Trio of expansion teams accelerate CEBL's rise in Canadian sports landscape

The Canadian Elite Basketball League is now the biggest pro sports league in Canada.

With the addition of three expansion clubs for the 2022 season, the CEBL has more Canadian-based teams (10) than the NHL, NBA and MLB combined, and more than the CFL (nine), CPL (eight) and MLS (three).

The Montreal Alliance, Scarborough Shooting Stars and Newfoundland Growlers may not be getting in on the ground floor, but they're accelerating the league's rise to the top.

Annie Larouche, vice-president of operations for the Alliance, previously spent 25 years with the CFL's Montreal Alouettes.

She said the CEBL has the potential to grow at least as big as its football counterpart.

"There's lots of awesome people in this league. And it's a solid structure. There is a vision. Everything is thought about. And definitely, definitely basketball is huge in Canada," Larouche said. "Here in Montreal, we haven't had a professional team for at least 10 years and people are very excited. So yeah, I do believe that."

The CEBL's fourth season begins with three games on Wednesday, including the Alliance's inaugural contest in Hamilton against the Honey Badgers. The Shooting Stars debut Thursday with a visit to Guelph, while the Growlers wait until next Friday to open their schedule at home against Edmonton.

You can live stream every game during the 2022 season on CBCSports.ca.

WATCH | What you need to know for the 2022 CEBL season:

Though the three new clubs hail from distinct pockets of the country, they share similar team-building visions focused on community, Canadian basketball and competition.

It begins with the team's nickname. Larouche saw the icy reception her city's MLS side received when it rebranded plainly to 'CF Montreal.'

The CEBL team