Royals United

Lore & Background

Royals United B.C. was established in 2024 and quickly made its mark in the 3x3 basketball scene. The team's first season saw them win the Brodie League — Vaughan championship, finishing 1st with a roster of Harman Chahal, Malcolm Jackson, David Meredith, Matthew Moschitti, Jimmy Nguyen, Eitan Shikher, Theo Small, and Casius Wray-Muto, with Malcolm Jackson serving as interim coach. That same year, they placed 2nd in the ISO KING 3x3 Basketball Tournament and the RCA3x3 - Vaughan Invitational, and earned 3rd place in the Supercrawl 3x3 Championship.

Over subsequent years, the team continued to compete in various FIBA 3x3 tournaments, including TeamAddy 3x3, where they finished 2nd in 2025 and 4th in 2026. Their roster evolved, with players such as Chris Ebanks, Jonathan Ibula, Kevin Hamlet, Dima Puzyrin, and Eytan Kapelow appearing in different events. Injuries affected some lineups, as noted for Malcolm Jackson, Jonathan Ibula, and Casius Wray-Muto in certain tournaments.

The team's branding features purple and gold colours, and its official logo—created by EITANS DESIGNS—includes the team word mark and a lion wearing a crown.

Reader's Guide

Royals United B.C. represents a relatively new but active participant in Canadian 3x3 basketball, a format that has grown in prominence since its Olympic inclusion. The team's rapid accumulation of tournament appearances and podium finishes within two years of founding highlights the competitive nature of the 3x3 circuit in Ontario. Their Brodie League — Vaughan championship in 2024 stands as their only title to date, but consistent runner-up and top-eight finishes in FIBA-sanctioned events demonstrate sustained involvement. The team's reliance on a rotating roster, with players like Malcolm Jackson and Eitan Shikher appearing frequently, reflects the fluidity common in 3x3 basketball. The club's identity, anchored by a lion-and-crown logo and purple-and-gold colours, contributes to the branding of the sport at the regional level. As 3x3 basketball continues to develop, Royals United serves as an example of a community-based team engaging with both local leagues and broader FIBA tournaments.

Did You Know?

• Royals United B.C. was founded in 2024 and competes in FIBA sanctioned 3x3 tournaments.
• The team's only championship as of the source is the 2024 Brodie League — Vaughan.
• The official Royals United logo was created by EITANS DESIGNS and features a lion wearing a crown.
• Malcolm Jackson served as interim coach for the 2024 Brodie League — Vaughan championship roster.

The Franchise System and Relocation Pressure

North American professional sports operate under a franchise model rather than a promotion-and-relegation structure. Unlike many other countries' sporting systems, there is no comprehensive governing body bridging amateur and elite levels, and no mechanism where underperforming clubs are replaced by successful lower-division teams. Instead, leagues maintain a fixed roster of privately owned franchises, typically between 30 and 32 teams as of 2024. This closed structure means that a city desiring a major-league team cannot simply earn one through sporting merit; it must wait for rare expansion windows or persuade an existing owner to relocate. The National Hockey League illustrates this trajectory, growing from 30 to 32 franchises with the additions of the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017, the Seattle Kraken in 2021, and the Utah Mammoth in 2024, the latter arriving through the deactivation of the Arizona Coyotes. Because expansion is infrequent and tightly controlled, relocation becomes the primary pathway for cities to gain or lose a team.

The Rival League Gambit

In earlier decades, rejected ownership proposals often led to the creation of rival leagues designed to pressure established competitors into expansion, merger, or recognition. The 1960s American Football League stands as the most complete success story, achieving all three objectives—merger, independent major-league status, and compelled expansion—in reverse sequence. Baseball's proposed Continental League never played a single game because Major League Baseball preemptively added franchises in the target cities. The American Basketball Association and World Hockey Association each secured partial absorption of their clubs into the established leagues after those leagues had unsuccessfully tried to kill the rivals by expanding. These upstarts succeeded partly because established owners were unwilling to commit most of their revenue to player wages and because leagues relied heavily on gate receipts. Today, that dynamic has inverted: television contracts dominate revenue, players' unions command the majority of league income, and average salaries in the big four leagues exceed one million dollars per season. A modern rival would need hundreds of millions, possibly billions, in upfront investment, as the failed XFL and UFL demonstrate.

The Economics of Moving a Franchise

Team owners who relocate generally seek improved profitability, better facilities, stronger fan bases, or some combination of these incentives. A common trigger is weak local support or mounting organizational debt that demands a larger population to sustain operations. Another frequent catalyst is a competing city offering a more lucrative market or a financially advantageous stadium or arena deal. Governments frequently sweeten the pot with substantial public investment. When the NFL's Cleveland Browns departed for Baltimore in 1995, Maryland committed to constructing a new stadium that the team could use rent-free while retaining all parking, advertising, and concession revenue. A similar pattern played out when the Baltimore Colts left for Indianapolis, after NFL owners granted Robert Irsay permission to choose his destination city following the failure to secure a satisfactory stadium. The Browns' move was so unpopular in Cleveland that the league treated the Baltimore club as a new expansion franchise, preserving the Browns name and lineage for a reactivated team that returned to the NFL three years later.

Legal Frameworks and Fan Backlash

Relocation remains one of the most contentious issues in North American sports. Critics argue that owners abandon loyal fanbases and the public funds that helped build their infrastructure. Yet under U.S. antitrust law, professional sports teams are generally treated as ordinary businesses, giving owners considerable latitude to pursue the highest bidder. The Los Angeles Rams' attempted move to St. Louis illustrates this tension: when fellow NFL owners initially blocked the relocation, the Rams filed suit, forcing the league to reverse its position and permit the transfer. Major League Baseball occupies a unique legal position, having secured an antitrust exemption through a Supreme Court ruling, yet it has nonetheless allowed relocations to proceed. The combination of franchise ownership, limited expansion, and the absence of a promotion-and-relegation safety valve means that a city's sporting identity can be uprooted by a single owner's financial calculus, leaving communities with little recourse beyond public pressure or the hope of a future expansion slot.

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