Power return to the court in Saint John

The Port City Power are back.

A year after the entry in The Basketball League folded, league president David Magley announced the return of the team to action, tipping off in February.

The previous incarnation failed, as so many similar ventures do, because of money.

Magley said the league was excited about the team and the person who was prepared to run it.

“The reality was the funding component wasn’t coming together as quickly as he would have liked it,” he said. “And where he was going to play was going to cost a significant amount of money to get in and play the right way.”

Magley said it was an unfortunate situation, but it was the right move for all involved.

“The league doesn’t want to enter into something that we have to back up that is financially going to struggle,” he said.

It wasn’t the first time a basketball team in Saint John. The Mill Rats, later the Riptide, played at what was then Harbour Station from 2010 to 2019.

This time around, the team will play at the G. Forbes Athletics Centre at the University of New Brunswick Saint John.

Magley said the cost associated with TD Station is a barrier to success, mostly due to the expense of transforming the playing surface from an ice rink to a basketball court on a regular basis.

“It makes it hard to build a model that makes sense,” he said.

Magley said the UNBSJ facility doesn’t have all the amenities of a larger building like TD Station, but it’s what’s needed to get started.

The Power will play in a division with Moncton, Halifax and St. John’s, but Magley said he’s hoping to add four new teams in Atlantic Canada next year.