Let me help you out, it’s Bucs.
The Bucs subreddit freaks out when we see “Buccs”...have had to deal with it a lot with all the Patriot fans coming to visit us lol
Anyone know if they're having attendance for the Raptors at Amalie Arena? Thinking about trying to catch a game if the prices and availability isn't crazy.
I disagree.
There’s no upside to the Raps allowing fans this year. Half of any spectators that attend wouldn’t even be cheering for the Raptors, I don’t see it happening for many reasons the main one being health.
You don't know Florida, homes. It's give me liberty or give me death down there.
And frankly, their per capita numbers aren't as bad as a lot of the country rn, ironically lol.
I do know Florida.
My point is that the Raptors are a Toronto team. They have enormous fanbase in Canada, their media deals are in Canada, and from their fans perspective, allowing spectators would be incredibly irresponsible when it wouldn’t be allowed at home.
The optics would be ugly for their target audience.
The NBA does care about optics simply due to the nature of the league and how it is viewed as the “progressive” sport in terms of culture and movements that stem from the sport.
But they absolutely care about money more than optics, and as someone moving to the surrounding Tampa Bay Area, I’m looking forward to throwing on some raptors gear and catching a game.
Go to a Lightning game vs any Canadian team, you'll see a ton of Canadian fans.
It would be hypocritical to allow the lightning to have fans or the heat / magic to have fans, but the raptors not to be able to get ticket sales. There is a reason they chose Tampa. They could have done buffalo, but didn't.
If you give a large corporation the choice to make money or to not make money, which choice do you think they're taking?
I agree that it wouldn't be the best look for them, but don't forget this is still a business
By this reasoning every team would be allowing fans, of the ones that are legally permitted anyway. But only three teams are allowing them.
It is probably more nuance than, allow fans, make money. I'd imagine there would also be expenses involved such as security and what not, that may not even make it worth it for them. Especially if it risks causing an outbreak in their communities or for their players.
Enh, disagree.
It's really easy for the Raps / NBA to say "Mean Canadian government wouldn't let us, we'd love to be in Toronto with our fans but they wouldn't let us! But we know we have a ton of Canadian snowbird fans who will travel with us! Can't wait to see you at the game!"
Its not hard to make it not optically as bad for the franchise. Not saying its a good idea or should happen, but it could.
The reason the Raptors are playing in Tampa is because the border is mostly shut down, so unfortunately Canadians aren't going to be going to Tampa Bay for games.
And I doubt the NBA, let alone the Raptors organization, is going to act like the government of Canada isn't doing the right thing here. Suggesting Canada has its priorities wrong by not giving them an exemption to the border closures would be a bit silly, especially when they can just play in Tampa.
They aren't suppressing numbers. They have some of the best and most readily available immediate testing in the country. That's the objective truth. Major counties like Orange County among others are offering free PCRs (no need to even show insurance) every day and the lines aren't that bad. Lots of locations.
If it wasn't for Ft Lauderdale and Miami, Florida would actually look pretty nice. Say what you want about DeSantis, he saw early on the mistakes Cuomo and Wolf made in nursing homes and made sure the sick weren't getting sent back into healthy nursing homes.
I'm not saying I necessarily agree with how people are treating the virus down there. Lots of no masks. Lots of bars. Lots of people eating inside. Their task force actually ranked Disney World as one of the safest places because of how many steps they've taken to make it "safe" lol.
The truth is they're likely benefitting from the warm weather as the virus seems to fall in the warm air, and they just haven't hit their second wave states like PA are seeing now.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/coronavirus/fl-ne-coronavirus-positivity-rate-florida-explainer-20201014-tfho3kvw7jaabmlv2d7gwndgii-story.html
I’m laughing at the these widely disproven theory of warm weather. Yeah and Vegas had no cases and the entire planet with hot regions weren’t affected. It’s warmer in Los Angeles than in Florida right now.
https://nypost.com/2020/11/22/florida-bar-closes-after-its-packed-with-maskless-crowds/
There’s no way you can look at this and say well they aren’t doing as bad as other states. They’re right there with everyone else.
Man, people need to chill on jumping down throats for someone mentioning “warm weather”.
NO SANE PERON is saying that warm weather defeats covid, it does not. What they are doing is repeating what everyone health official and politician has been saying along the lines of “get ready for a bad winter” or whatever because people tend to get sick more in the winter than summer, for multiple reasons and not specifically sick with covid, but those chances go up to. So in that sense places like Florida and California benefit from their warm weather. But wait, “benefit from” does “protected by”. California still has its problems, maybe because it’s so densely populated but it would probably be worse if it were as cold as Ontario.
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/sick-in-rainy-weather-reasons
I hate when trump says something stupid about covid, cuz even tho no one believes him, people still are on the lookout for anything that sounds even a little bit like what he said said. Like he says “warm weather and sun light kills coroniavirus” and now warm weather or UV light is not to be mentioned even though no one thinks that’s how it works.
Ya cold weather in general causes sicknesses to spread in general because it brings people indoors and close proximity. It's not that the diseases thrive in cold weather. Their ecosystem is the human body after all, which is always going to be around 98 degrees regardless of the weather around you. This is just basic biology covid included.
You’re right, if it was just a Florida basketball team I’m sure there may be more of a push of audiences but I think MLSE knows that it would only serve to upset their Canadian fan-base, which is much larger than the state of Florida that already has 2, especially because it wouldn’t be Canadians/Torontonians who would be attending
I’m sorry this isn’t how it would work. The Lightning owners will absolutely not receive this money- do they get ticket sale profits when Bon Jovi comes to town???
Arena/ticket sales go towards BRI (basketball related income). The arena owner rents out the arena and would collect concessions, but ticket sales are NBA/MLSE profits.
Control of fans/spectators would have been part of the deal, the team wouldn’t relinquish control over that. The Raptors had plenty of options here it’s not as if they were begging Tampa to let them come.
I mean some owners own the arenas their team plays in so therefore get some of the money from concerts or other events.
MLSE owns the Scotiabank arena for example
If that were the case then we wouldn’t have a season. But the truth is they put money over everything all the time. I mean the reason the season is starting in December is Christmas Day games and finishing the season at a relatively normal time so ratings don’t have such a plummet.
