motion, Saint John Union, Bathurst Bears, Truro Tide, the Valley Vipers, and Charlottetown Power.
“We don’t want the city, the vendors, the sponsors, the fans, the volunteers to feel like it was in any way their fault for the end of the league,” said Tingley.
“What went wrong here was a terrible business model,” which he alleges was to rely on ticket sales and sponsorships. Ticket sales started strong at about 2,000 per game, then “waned a little bit,” at around 700, he said, which he described as natural for a first year.
Tingley alleges he has not been paid a cent for the roughly eight weeks before the league ended and is out an additional $1,000 because he never got reimbursed for food and equipment he bought for some players.
Most players across the league have received only two of the eight weeks they’re owed, according to Tingley.
Most of the coaches haven’t been paid either, he said, and three businesses in Moncton alone have outstanding bills totalling about $86,000.
“If [the league] collected money from sponsorship, which they did, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if nobody got any money — vendors, players — where is that money?”
CBC requested an interview with the league owner. Instead, Verma sent a link to the league’s May 19 Instagram post announcing the end of the season.
League president Tim Kendrick in Charlottetown was also contacted but did not respond to a request for an interview.
‘We dug a pretty big hole’
“The league is heavily in debt. Nobody can deny that,” said league vice-president Dwayne Tingley, who is no relation to David Tingley.
He says while the Bathurst team was a “great success story,” overall the league overestimated revenues and underestimated expenses. “I think we expected attendance to be higher,” and accommodations ended up the biggest expense due to a shortage of housing and reliance on hotels.
Dwayne estimates the league was at least $180,000 in the red. That amount has since decreased “substantially,” he said, but he could not provide an estimate.
The debt is being paid down “very slowly,” he said, noting he hasn’t “been paid a dime” yet, and has taken a leave of absence until all the league’s debts are honoured.
“It’s going to take some time. I mean, we dug a pretty big hole.”
For now, all I ask is that they’re patient while we try to work something out.– Dwyane Tingley, league vice-president
The league made “a concerted effort to get the players caught up as much as possible,” said Dwyane. He estimates players across the league have been paid about 80 per cent of what they’re owed.
He acknowledged some staff, including coaches, have not been paid. “Every effort is being made to pay them.”
The league owner has been in touch with all vendors about a repayment plan, he said, while sponsors have been offered “reduced rates” during a second season.
As for fans with season tickets who lost out on five or six games? “We’re very sorry for what happened,” he said, adding the league is working on reduced ticket prices for them for next year.
“For now, all I ask is that they’re patient while we try to work something out. It’s not a good situation.”
Dream come true short-lived
Moncton Motion small forward/power forward James French said he and his teammates only got paid for two weeks.
“It was quite unfortunate how everything played out.”
French, a 24-year-old rookie, said it was a dream come true for him to be able to play professional basketball in his hometown. “I feel like I really grew as a basketball player and person.”
As a university student, the missing “couple thousand” hurts, he said, but he feels worse for his teammates, many of whom came from the U.S. and are owed more, based on their contracts.
“It was frustrating for me to see that they weren’t getting the proper pay or proper treatment that they were told they were going to be getting,” he said, noting some of them had given up other jobs or other opportunities to join the league.
He hasn’t heard anything about getting paid since the league ended, he said, and is “not too confident” that he will.
“I think most guys would feel the same … which is why a lot of guys wanted to go home as soon as possible to start, you know, making money or finding other jobs instead of kind of waiting around and hoping things are going to work out.”
Coach would never have gotten involved
Motion head coach Todd McKillop said he knows of two coaches in the league who each received one paycheque. The rest “never got a cent.”
When McKillop was approached about coaching, he contends his first question was how the league would be funded, because “pro leagues cannot survive on ticket sales and merchandise sales.”
“We were guaranteed that there were investors in the United States. The owner had investors, many investors within his company that were supporting the league and getting it off the ground until it could get going,” said McKillop.
“I never would have came on board a league that I didn’t think had the funding in place, to disrupt people’s lives by bringing them from all over, you know the United States and Canada and not paying them.”
Bus company already hurting after pandemic
Jonathan Keith, owner and president of Optimum Ride Charter Service, said he’s owed just over $38,000 for transporting players on his buses and has consulted a lawyer.
“It’s a big chunk,” he said, especially on the heels of two “horrible” years of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he had to let five of his 24-bus fleet go.
According to Keith, Verma personally hired him. “I even told him, I said, ‘I must get paid for this,’ because we had had bad dealings” with another sports organization and got stuck with a $5,000 bill.
Keith, who has been in business for 23 years and employs about 40 people, said the teams travelled a lot in a short period of time. “So that’s why they run up a bill so quickly.”
“I didn’t get concerned until it hit 30 days — and then they decided to stop the league.”
Keith said he tried to reach Verma as recently as last week about his bill, but has received no response.
Hotel manager ‘not impressed’
Hyatt Place Moncton is owed $37,000, according to general manager Pascal Pisegna.
“I got a wire transfer of $100” about a month ago, “and that’s it.”
Pisegna is “not impressed.”
“We did our part. You know, we negotiated a rate and we provided clean guest rooms for their players and did everything that they wanted us to do. We did it, now just pay this bill. It’s all we ask.”
Verma has sent emails saying payment arrangements are being made, according to Pisegna.
But “he’s been saying that for a long time now,” he alleged.
The hotel is not taking any legal action “at the moment.”
“We’re just hoping he starts doing something.”
‘Very disappointing’
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Moncton is waiting for nearly $11,000 from the league for accommodations from May 3 to May 18, according to general manager Joni-Raye Poole.
“It’s very disappointing,” she said. “There was some confusion over where [the players] were staying and last minute we were able to move reservations around to accommodate and continue to extend reservations last minute.
“The players who stayed here were fantastic and we felt awful having to ask them to leave due to non-payment.”
Verma hasn’t provided any “concrete” payment plan, according to Poole. “Just that he plans to pay.”
League set to resume next year
David Tingley said he believes other teams aren’t speaking out because they’re hoping the league will resume next year, as scheduled.
He doesn’t see how that will be possible in Moncton without new leadership.
“They have damage in their wake all over the place.”
The league vice-president contends most players have said they would come back.
“I don’t think we have burned bridges with players. We sure got a lot of bridge mending to do with spectators and sponsors and vendors, no doubt,” said Dwyane Tingley.
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