Why is toronto in nba

Since joining the league in , The Toronto Raptors have had many famous players play for their team. Vince Carter may be the most known for casual sports fans for his impressive dunks.

Most notably, Vince Carter put on a memorable show at the Olympics, which put the Raptors on the world stage. A post shared by Drakesxoworld??

Drake is a big NBA fan, and his cultural importance to the rap community is legendary. Having such a prominent artist sitting in the front row at games helps elevate the Raptors from a local and internal level. For most big games, you will find Drake sitting right on the floor, cheering on his team. At this time, there are no discussions about adding another group into the NBA. If any new discussions come up about expansion, Canada is undoubtedly on the table.

In addition to breaking into the CFL, Canada is a hockey town. Now adding the NFL to this mix with a popular baseball and basketball team may be difficult. Canada has strong ties to basketball, which may surprise many who assume the country only cares about hockey. Being a first time NBA champion in also helps solidify the cultural importance of the Canadian team too.

Thomas later became a club vice president and the architect of the Raptors' roster. The NBA's expansion into Toronto was unique for two reasons. First, it marked the league's first step beyond the borders of the United States.

Second, PBF was only one of three viable prospective bid groups in the same city. In previous expansions the NBA had been faced with choosing between competing cities, but never with such a strong internal rivalry for a franchise within a single market. There was little doubt, however, that Toronto wanted and could support an NBA franchise-top-caliber exhibition basketball games had twice drawn more than 25, fans to the SkyDome, in and The door to Canada had been nudged open the previous year by the Palestra Group, led by road construction magnate Larry Tanenbaum of Toronto, who was joined in his application by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Labatt Breweries, both of whom were also founding partners in baseball's highly successful Toronto Blue Jays.

In July an NBA expansion committee, headed by Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo, came to Toronto to meet with the bid groups, examine their plans, and visit their proposed arena sites. The PBF contingent made an immediate impact, based upon its criteria for a downtown site: it was to be on the subway line-giving Torontonians access without having to fight winter conditions-and close to the financial core of the city to entice major businesses to buy corporate boxes, a key element in the financial plan of s sport franchises.

Neither of the other bidders proposed a site that was so centrally located. In the end, it was the arena plan that led the NBA expansion committee to recommend on September 30, , that PBF be conditionally awarded a franchise for the season to become the 28th team in the league.

It was agreed that Toronto would play its first two seasons in the SkyDome while its own building was being completed. The battle was still far from over, however.

There was a chance that the franchise agreement would be revoked over the thorny issue of an Ontario provincial betting game, Pro-Line, which among other things allowed bettors to wager on the outcome of NBA games.

It took three months of sensitive negotiations involving the league, the PBF, and the province to resolve the dispute. The Toronto club took on responsibility for various youth and community programs in order to offset dropping basketball from the betting slips. Vintage Football Store. Official retro t-shirts English football clubs , be inspired by the most important moments of the premier. Rob Train. Update: 19 October EDT.

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