wonderfulMoments in Toronto Raptors History
199five- because the Toronto Raptors approached their scheduled home opener on the SkyDome on November 3, 1995, Toranto Raptors club President John I. Bitove maycongratulate himself on having pulled off a remarkable achievement. Bringing NBA basketball back to Toronto, where the long-forgotten Toronto Huskies had tipped off against the brand ny Knickerbockers in 1946, were an arduous process, fraught with obstacle after obstacle. It had not been this type of struggle a half-century ago, when the Huskies became a charter member of the Basketball Association of America, the forerunner of the NBA. if truth be told, Toronto had hosted the brand new league's first game on November 1, 1946, when the Knicks beon the Huskies, 68-66. The Toronto franchise folded on the top of the nineteen46-47 season, however,Ray Ban RB8013 Green Lens Sunglasses, and the NBA wouldn't return to Canada for just about 50 years. the present franchise traces its roots back to April 23, 1993,Ray Ban RB3370 Silver Frame Dark Green Lens Polarized Sunglasses, when the NBA announced that it had received a sortal application from proBasketball Franchise (Canada) Inc. (PBF).
The ambitious group's president was Bitove, the son of a number one Canadian food facilitiesfamily and president of Bitove Investments Inc. (His father, John Bitove Sr., had approached the NBA a few franchise in Toronto during previous expansions.) The PBF group also included Allan Slaight of ordinary Broadcasting Limited; Borden Osmak, a vice chairman of The Bank of Nova Scotia; Phil Granovsky of Atlantic Packaging Limited; and David Peterson, former premier of the professionalvince of Ontario, who served as chairman. Originally, Bitove and Slaight were each to possess 44 %of the franchise, with the bank holding a ten-%stake and Granovsky and Peterson 1 %each. the landlordship group later cut in former Detroit Pistons star Isiah Thomas,Ray Ban RB3217 Gold Frame Dark Green Lens Polarized Sunglasses, who received a 5-%percentagefrom both Bitove and Slaight. Thomas later became a club vice chairman and the architect of the Toranto Raptors' roster.
The NBA's expansion into Toronto was unique for 2 reasons. First, it marked the league's first step beyond the borders of the U.S.. Second, PBF was only certainly one of 3 viable prospective bid groups within the similar city. In previous expansions the NBA were faced with choosing between competing cities, but never with this type of robust internal rivalry for a franchise within one market. there has been no doubt,Ray Ban RB3025 Gold Frame Aviator Sunglasses, however, that Toronto needed and will support an NBA franchise-top-caliber exhibition basketball games had twice drawn greater than 25,000 fans to the SkyDome, in 198nineand 1992. The door to Canada were nudged open the former year by the Palestra gaggle, led by road construction magnate Larry Tanenbaum of Toronto,Ray Ban RB3194 Metallic Grey Frame Dark Green Lens Sunglasses, who was joined in his application by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Labatt Breweries, either one of whom were also founding partners in baseball's highly successful Toronto Blue Jays.
The NBA was not considering expansion when Palestra put down an unsolicited application chargeof $100,000, however the probabilities presented by the untapped Canadian market were irresistible. Also joining the bid process were rock concert impresarios Bill Ballard and Michael Cohl, who had NBA legfinishEarvin "Magic" Johnson within the ir camp and support from Metro Toronto to develop a brand new arena on civic lands. In July 1993 an NBA expansion committee, headed by Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo, came to Toronto to satisfy with the bid groups, inspecttheir plans, and visit their proposed arena domains. The PBF contingent made an instantaneous impact, based upon its criteria for a downtown site: it was to be at the subway line-giving Torontonians access with no have to fight winter conditions-and with reference to the monetarycore of the town to trapmajor businesses to shop for corporate boxes, a key element within the monetaryplan of one990s sport franchises. Neither of the opposite bidders proposed a domain that was so centrally located.
in spite of everything, it wbecause the globalplan that led the NBA expansion committee to recommfinishon September 30, 1993, that PBF be conditionally awarded a franchise for the nineteen95-96 seasdirectly to become the two8th team within the league. The NBA Board of Governors endorsed that call on November 4 and set a record expansion chargeof $12fivemillion, about 4times the volume levied for the former expansion. It was agreed that Toronto would play its first two seasons within the SkyDome at the same time asits own building was being completed. The conflictwas still removed from over, however. there has been an opportunity thon the franchise agreement can be revoked over the tsexyfactorof an Ontario provincial betting game, Pro-Line, which among more things allowed bettors to wager at the results of NBA games.
The league's longstanding oppositidirectly to this type of scheme ran up against the professionalvince's unwillingness to get rid of a game that would put a few$100 million into Ontario's coffers, a few of it earmarked for hospitals. It tokthree months of sensitive negotiations involving the league, the PBF, and the professionalvince to solve the dispute. the professionalvince finally acknowledged the boost an NBA team would offer to the local economy through taxes-$81 milliat the basicyear alone,wonderfulMoments in Toronto Raptors History_31461, according the the Metro Toronto Convention and Visitor Association-and the creation of four,000 jobs necessitated by construction and related activities.
The Toronto Raptors club tokon responsibility for variousyouth and community coursesso as to offset dropping basketball from the betting slips. For its part, the NBA, desperate to gawithin the Toronto Raptors market and wishing to maintain smartrelations with its new constituency, contributed $1.fivemillidirectly to medical research, donated $2 million in television time to advertise tourism in Ontario, joined with the Toronto Raptors team to create a charitable foundation, and agreed to carry the nineteen9fiveNBA Draft in Toronto.
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