1995 - As the Toronto Raptors approached their scheduled home
opener at the SkyDome on November 3 , 1995, Toranto Raptors club President John I. Bitove
could congratulate 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 New York Knickerbockers in 1946, had been an
arduous process, fraught with obstacle after obstacle. It had not been such a
struggle a half-century ago, when the Huskies became a charter member of the
Basketball Association of America, the forerunner of the NBA. In fact, Toronto
had hosted the new league's first game on November 1, 1946, when the Knicks beat
the Huskies, 68-66. The Toronto franchise folded at the end of the 1946-47
season , however, and the NBA wouldn't return to Canada for
nearly 50 years. The current franchise traces its roots back to April 23, 1993,
when the NBA announced that it had received a formal application from
Professional Basketball Franchise (Canada) Inc. (PBF).
The ambitious group's
president was Bitove, the son of a leading Canadian food services family and
president of Bitove Investments Inc. (His father, John Bitove Sr., had
approached the NBA about a franchise in Toronto during previous expansions.) The
PBF group also included Allan Slaight of Standard Broadcasting Limited; Borden
Osmak, a vice president of The Bank of Nova Scotia; