WATERLOO — Plans for this month's launch of an upstart professional basketball league, fronted by a former Toronto Raptors head coach, have been shelved until December.

"We could not start with three teams and deliver the vision the (Canadian Basketball League) has for a FIBA rules basketball league," league founder Butch Carter said in a statement.

Back in November, Carter postponed the rollout of a community-owned Waterloo-based club in the proposed four-team Ontario loop until next season.

Other franchises were set to hit the floor in Scarborough, Ottawa and Hamilton this month.

But the CBL was unable to secure a venue for the Hamilton team, the Ohio-born, Indiana University-educated Carter said, and a January start was scrubbed.

"I will take full responsibility for this issue. We will do a better job to secure facility co-operation in the future," he added.

The CBL, Canada's first pro league to play under FIBA rules, is intended to provide a home for some of the 250 Canadians currently playing basketball south of the border or overseas, he said.

The still-unnamed Waterloo franchise, the only league team to play in a hockey arena, was stalled by a more complicated launch at the Waterloo Memorial Rec Complex, Carter said in November.

The increased changeover costs to a basketball arena and nine home dates that conflicted with the Ontario Hockey League's Kitchener Rangers' schedule provided big obstacles, he said.

Last year, Carter wrote an in-depth 111-page business plan for his league based on formulas used by the Canadian Hockey League, Euroleague Basketball and Major League Soccer.

Carter has said he won't join forces with an existing Canadian pro basketball league, the nine-team National Basketball League of Canada, because he said its business model is not sustainable.

In September, Waterloo city councillors voted to support the local CBL franchise with nearly $50,000 in upgrades to the Rec Complex and other costs to be paid back with three per cent interest.

City officials said they expected a profit of about $381,000 from the new team after six seasons.

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"We are sitting and watching," said the Waterloo team's chief executive John Thompson. "And then we will look at our options.

"All of a sudden we have some time on our hands."