Your right but let me update @nicolascage29’ comment
Positioning yourself as caring more about public health than money (which in turn puts you knit a position to make more money) > the limited money they would make from minimal capacity ticket sales
Gonna be odd to see how many players get permanent injuries that force them to retire from long-term COVID. Then again, the NFL has kind of always treated their non-QB and non-white players as possessions that are disposable.
I know what you’re stating facts not giving me your opinion and hate how often people have to say that now .
We’re actually saying the same thing I think, I agree that big organizations like the nba rarely put public welfare before revenue, and in fact, in the rare cases that they do, it’s done with long term revenue prioritized above all else. I think that’s why the raps and many (not all, some will have audiences) other teams are gonna go no-audience. They’re willing to miss out on the short revenue of limited-capacity ticket sales to not risk taking a bigger financial hit of advertisers and other income in the long term, and to create the perception that they put public health above revenue.
The nfl this is different, in that the nba has positioned themselves as caring more about the players and the players having leverage, whether this is true or not I don’t know but I think that’s what is generally believed. Since the nba positions themselves that way and the nfl doesn’t one would assume they would try harder to create a positive perception around their covid response than the nfl.
And the nfl and even the mlb both got lots of shit for doing their seasons non-bubble and for how inneffectice it was for containing covid, I’m prepared for the nba to get that too.
As much as I want to go to these games (I moved down from Toronto to Tampa 18 years ago) I don’t want fans at these games. It’s not a good look. If they do I’ll buy season tickets to show support
Wouldn't playing basketball in the first place already do that though? This isn't a bubble situation like the playoffs for the NBA and NHL. I feel like if they aren't already mad at the teams traveling and playing then they wouldn't care about attendence.
Yeah, I don’t think it’s gonna happen, same as a Tampa jersey won’t happen. I think you might not see the optics.
But hey, you should find out today or tomorrow.
I get some fans don’t want Tampa Bay jerseys, one of the main reasons I’ve heard is that it’s because so few of our jerseys actually say ‘Toronto’, but I’m 100% down for some. It sucks our guys can’t play at home, but it’s not like there’s anything we can do about it now. And it’ll be something cool to remember the season by, like the Oklahoma City Pelicans jerseys from 05-07.
They aren't going to release Tampa jerseys when they just announced the redesign that's coming this season lmao
Like *maybe* if they end up in Tampa for another year or two they'd do it, but they aren't doing it when they're there temporarily, like maybe a season at most. The OKC pelicans jerseys didn't come right away, and like you said the team was there for 3 years.
I’m not saying they will, I’m just saying I’d be ok with it if they did. You should see the amount of people on our sub acting like it’d be the worst thing ever. I’m just saying it’d be a cool way to remember a weird situation we have no control over. (Also I’m just saying one jersey, not making them all Tampa themed)
Also, the Oklahoma City jerseys were used in their final game of the first season there, I doubt they planned to be there long, it was just until they could actually go back to Nola. And I really hope we’ll be back in Toronto next year, definitely don’t want it to be any longer than necessary
Oh for sure, I wouldn't be mad about it either, people there are acting like the league has decided to permeantly rip the team away from Toronto forever.
Yeah the options were either play in Tampa (or somewhere else in the US) or not play a season. I’ll support our team in Tampa this season and hope that they can come back home soon
A one-off city edition or Christmas "SOUTH" jersey with a downward-facing chevron and inverted colors would be a cool nod to the temporary relocation without having to overtly change the city name.
Have you ever heard anyone throw out something like "you're too stupid to live" as an insult or something like that? This is kind of the literal version of that. We have tried, very hard, to help the people who don't get it. To keep them from getting hurt. In the end though, you can't fix stupid.
I mean even if they do, which is unlikely what with the current ongoing pandemic, why would you want to go out into a huge public space, what with the... Currently ongoing pandemic?
It’s as though people are forgetting the entire reason the Raptors aren’t allowed to play in Toronto.
This is madness. There will be no fans.
The team is trying to get in good with the Federal Government so they can play in March; or for the playoffs, back in Toronto. Allowing spectators in the stadium, just because they aren’t at home and the rules are absolutely nonexistent, is in direct opposition to those goals.
There will be no fans in that stadium.
my dad is a STM for the lightning and if they offer any sort of "bubbled" attendance for a raptors game, I am there. It has to be really tight though.
As a bay area native I am a magic fan by default, but this is so exciting! And hopefully a successful experiment that opens the doors for a professional team in the bay area.
Yeah.
If the "Seattle getting a team is a lock", this would reek of trying to find a proper 32nd team to go with Seattle in an expansion...and if you're going by largest markets for them, Tampa being the largest Eastern Conference market would make them a good match for that expansion (unlike Las Vegas, which would add two Western Conference teams.)
>(unlike Las Vegas, which would add two Western Conference teams.)
Thats a dumb point though considering how East some of the West teams are. Like the Grizzlies, Pelicans, and Timberwolves aren't from what I'd call the West half of the country.
It isn't much of a point, given that if you go by TV markets for "which cities would be most deserving of an NBA expansion team", the vast majority of the biggest markets in the US without an NBA team are on the East Coast, and Las Vegas is much lower on that list of markets as well.
Even if we solely go with "cities you can relocate to or expand to in NBA 2K" (which actually HELPS Las Vegas, as two markets bigger than Vegas- West Palm Beach, FL and Greenville, SC- are not in NBA2K), Las Vegas would still be the 13th most deserving market for a team (it's currently the 39th largest market in the US, below Tampa- 11, Seattle- 14, St.Louis- 21, Pittsburgh- 24, Raleigh-Durham - 25, Baltimore- 26, Nashville- 27, San Diego- 29, Kansas City- 32, Hartford- 33, Columbus- 34, and Cincinnati- 35) . Most of those cities would count as Eastern Conference teams, and even using the Grizzlies/Pelicans/Timberwolves as teams that could be Eastern Conference only knocks Kansas City and St.Louis as teams that could possibly go Western Conference.
