WATERLOO — A city-approved plan to bring semi-professional basketball to the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex this winter is riddled with questions, a local coach from a rival league says.

"I'm kind of surprised the city jumped at (the proposal)," said Kitchener resident Stu Julius, an assistant coach with the London Lightning of the National Basketball League of Canada.

"There are so many questions unanswered. Who is coaching the team? What are the other teams? Who are the players? Where is the schedule?"

Former Toronto Raptors coach Butch Carter had his plan to launch a team at the Rec Complex unanimously approved by city council on Monday night following more than 10 months of negotiations.

Councillors voted to support the inaugural Canadian Basketball League franchise with nearly $500,000 in upgrades at the Rec Complex and other costs to be paid back with three per cent interest for five years.

City officials said they expect a profit of about $381,000 from the community-owned team after six seasons.

Julius, a former basketball coach at Wilfrid Laurier University, and his son, Kyle, were in discussions with Carter, the new league's president, for several months.

The Juliuses considered Carter's offer to coach another team in his league, a possible Hamilton franchise.

"We never got the complete story from Butch. And then the Lightning came calling for Kyle so that's where we decided to go," said Stu Julius.

Carter's plan for his upstart league will see it operate games in different markets, but simultaneously with the already-established, eight-team NBL.

NBL president Vito Frijia said his league was approached by Carter, but it has no interest in merging teams or a schedule with the former Raptors coach.

"It's a totally different philosophy. We're in our fifth year and played nearly 1,000 games in our league. (Carter) has to prove he has a league."

The NBL, too, was in negotiations to launch a franchise out of the Kitchener Auditorium this winter, but that has been put on hold, said Frijia, who also owns the London Lightning.

"Nobody wants to be the spoiler, so people decided to back away for a year," Frijia said.

A new NBL franchise, the Niagara River Lions, was also in negotiations with Carter and his league, but decided to hook up with the established league instead, said Frijia.

Carter said he is familiar with the naysayers and their concerns.

But he intends to have four teams — Hamilton, Ottawa, Scarborough and Waterloo — operational for a December league launch.

He said the Waterloo franchise needs to sell about 2,000 seats per game to meet its financial obligations.

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Carter said he is in negotiations with potential team owners and has sent a tentative league schedule to Hamilton TV station CHCH with whom he has a 20-year contract.

He said he has contracts in hand for teams to play out of Mohawk College, Ottawa's Carleton University and the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, as well as Waterloo.

Team rosters are to be finalized by Nov. 15, as players are released by other pro leagues, Carter said.

"The City of Waterloo understands the vision. That's what you have to have. You have to have someone who takes the time to read the documents," said the Ohio-born and Indiana University-educated Carter, who prepared an exhaustive 111-page business plan for his league.

"This is a community asset. It's not a Butch Carter asset. It's not going to be easy. But we are going to do it."

Carter said he wonders why the NBL is throwing water on his league when it has its own problems to deal with, including numerous team bankruptcies.

"The NBL is frustrating because they keep doing stuff that hurts everyone in basketball," he said.

The NBL's most recent championship game was forfeited this past spring following a pre-game dust-up between players on the Halifax and Windsor squads.

Julius said despite his doubts, he is cheering for Carter.

"I wish Butch Carter all the success in the world. I hope his league goes. I really do," said the former Golden Hawks coach.

"But I think it is difficult to have two pro leagues competing at the same time."

- Semi-pro basketball coming to Waterloo