With basketball, Edmonton really hasn’t had cause for excitement since 1922, when the women of the Edmonton Grads began a legendary rise to worldwide acclaim, cut short by World War II when the team disbanded in 1940 with 502 wins and just 20 losses.

Today, David Dorward (Accounting ’73; above) may not be expecting such a legacy for the Edmonton Energy, but he and the eight other owners of the men’s pro team see room for basketball in a city devoted to pucks and pigskin. With the 20-game 2011 season underway, they hope to carve out even more.

Since starting in 2009, the International Basketball League squad has been amassing fans (and a bit of controversy) on borrowed hardwood at the University of Alberta. In 2012, it moves permanently to south Edmonton’s new $38-million, non-profit Go Community Centre (pictured behind Dorward), a building designed to draw a crowd.

Founded by Dorward, managing partner of Dorward & Company Chartered Accountants, the facility is North America’s largest of its kind, providing 12 full-sized courts for not just the Energy but all of Edmonton’s basketball enthusiasts.

But even with a new home, building the Energy won’t be easy. The group has yet to profit from the team, but according to Dorward, financial success isn’t the point. Instead, he’s interested in the less tangible benefits of what he calls “the perfect game” – and thinks that, like during the Grads’ heyday, Edmonton will be, too.

techlife: Why did you get involved with the team?

David Dorward: The Edmonton Energy are an extension of my philosophy relative to youth in the city of Edmonton and the game of basketball.

I coached basketball here for 22 years and in that time I coached a lot of kids who could have gone the wrong way in life. I used the game to encourage kids to stay in school and do well so they could stay on the team, and hopefully make the next team as they go through life…. So the game of basketball is a launching point for them doing well in life.

The Edmonton Energy fit in with that philosophy as well. Kids will come out and see the Energy playing and say, “Hey, my coach said I should stay in school so I can play at college or play for the Energy in front of my friends.”

Why basketball in a town dominated by hockey and football?

I think that basketball is the perfect sport. I use that word intentionally. It is very inexpensive to play. It can be played by one person; you can add one more person and have a full-fledged game; you can add any combination of 10 people. All you need is a ball and a hoop.

Do you play?

I never have. When I got out of high school I was 5’5”. I was a little shrimp…. I refereed for seven years, was president of the Edmonton Grads Youth Basketball Association and now I’m the major owner of this pro team, but I’ve never played.

What should fans expect?

There’s high energy, high scoring, lots of excitement. It’s fast paced; there’s not a lot of timeouts.

The athleticism this year will be to the nines because of the quality of the players…. We just added Quinnel Brown. He was Premier Basketball League MVP playing for the Quebec Kebs…. Lee Scruggs is back as team captain. He played on the Georgetown Hoyas.

The team has had some playoff issues in the past.

In our first year, the ’09 year, we paid to go to [the] tournament in Washington state and it wasn’t inexpensive. It was $12,000 for the owners to kick in, and it was sudden-death. The team played one game and they were gone. So we spent $12,000 basically sending the guys down to the States to play one game.

The next year, last year, what we said to the team early on – full disclosure – was, we as owners don’t know if we can kick in $12,000. It’s an optional tournament. We surveyed the owners and 100 per cent voted not to go, so we didn’t go.

What I said to the press at the time was, "We the owners want to operate in 2011. So, if we’re going to start our bank account off with money to operate in 2011, then we want to do it [by not going] instead of blowing another 12 grand on going to the playoffs, maybe losing the first game and we’re done again."

But the press didn’t pick up on that part. The press picked up on, “Team isn’t going to playoffs. Team is eligible for playoffs. Players want to go.” And the players had a right to grump. I get that. They wanted to go and play, but we have to be realistic.

What will happen this year?

This year, we changed things. We sat down and said, Let’s have our last road trip down to Oregon [near the tournament]. So we solved the problem. If we were smart before, we would have come up with the same answer: be down there already and you don’t have to pay the 12 grand to get there.

For you, what will success in this venture look like?

Success is having kids and families enjoying the game. And, secondarily, success is breaking even because that allows us to carry on…. Success isn’t based on a business model that makes any money; we’d probably just plow it back in.

What will the Go Centre do for this team?

It’s exposure. The Go Centre will see 1.4 million people go into that building in a year.

How did your NAIT education contribute to this?

It provided the base for my whole career. I don’t know that my career would have been the same had I not gone to NAIT. It set me on a plateau of a solid understanding of numbers and business matters and it allowed me to be energized and excited about business ... such that I used that as a launching point for my CMA and my university degree and my chartered accountancy.

It’d be understating it to say that it was huge. It was more than huge…. I just had a rock-solid base to work from as I went into the working world.

I feel you’ll have to be very persistent to make the Energy work. How do you feel about that?

I’m energized. We will definitely have a 2012 season. Every year our fan base is increasing. I think it will take a big bump with the Go Centre. I have no doubt that we’ll break even. I think we’ll always have the Energy in Edmonton.