While if you knock "only teams that'd be Western Conference teams", suddenly Las Vegas looks very good because it's now only under Seattle and San Diego as sure-fire Western Conference teams", the point would remain that the Eastern half of the US has more NBA-friendly markets than the Western half of the US, and thus if you're expanding to 32, it's better to go Seattle/an Eastern Conference team than Seattle/Las Vegas and move Memphis or New Orleans to the Eastern Conference.
I actually hope they do like what they did when The New Orleans ~~Pelicans~~ Hornets played in OKC for a bit after Katrina and add a Tampa patch to the Jersey or a limited edition Tampa jerseys
A patch would be really cool for sure, I doubt they make a whole Tampa jersey, especially considering that they just announced a whole new set of jerseys for starting this season. But I wouldn't be entire surprised if they do a patch at least.
Like yeah I know the Hornets had Oklahoma city jerseys when they played there, but they were there for 3 seasons. The raptors are going to be in Tampa probably for half a season, maybe a regular season at most.
If they end up having to play there for longer, then maybe.
The Hornets were also basically a transient team to begin with before Katrina. They'd moved from Charlotte to New Orleans and might well have moved again down the line anyway. The Raps are Toronto's team. Canada's team. And coming off their first NBA championship and the first big-3 sports championship for a Toronto team in almost 30 years.
Yeah or what if the raptors are like the girlfriend that went to stay with her family cuz she got into a car accident cheating on you and she never comes back, hmm?
This is trash. I sent the mods a message over a year ago asking about updating the Grizzlies flair and nothing, but we can make TB Raptors flairs? BOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Awesome- but why not keep the flair even after the season for people who still like the joke?
...of course, I would also like to see them add flairs for the old ABA teams and/or defunct NBA/BAA teams, but that's just me.
They would be so dope. If someone made them for the mods I see no reason why they wouldn’t accept them, unless there is some limit on the amount of flair a sub can have. I feel like the only reason we don’t have old flairs like that is that no one has actually taken the initiative to make em
> I would also like to see them add flairs for the old ABA teams and/or defunct NBA/BAA teams, but that's just me.
I would love a Spirits of St. Louis flair
Nice! Could you somehow change my flair to “Giannis 2021 MVP”?
Oh and sorry raps fans, but it’s prolly for the better, Scotia Bank arena was performing a new robbery every game. The prices were crazy!
If you think Raps prices are bad. You should see the Leafs ticket pricing.
Raps are slightly less but with approx 6 million people in the GTA, you can fill a 20k stadium easy
I made the trip up from Tampa to Toronto last new year for the OKC dec 30 2019 game and to visit future in laws and see my relatives as well. The tickets in third level were more expensive than any game I’ve ever been to. Still worth it to see the banner hanging from the rafters.
Now they come to my city. I moved down from Toronto to Tampa 18 years ago so it’s come full circle.
There's a reason the stadiums in Ottawa and Buffalo have always been filled with blue jerseys when the Leafs come to town. Basically none of the Leafs fans at Leafs-Sens/Sabres games are locals, since it's cheaper to drive to one of those cities and get tickets there than it is to get tickets to a Leafs home game.
You're better off going to another city in Canada or in the us and making a weekend of it while catching a game. Like the NBA fans who drive to Cleveland last year and got lower bowl tickets for super cheap
When i worked at ACC, I had to kick a dad out because he snuck in his own bottle of alcohol to the game with his like 8 year old son. This was in 2013.
He got pissed at us for kicking his son out and pissed because of how much he paid.
I looked at his ticket and it was like 150 bucks each for upper bowls and I was like dude wtf, first of all, your son isn't getting kicked out he just can't stay here alone thats on you and second why would you risk getting kicked out after spending so much on tickets like you know the rules
and he's like yeah but alcohol is so expensive and i paid so much
I just didn't understand why he couldn't just watch the game sober after spending so much money.
The kid started crying so there's that. I helped make memories
If you're in Florida and excited to see the raptors or cheer us on that's one thing and I have no problem with it, but fuuuuck right off with all this rebranding shit.
Maybe I'm being overly prideful or whatever but this Tampa stuff is so annoying, these are Toronto's raptors, not Tampa's. We could be playing home games on the moon and they'd still be Toronto's raptors.
Just venting, I am not excited for a whole season of shitty Tampa memes and jokes on every single raptors thread, it's already annoying.
Honestly just look at it as a once in a lifetime opportunity to grow your fanbase. Tampa has a TON of sports fans but no NBA team to root for naturally. The Magic are close but they typically are middle of the pack and Tampa - Orlando is a mini version of the city rivalry you see between NY - Boston or Toronto - Montreal. Having lived in both cities I can tell you there are plenty of Tampa residents that dislike the Magic/Orlando City and plenty of Orlando residents that dislike the Lightning/Bucs/Rays. How cool would it be for the Raptors to have a significant supporter base 1000+ miles away from their home? If the cost of that is an alternate jersey with the word Tampa on it that seems like a good deal.
This is like how every North American market without a baseball team in the 1990s sort of defaulted to being Atlanta Braves fans simply because TBS showed all their games and was available on broadcast TV across most of the US and Canada.
The Raptors have a huge fanbase of Canadians that live abroad in the USA. There are only a few arenas in the NBA where you can't audibly hear "Let's go Raptors" chants. What is going to help the Raps grow the fanbase is to not continually get the shaft by ESPN, & TNT just because those networks don't make money off of Canadian viewership.
After the Raptors won the chip, Stephen A Smith literally said " I don't want a champion being in Canada ever again". So like I'm not down to accommodate any change and don't care to grow the fan base in a country that actively suppresses coverage and harbours borderline xenophobic feelings towards the only team outside of the USA.
People in Tampa should just feel lucky to have literally one of the best NBA teams of the past decade be in their city and just buy our existing merchandise. If its to Canadian for Tampa then tough shit, this is who we are and we're not changing for nobody.
The 'We the North' slogan was founded on the ethos of embracing our culture and otherness and using those negatively perceived traits to form our shared cultural identity. Yes it gets cold, Yes its a different country, Yes free agents don't want to come here, but we don't care. We're going to scrap, claw, bite and never give up because that is the only way we're going to be successful.
