After more than two decades, professional basketball is coming back to Cape Breton.

The National Basketball League of Canada has announced plans to operate a team in Sydney, but questions about being raised about whether Cape Breton can support a professional basketball team.

The team will play out of Sydney’s Centre 200, bringing the total number of teams in the NBLC to nine, with five of those teams based in the Maritimes.

“You’re going to get a lot of fun basketball. It’s going to be a great time for the entire family,” says team owner Tyrone Levingston, who is also the son of former Halifax Rainmen owner Andre Levingston.

Basketball fan Fabian Smith says he will attend some games, and may even buy a season ticket, but he’s skeptical as to whether the team will succeed.

“Is this a strong enough league? Can it sustain itself? Can they overcome the negativity that that generated?” asks Smith, referring to the controversy surrounding the Halifax Rainmen last spring.

The Rainmen forfeited its last game to the Windsor Express in April, citing safety concerns following an altercation between the teams before the final game to determine the champion of the NBLC.

As a result, the league handed out $90,000 in fines, suspended 11 Rainmen players and permanently barred the coach and assistant coach from the league.

The team declared bankruptcy in July.

Sydney has been home to pro basketball before, but the Cape Breton Breakers lasted only two seasons in the 1990s, before their league folded.

“I wish the new owners luck,” says Smith. “They’re really going out on a limb.”

But Levingston is confident history will not repeat itself.

“We really, really believe this is a strong league, a growing league, and we want to be part of it,” says Levingston. “If we felt it was unstable, if we felt it was something that could not work, I don’t think us or Niagara would have joined.”

Levingston says about 1,500 fans are needed per game to break even.

It isn’t clear whether Cape Breton will begin play this season or next. Ownership, which includes local investors Parker Rudderham and Marty Chernin, still needs to come up with about half of the team’s $750,000 operating budget in time for the opening tipoff on Boxing Day.

“We want to be here right now. They absolutely want to do it right now, but we want to make certain it’s all in place the right way, because we want to be here for a long time,” says league commissioner David Magley.

The team also needs a name, which will be voted on by fans in an online contest.

WIth files from CTV Atlantic's Ryan MacDonald