New owners takeover the reins of KW Titans

Meet the new owners of the KW Titans David and Kate Schooley say buying the team is about community over profit. Jeff Pickel reports.

It's nothing but net for the new owners of the Kitchener Waterloo Titans.

It was formally announced Thursday that real estate broker David Schooley and his wife Kate purchased the team.

The duo say buying the team is about community over profit as they have not always been basketball fans.

“Unlike many of the original owners, we are not personally basketball players. We don’t come from that background,” said Kate

In fact, before the launch of the titans back in 2016, they said they had never been to a game.

“We just enjoyed the atmosphere so much. So non-sports fans at that point, we were just addicted, and it was so much fun,” said Kate.

Now owners of the team, the Schooleys have the full blessing and support of the original ownership group.

“It’s been an awesome experience. You can’t beat it, but it's just time to move on and hand the reins over to someone else who has the energy,” said Leon martin, the original owner of the KW Titans.

The Schooleys said the ownership plan will be similar to the Green Bay Packers or Kitchener Rangers, where the fans actually own the team.

“Our initiative is to create a community-owned team,” said Dave. “So it’s a not-for-profit organization, and any profits that come will go towards youth sports in the community.”

The Schooleys said if, or when the team turns a profit, the proceeds will go back to the organization.

“We’re pretty good at marketing. That’s what we do for our real estate clients,” said Dave.

Last season the Titans drew a little over 500 fans on average per game, however, the Schooleys say they need to more than quadruple that number to break even.

“We are going to need 2,500 fans in the seats just to break even, so over the course of the next 10 years that’s our outside goal,” said Dave.

“We need people to understand that we have a professional sports franchise in our city, and you can come out and watch a game in our city for under 30 dollars, and its high calibre play, and if we get you out once, you are going to be life long fans,” said Dave.

The 2023 season is expected to tip off in February 2023.