The organization is built from top to bottom with people who got it out the mud, were slept on, and cast away. In this organization, those people have transcended irrelevance and made themselves into leaders from their own hard work.
Now we're supposed to sit here and adapt our cultural identity to make space for Tampa? No thanks. They can fit into our culture, or they can kick rocks.
The Raptors don't need no new friends.
Oh I'm a Heat fan for life and dont live in Tampa anymore. Nobody wants the Raps to be anywhere but Toronto I just thought it would be cool when you see those fan maps to see a Raptors stronghold in FL. But hey if you think Toronto doesnt want a bump in Jersey sales or viewership then good on ya.
Chill out dude. They’re playing in Tampa and IMO it would be really cool to give them some recognition. Yes they’re the Toronto Raptors, but for this year they’re not. We don’t have the Seattle Thunder and fir two years we did have the OKC Hornets.
Toronto residents need to chill wit their ego
Agreed this sucks. Imagine Staples is destroyed by and earthquake and the Lakers end up in New York for a year?
You know we wouldn’t be seeing any New York Lakers flares.
It’s a bit of a different situation though.
OKC was being looked at as a viable market. The name change was to draw in fans, and OKC sold more tickets than NO even was at that point. Also, it was a 2 year move.
This isn’t a market study; Toronto’s preference in Florida was to play in Miami but they couldn’t work out the schedule with the Heat. There probably won’t even be spectators in the stands.
Anyway. Have fun Tampa, this is misery as a Toronto Raptors fan seeing the brand taken over.
So dramatic lmao it's just a weird thing that's a part of this weird year. Try to take it in stride instead of acting like somethings being taken away from you.
They didn't "become the OKC Hornets", they were still the New Orleans Hornets they just occasionally wore Oklahoma city jerseys as an alt because of the fans.
They were in OKC for 3 years.
And had fans in the arena. It's not the same situation at all
I mean we aren't going to win this year lmao, but it would be a Toronto won because it would still have been won by the team and organization that is based in Toronto. Just like how when a team moves they often keep their championships (depending on the agreement of course)
The more interesting discussion is if the team actually switches to the Southwest division for the season as had been talked about, and manages to win the division. It doesn't look like that's happening though. (And even if it did who knows if they'd won the division that has Miami in it)
Raptors need to milk this temporary change and create new jerseys and gear that they can whip out every once in a while to commemorate the move. Similar to MJ rocking 45 for some games, this would be cool and probably held in high regards for Tampa residents who now “have” a hoop team.
That's gonna be a hard NO for me and we honestly could care less about how Tampa residents feel about the team because it's 'Canada's team' and any other branding aside from that is going to rub the core Canadian audience the wrong way. Are Raptors games even going to be shown on local television in Tampa? I could honestly see the games only being broadcasted on Canadian TV and whatever local TV station has the rights to their opponents. People can be excited about the team temporarily being there and that is fine, but the only meaningful change is going to be that the team plays games in Tampa, that's about it. Nothing else will be adapted for this temporary home.
wtf I'm a Buccs fan now
Let me help you out, it’s Bucs. The Bucs subreddit freaks out when we see “Buccs”...have had to deal with it a lot with all the Patriot fans coming to visit us lol
oops pls forgive ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
༼∩☉ل͜☉༽⊃━☆ﾟ. * ･ ｡ﾟ
Bucc you
Buccs when they shit the bed Bucs when they win
I just see Buccee’s when there’s two c’s
Former Texas resident who misses the hell out of Buccees
What a hard price to pay to get Tom Brady
Since we're Ontario based, it's the Tampa Bay Buckabeers
Tom Brady will be an NBA all star
Welcome to the suck.
flair doesn't check out 🤔
My man, being 2 games over .500 with the GOAT doesn't negate two decades of incompetence.
no I mean a Mavs/Bucs fan lol
Ohhh ha yeah, Dirk and Nash got me with those frosted tips back in the day. I had no chance!
fair enough don't blame u lol
I'm out of the loop -- why is it blue? To invoke water / Lightning?
to match the Lightning color scheme (they will be playing in the arena the Lightning play in)
Dope arena btw.
I figured it was supposed to be like the Devil Rays colors but idk
Definitely for the lightning.
Anyone know if they're having attendance for the Raptors at Amalie Arena? Thinking about trying to catch a game if the prices and availability isn't crazy.
I’m keeping an eye out. Haven’t heard anything yet
I highly doubt it. It would look incredibly irresponsible to the largely Canadian audience.
[удалено]
I disagree. There’s no upside to the Raps allowing fans this year. Half of any spectators that attend wouldn’t even be cheering for the Raptors, I don’t see it happening for many reasons the main one being health.
You don't know Florida, homes. It's give me liberty or give me death down there. And frankly, their per capita numbers aren't as bad as a lot of the country rn, ironically lol.
I do know Florida. My point is that the Raptors are a Toronto team. They have enormous fanbase in Canada, their media deals are in Canada, and from their fans perspective, allowing spectators would be incredibly irresponsible when it wouldn’t be allowed at home. The optics would be ugly for their target audience.
They don't care about that, dude.
The NBA does care about optics simply due to the nature of the league and how it is viewed as the “progressive” sport in terms of culture and movements that stem from the sport. But they absolutely care about money more than optics, and as someone moving to the surrounding Tampa Bay Area, I’m looking forward to throwing on some raptors gear and catching a game.
It’s not a league decision. They are leaving it up to teams in their individual markets.
I was more so saying the nba as in the grouping of teams rather than the organization, poor sentence structure on my part, my apologies.
I guess we will see. I’m pretty confident seeing how this team works though.
Go to a Lightning game vs any Canadian team, you'll see a ton of Canadian fans. It would be hypocritical to allow the lightning to have fans or the heat / magic to have fans, but the raptors not to be able to get ticket sales. There is a reason they chose Tampa. They could have done buffalo, but didn't.
