Canadian Elite Basketball League side Hamilton Honey Badgers have relocated permanently to Brampton, and will now be known as the Brampton Honey Badgers.
The team announced, in a press release on Monday, that “due to the closure of Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre during the 2024 and 2025 CEBL seasons while arena renovations occur, the Honey Badgers are being permanently relocated to Brampton in time to begin play for the 2023 season.”
In a letter to members of the group in charge of the development, Mayor Andrea Horwath, Ward 2 Coun. Cameron Kroetsch, and the general manager for FirstOntario Centre, CEBL commissioner Mike Morreale said the move was due to the team’s inability to do business during the construction of the arena.
The team, along with the Ontario Hockey League’s Hamilton Bulldogs and the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League said they were informed earlier this month that FirstOntario Centre would shut down for much of the next two seasons.
“Understanding that the closure will force the Honey Badgers to be displaced for at least two seasons and realizing the immediate impact that has on the team’s ability to engage with its community. … It is important that the team gets established into a new home as soon as possible,” Morreale said in his notice.
He added “We were recently informed that renovations to Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre will displace the Honey Badgers for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
“Rather than playing elsewhere on a temporary basis during that time and relaunching the team again in 2026, the City of Brampton made it an easy decision for us to establish a permanent new home in one of the best basketball markets in Canada.
“The opportunity to play in a basketball hotbed and near Mississauga, Toronto, and our Scarborough franchise is a welcomed solution that we’re very excited about.”
