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NBA All-Star tickets finally on sale in Toronto

By Darrell Samuels

Jun 16, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) and Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) during the first quarter in game six of the NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 16, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) and Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) during the first quarter in game six of the NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports /
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Tickets went on sale in Toronto for the NBA All-Star Weekend

For the first time in the NBA, the annual All-Star festivities will be north of the border in Canada at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The All-Star weekend is scheduled for Valentine’s Day weekend from February 12-14, 2016.

According to the Toronto Star, tickets went on sale today. The Toronto newspaper is reporting that there will be a weekend interactive fan festival, which will include a celebrity game at Ricoh Coliseum, home of the American Hockey League Toronto Marlies, the Rising Star Challenge at the Air Canada Centre and a practice for the All-Stars on the Saturday morning at Ricoh Coliseum.

The Air Canada Centre currently accommodates seating for 19,800 people. The organizers in Toronto are expecting more than 1,000 media members who will require seats for the Friday and Saturday festivities. Also players, both past and present, typically attend games with their families and they will require seats. Some seats are allocated to the stakeholders in Toronto with the remaining tickets going on sale to the public. Adding all these people together, you can conclude that there will be a limited amount of tickets available for the general public.

“It shows that Toronto really is becoming a basketball town,” says Dan MacKenzie, vice president and managing director of NBA Canada. “All these things are pointing in the direction of really making Toronto a viable NBA city.”

Since the 1995-96 season, the Toronto Raptors have been a successfully run financial franchise. They came into the NBA as co-expansion teams with their Canadian brothers, the Vancouver Grizzlies. Unfortunately, basketball could not survive on Canada’s west coast and the franchise relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, now known as the Memphis Grizzlies. The Raptors have never been considered for relocation since their arrival on the NBA scene.

Former Toronto players Damon Stoudamire, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady and Chris Bosh have been the faces of the franchise since their inaugural season. The franchise has always been able to show Americans how viable a market a city like Toronto can be for basketball.

There will be many NBA superstars going to Toronto next month. It will be a winning formula for basketball in Canada, in Toronto as well as the Raptors franchise as the greats in the game can experience the Toronto lifestyle over the course of a weekend. The Raptors have not always been able to entice free agents north of the border and this weekend will showcase the strength of the game in Canada.

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