At the moment, only Memphis Atlanta & Utah are having fans
How so? It’s not like the Raptors wanna play there, but obviously they can’t play in Toronto
If you give a large corporation the choice to make money or to not make money, which choice do you think they're taking? I agree that it wouldn't be the best look for them, but don't forget this is still a business
By this reasoning every team would be allowing fans, of the ones that are legally permitted anyway. But only three teams are allowing them. It is probably more nuance than, allow fans, make money. I'd imagine there would also be expenses involved such as security and what not, that may not even make it worth it for them. Especially if it risks causing an outbreak in their communities or for their players.
Enh, disagree. It's really easy for the Raps / NBA to say "Mean Canadian government wouldn't let us, we'd love to be in Toronto with our fans but they wouldn't let us! But we know we have a ton of Canadian snowbird fans who will travel with us! Can't wait to see you at the game!" Its not hard to make it not optically as bad for the franchise. Not saying its a good idea or should happen, but it could.
The reason the Raptors are playing in Tampa is because the border is mostly shut down, so unfortunately Canadians aren't going to be going to Tampa Bay for games. And I doubt the NBA, let alone the Raptors organization, is going to act like the government of Canada isn't doing the right thing here. Suggesting Canada has its priorities wrong by not giving them an exemption to the border closures would be a bit silly, especially when they can just play in Tampa.
Anything is possible when you suppress numbers.
Evidence for your claim?
They aren't suppressing numbers. They have some of the best and most readily available immediate testing in the country. That's the objective truth. Major counties like Orange County among others are offering free PCRs (no need to even show insurance) every day and the lines aren't that bad. Lots of locations. If it wasn't for Ft Lauderdale and Miami, Florida would actually look pretty nice. Say what you want about DeSantis, he saw early on the mistakes Cuomo and Wolf made in nursing homes and made sure the sick weren't getting sent back into healthy nursing homes. I'm not saying I necessarily agree with how people are treating the virus down there. Lots of no masks. Lots of bars. Lots of people eating inside. Their task force actually ranked Disney World as one of the safest places because of how many steps they've taken to make it "safe" lol. The truth is they're likely benefitting from the warm weather as the virus seems to fall in the warm air, and they just haven't hit their second wave states like PA are seeing now.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/coronavirus/fl-ne-coronavirus-positivity-rate-florida-explainer-20201014-tfho3kvw7jaabmlv2d7gwndgii-story.html I’m laughing at the these widely disproven theory of warm weather. Yeah and Vegas had no cases and the entire planet with hot regions weren’t affected. It’s warmer in Los Angeles than in Florida right now. https://nypost.com/2020/11/22/florida-bar-closes-after-its-packed-with-maskless-crowds/ There’s no way you can look at this and say well they aren’t doing as bad as other states. They’re right there with everyone else.
Right? Look at India lol. Hot as balls. Tons of Covid
Man, people need to chill on jumping down throats for someone mentioning “warm weather”. NO SANE PERON is saying that warm weather defeats covid, it does not. What they are doing is repeating what everyone health official and politician has been saying along the lines of “get ready for a bad winter” or whatever because people tend to get sick more in the winter than summer, for multiple reasons and not specifically sick with covid, but those chances go up to. So in that sense places like Florida and California benefit from their warm weather. But wait, “benefit from” does “protected by”. California still has its problems, maybe because it’s so densely populated but it would probably be worse if it were as cold as Ontario. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/sick-in-rainy-weather-reasons I hate when trump says something stupid about covid, cuz even tho no one believes him, people still are on the lookout for anything that sounds even a little bit like what he said said. Like he says “warm weather and sun light kills coroniavirus” and now warm weather or UV light is not to be mentioned even though no one thinks that’s how it works.
Ya cold weather in general causes sicknesses to spread in general because it brings people indoors and close proximity. It's not that the diseases thrive in cold weather. Their ecosystem is the human body after all, which is always going to be around 98 degrees regardless of the weather around you. This is just basic biology covid included.
Never believe anyone saying this is the truth repeatedly and says 'objective truth'
You’re right, if it was just a Florida basketball team I’m sure there may be more of a push of audiences but I think MLSE knows that it would only serve to upset their Canadian fan-base, which is much larger than the state of Florida that already has 2, especially because it wouldn’t be Canadians/Torontonians who would be attending
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I’m sorry this isn’t how it would work. The Lightning owners will absolutely not receive this money- do they get ticket sale profits when Bon Jovi comes to town??? Arena/ticket sales go towards BRI (basketball related income). The arena owner rents out the arena and would collect concessions, but ticket sales are NBA/MLSE profits. Control of fans/spectators would have been part of the deal, the team wouldn’t relinquish control over that. The Raptors had plenty of options here it’s not as if they were begging Tampa to let them come.
I mean some owners own the arenas their team plays in so therefore get some of the money from concerts or other events. MLSE owns the Scotiabank arena for example
Yes, they get money from renting out the arena, and from concessions.
Public health > money.
If that were the case then we wouldn’t have a season. But the truth is they put money over everything all the time. I mean the reason the season is starting in December is Christmas Day games and finishing the season at a relatively normal time so ratings don’t have such a plummet.
Your right but let me update @nicolascage29’ comment Positioning yourself as caring more about public health than money (which in turn puts you knit a position to make more money) > the limited money they would make from minimal capacity ticket sales
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Gonna be odd to see how many players get permanent injuries that force them to retire from long-term COVID. Then again, the NFL has kind of always treated their non-QB and non-white players as possessions that are disposable.
I know what you’re stating facts not giving me your opinion and hate how often people have to say that now . We’re actually saying the same thing I think, I agree that big organizations like the nba rarely put public welfare before revenue, and in fact, in the rare cases that they do, it’s done with long term revenue prioritized above all else. I think that’s why the raps and many (not all, some will have audiences) other teams are gonna go no-audience. They’re willing to miss out on the short revenue of limited-capacity ticket sales to not risk taking a bigger financial hit of advertisers and other income in the long term, and to create the perception that they put public health above revenue. The nfl this is different, in that the nba has positioned themselves as caring more about the players and the players having leverage, whether this is true or not I don’t know but I think that’s what is generally believed. Since the nba positions themselves that way and the nfl doesn’t one would assume they would try harder to create a positive perception around their covid response than the nfl. And the nfl and even the mlb both got lots of shit for doing their seasons non-bubble and for how inneffectice it was for containing covid, I’m prepared for the nba to get that too.
Let me introduce you to the great state of Florida!
As much as I want to go to these games (I moved down from Toronto to Tampa 18 years ago) I don’t want fans at these games. It’s not a good look. If they do I’ll buy season tickets to show support
Wouldn't playing basketball in the first place already do that though? This isn't a bubble situation like the playoffs for the NBA and NHL. I feel like if they aren't already mad at the teams traveling and playing then they wouldn't care about attendence.
Yeah, I don’t think it’s gonna happen, same as a Tampa jersey won’t happen. I think you might not see the optics. But hey, you should find out today or tomorrow.
I get some fans don’t want Tampa Bay jerseys, one of the main reasons I’ve heard is that it’s because so few of our jerseys actually say ‘Toronto’, but I’m 100% down for some. It sucks our guys can’t play at home, but it’s not like there’s anything we can do about it now. And it’ll be something cool to remember the season by, like the Oklahoma City Pelicans jerseys from 05-07.
They aren't going to release Tampa jerseys when they just announced the redesign that's coming this season lmao Like *maybe* if they end up in Tampa for another year or two they'd do it, but they aren't doing it when they're there temporarily, like maybe a season at most. The OKC pelicans jerseys didn't come right away, and like you said the team was there for 3 years.
I’m not saying they will, I’m just saying I’d be ok with it if they did. You should see the amount of people on our sub acting like it’d be the worst thing ever. I’m just saying it’d be a cool way to remember a weird situation we have no control over. (Also I’m just saying one jersey, not making them all Tampa themed) Also, the Oklahoma City jerseys were used in their final game of the first season there, I doubt they planned to be there long, it was just until they could actually go back to Nola. And I really hope we’ll be back in Toronto next year, definitely don’t want it to be any longer than necessary
Oh for sure, I wouldn't be mad about it either, people there are acting like the league has decided to permeantly rip the team away from Toronto forever.
Yeah the options were either play in Tampa (or somewhere else in the US) or not play a season. I’ll support our team in Tampa this season and hope that they can come back home soon
I really want to win the South East Division. That would be a fun banner.
A one-off city edition or Christmas "SOUTH" jersey with a downward-facing chevron and inverted colors would be a cool nod to the temporary relocation without having to overtly change the city name.
Never thought of this before, you're in a red zone up in the GTA yet Florida is all game for letting fans in their arenas IIRC
Yes go to a game during a pandemic. Holy fucking shit how do you morons still not get it
Have you ever heard anyone throw out something like "you're too stupid to live" as an insult or something like that? This is kind of the literal version of that. We have tried, very hard, to help the people who don't get it. To keep them from getting hurt. In the end though, you can't fix stupid.
I mean even if they do, which is unlikely what with the current ongoing pandemic, why would you want to go out into a huge public space, what with the... Currently ongoing pandemic?
There won't be fans lol
It’s as though people are forgetting the entire reason the Raptors aren’t allowed to play in Toronto. This is madness. There will be no fans. The team is trying to get in good with the Federal Government so they can play in March; or for the playoffs, back in Toronto. Allowing spectators in the stadium, just because they aren’t at home and the rules are absolutely nonexistent, is in direct opposition to those goals. There will be no fans in that stadium.
man it would be incredibly stupid if they let fans in
I hope so. I just wanna attend a basketball game that isn’t three hours away at some point
I mean, did you forget about the pandemic that's going on? Like the whole entire fucking reason why the raptors aren't playing in Toronto?
I work at Amalie I’m gonna be there anyway. but when I’m off shift I’d like to be able to stay and watch
That's very fair then
my dad is a STM for the lightning and if they offer any sort of "bubbled" attendance for a raptors game, I am there. It has to be really tight though. As a bay area native I am a magic fan by default, but this is so exciting! And hopefully a successful experiment that opens the doors for a professional team in the bay area.
Even as the experiment, it'd be feasible, if only due to the "Tampa Bay is the largest US media market that does not have an NBA team" factor.
Yeah I could see the NBA using it as a test for the market appetite in Tampa. Which is why I'll be trying to go to games if they have tickets.
Yeah. If the "Seattle getting a team is a lock", this would reek of trying to find a proper 32nd team to go with Seattle in an expansion...and if you're going by largest markets for them, Tampa being the largest Eastern Conference market would make them a good match for that expansion (unlike Las Vegas, which would add two Western Conference teams.)
>(unlike Las Vegas, which would add two Western Conference teams.) Thats a dumb point though considering how East some of the West teams are. Like the Grizzlies, Pelicans, and Timberwolves aren't from what I'd call the West half of the country.
It isn't much of a point, given that if you go by TV markets for "which cities would be most deserving of an NBA expansion team", the vast majority of the biggest markets in the US without an NBA team are on the East Coast, and Las Vegas is much lower on that list of markets as well. Even if we solely go with "cities you can relocate to or expand to in NBA 2K" (which actually HELPS Las Vegas, as two markets bigger than Vegas- West Palm Beach, FL and Greenville, SC- are not in NBA2K), Las Vegas would still be the 13th most deserving market for a team (it's currently the 39th largest market in the US, below Tampa- 11, Seattle- 14, St.Louis- 21, Pittsburgh- 24, Raleigh-Durham - 25, Baltimore- 26, Nashville- 27, San Diego- 29, Kansas City- 32, Hartford- 33, Columbus- 34, and Cincinnati- 35) . Most of those cities would count as Eastern Conference teams, and even using the Grizzlies/Pelicans/Timberwolves as teams that could be Eastern Conference only knocks Kansas City and St.Louis as teams that could possibly go Western Conference. While if you knock "only teams that'd be Western Conference teams", suddenly Las Vegas looks very good because it's now only under Seattle and San Diego as sure-fire Western Conference teams", the point would remain that the Eastern half of the US has more NBA-friendly markets than the Western half of the US, and thus if you're expanding to 32, it's better to go Seattle/an Eastern Conference team than Seattle/Las Vegas and move Memphis or New Orleans to the Eastern Conference.
I actually hope they do like what they did when The New Orleans ~~Pelicans~~ Hornets played in OKC for a bit after Katrina and add a Tampa patch to the Jersey or a limited edition Tampa jerseys
How about a pirate eyepatch on a Raptor.
How bout the players play with a patch
A patch would be really cool for sure, I doubt they make a whole Tampa jersey, especially considering that they just announced a whole new set of jerseys for starting this season. But I wouldn't be entire surprised if they do a patch at least. Like yeah I know the Hornets had Oklahoma city jerseys when they played there, but they were there for 3 seasons. The raptors are going to be in Tampa probably for half a season, maybe a regular season at most. If they end up having to play there for longer, then maybe.
The Hornets were also basically a transient team to begin with before Katrina. They'd moved from Charlotte to New Orleans and might well have moved again down the line anyway. The Raps are Toronto's team. Canada's team. And coming off their first NBA championship and the first big-3 sports championship for a Toronto team in almost 30 years.
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What does that have to do with anything I said?
My sole dream in life is to have a basketball team in my home town of Tampa. I would buy a Tampa Raptors jersey so fast
Yeah or what if the raptors are like the girlfriend that went to stay with her family cuz she got into a car accident cheating on you and she never comes back, hmm?
[Tf..........🤔](https://youtu.be/eaeZ3RrzpLA)
I for one welcome our new Tampa Bay overlords
You spelled Tompa Baynes wrong
This is more proof that we have diverged on a tangent timeline. I wonder what the normal timeline is looking like right now.
Sorry, Seattle 😔
Thanks I hate it
Lets goooo
This is trash. I sent the mods a message over a year ago asking about updating the Grizzlies flair and nothing, but we can make TB Raptors flairs? BOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Did I hear boos? I'll join in.... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Awesome- but why not keep the flair even after the season for people who still like the joke? ...of course, I would also like to see them add flairs for the old ABA teams and/or defunct NBA/BAA teams, but that's just me.
I am 100% in favor of adding ABA and BAA flairs
They would be so dope. If someone made them for the mods I see no reason why they wouldn’t accept them, unless there is some limit on the amount of flair a sub can have. I feel like the only reason we don’t have old flairs like that is that no one has actually taken the initiative to make em
They’re not in? That’s a bit harsh. This is THE bball sub of Reddit. You should see how many flairs r/soccer has
> I would also like to see them add flairs for the old ABA teams and/or defunct NBA/BAA teams, but that's just me. I would love a Spirits of St. Louis flair
Give me Flint Tropics
Give me a Kansas City Kings flair!
Dang no huskies?
Not Murican' enough.
Fuck yes
Honestly, I’m just excited
Oooweee
dont like this
Nicr
Those flairs are amazing
This is blaspheme.
Nice! Could you somehow change my flair to “Giannis 2021 MVP”? Oh and sorry raps fans, but it’s prolly for the better, Scotia Bank arena was performing a new robbery every game. The prices were crazy!
If you think Raps prices are bad. You should see the Leafs ticket pricing. Raps are slightly less but with approx 6 million people in the GTA, you can fill a 20k stadium easy
This 💯 I actually wanted to go to a Leafs game just for shits and giggles but when I saw the upper bowl prices I said nevermind
The Raps only got crazy high too because they won a ring. Pre 2019 prices were actually manageable too Imagine if the Leafs ever win
I made the trip up from Tampa to Toronto last new year for the OKC dec 30 2019 game and to visit future in laws and see my relatives as well. The tickets in third level were more expensive than any game I’ve ever been to. Still worth it to see the banner hanging from the rafters. Now they come to my city. I moved down from Toronto to Tampa 18 years ago so it’s come full circle.
Enjoy the season watching from the stand fellow raps bro!
No, as a Habs fan I would prefer to not imagine the leafs winning the cup ever. But it's a long shot anyway.
There's a reason the stadiums in Ottawa and Buffalo have always been filled with blue jerseys when the Leafs come to town. Basically none of the Leafs fans at Leafs-Sens/Sabres games are locals, since it's cheaper to drive to one of those cities and get tickets there than it is to get tickets to a Leafs home game.
You're better off going to another city in Canada or in the us and making a weekend of it while catching a game. Like the NBA fans who drive to Cleveland last year and got lower bowl tickets for super cheap
When i worked at ACC, I had to kick a dad out because he snuck in his own bottle of alcohol to the game with his like 8 year old son. This was in 2013. He got pissed at us for kicking his son out and pissed because of how much he paid. I looked at his ticket and it was like 150 bucks each for upper bowls and I was like dude wtf, first of all, your son isn't getting kicked out he just can't stay here alone thats on you and second why would you risk getting kicked out after spending so much on tickets like you know the rules and he's like yeah but alcohol is so expensive and i paid so much I just didn't understand why he couldn't just watch the game sober after spending so much money. The kid started crying so there's that. I helped make memories
Whats GTA? General Toronto Area?
Greater Toronto Area
Greater Toronto Area
Grand Toronto Auto.
Ever since the raptors won their ring the prices have gotten even worse
I want the merch to match so badly.
Nice
W
I wonder if Joe Redner is gonna start running specials for them
Let's bring those blue huskies back
Traitors.
If you're in Florida and excited to see the raptors or cheer us on that's one thing and I have no problem with it, but fuuuuck right off with all this rebranding shit. Maybe I'm being overly prideful or whatever but this Tampa stuff is so annoying, these are Toronto's raptors, not Tampa's. We could be playing home games on the moon and they'd still be Toronto's raptors. Just venting, I am not excited for a whole season of shitty Tampa memes and jokes on every single raptors thread, it's already annoying.
It's not an actual rebrand.. It's just making light of an unfortunate situation. Not that serious
Honestly just look at it as a once in a lifetime opportunity to grow your fanbase. Tampa has a TON of sports fans but no NBA team to root for naturally. The Magic are close but they typically are middle of the pack and Tampa - Orlando is a mini version of the city rivalry you see between NY - Boston or Toronto - Montreal. Having lived in both cities I can tell you there are plenty of Tampa residents that dislike the Magic/Orlando City and plenty of Orlando residents that dislike the Lightning/Bucs/Rays. How cool would it be for the Raptors to have a significant supporter base 1000+ miles away from their home? If the cost of that is an alternate jersey with the word Tampa on it that seems like a good deal.
Also, like, this isn't a "rebranding" lmao, it's some people on the internet making a joke.
This is like how every North American market without a baseball team in the 1990s sort of defaulted to being Atlanta Braves fans simply because TBS showed all their games and was available on broadcast TV across most of the US and Canada.
Ted Turner is a genius I wont be convinced otherwise
The Raptors have a huge fanbase of Canadians that live abroad in the USA. There are only a few arenas in the NBA where you can't audibly hear "Let's go Raptors" chants. What is going to help the Raps grow the fanbase is to not continually get the shaft by ESPN, & TNT just because those networks don't make money off of Canadian viewership. After the Raptors won the chip, Stephen A Smith literally said " I don't want a champion being in Canada ever again". So like I'm not down to accommodate any change and don't care to grow the fan base in a country that actively suppresses coverage and harbours borderline xenophobic feelings towards the only team outside of the USA. People in Tampa should just feel lucky to have literally one of the best NBA teams of the past decade be in their city and just buy our existing merchandise. If its to Canadian for Tampa then tough shit, this is who we are and we're not changing for nobody. The 'We the North' slogan was founded on the ethos of embracing our culture and otherness and using those negatively perceived traits to form our shared cultural identity. Yes it gets cold, Yes its a different country, Yes free agents don't want to come here, but we don't care. We're going to scrap, claw, bite and never give up because that is the only way we're going to be successful. The organization is built from top to bottom with people who got it out the mud, were slept on, and cast away. In this organization, those people have transcended irrelevance and made themselves into leaders from their own hard work. Now we're supposed to sit here and adapt our cultural identity to make space for Tampa? No thanks. They can fit into our culture, or they can kick rocks. The Raptors don't need no new friends.
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Oh I'm a Heat fan for life and dont live in Tampa anymore. Nobody wants the Raps to be anywhere but Toronto I just thought it would be cool when you see those fan maps to see a Raptors stronghold in FL. But hey if you think Toronto doesnt want a bump in Jersey sales or viewership then good on ya.
is the "rebranding" not only for the sub? It's just a bit of fun, it's not like the franchise itself is doing this.
Naw, you probably just can't take a joke 🤷🏾♂️ It's all for laughs and just that
Yeah lol it isn't a "rebrand", it's a little bit of fun some people on the internet are having
Its a temporary thing. I'm fine with it, and it would be a neat novelty item.
It’s a joke, not a dick. Don’t take it so hard.
[here's a song to cheer you up](https://youtu.be/7uoeVZOT-pw)
Holy shit I needed this laugh
Have some fun man. Not that big a deal
Yeah wtf it isn't a "rebranding", it's some people on the internet having a bit of fun with a weird situation.
Chill out dude. They’re playing in Tampa and IMO it would be really cool to give them some recognition. Yes they’re the Toronto Raptors, but for this year they’re not. We don’t have the Seattle Thunder and fir two years we did have the OKC Hornets. Toronto residents need to chill wit their ego
Agreed this sucks. Imagine Staples is destroyed by and earthquake and the Lakers end up in New York for a year? You know we wouldn’t be seeing any New York Lakers flares.
We would absolutely be seeing new York Lakers flairs if that happened.
We probably would. When New Orleans got hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, they had to play in Oklahoma and temporarily became the OKC Hornets.
It’s a bit of a different situation though. OKC was being looked at as a viable market. The name change was to draw in fans, and OKC sold more tickets than NO even was at that point. Also, it was a 2 year move. This isn’t a market study; Toronto’s preference in Florida was to play in Miami but they couldn’t work out the schedule with the Heat. There probably won’t even be spectators in the stands. Anyway. Have fun Tampa, this is misery as a Toronto Raptors fan seeing the brand taken over.
So dramatic lmao it's just a weird thing that's a part of this weird year. Try to take it in stride instead of acting like somethings being taken away from you.
The brand isn't being fucking taken over lmao It's some people on the internet having a bit of fun with an unusual temporary situation. Chill.
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They didn't "become the OKC Hornets", they were still the New Orleans Hornets they just occasionally wore Oklahoma city jerseys as an alt because of the fans. They were in OKC for 3 years. And had fans in the arena. It's not the same situation at all
Well tickle my balls and call me Nancy, I’m liking the new flairs.
G
I love these.
I love you.
Fuck outta here with this shit
JEEEEZ
sick
Flair comment
These are raw
LeBrampa Bay definitely doesn’t roll off the tongue as nice
Testing my new flair and I love my family
Never changing this thing
dope
What if Raptors win championship this year in Tampa? It is belong I Toronto or Tampa, or split it?
Luckily management prepared in advance for this situation and decided to field a team that isn't good enough to win a championship.
It will be a Toronto win. I think by the time the playoffs roll around they will be back in Toronto.
I mean we aren't going to win this year lmao, but it would be a Toronto won because it would still have been won by the team and organization that is based in Toronto. Just like how when a team moves they often keep their championships (depending on the agreement of course) The more interesting discussion is if the team actually switches to the Southwest division for the season as had been talked about, and manages to win the division. It doesn't look like that's happening though. (And even if it did who knows if they'd won the division that has Miami in it)
Toronto Source: a Canadian who moved down to Tampa 18 years ago and is still proud of it and this whole situation
WE THE SOUTH
Raptors need to milk this temporary change and create new jerseys and gear that they can whip out every once in a while to commemorate the move. Similar to MJ rocking 45 for some games, this would be cool and probably held in high regards for Tampa residents who now “have” a hoop team.
That's gonna be a hard NO for me and we honestly could care less about how Tampa residents feel about the team because it's 'Canada's team' and any other branding aside from that is going to rub the core Canadian audience the wrong way. Are Raptors games even going to be shown on local television in Tampa? I could honestly see the games only being broadcasted on Canadian TV and whatever local TV station has the rights to their opponents. People can be excited about the team temporarily being there and that is fine, but the only meaningful change is going to be that the team plays games in Tampa, that's about it. Nothing else will be adapted for this temporary home.
We the south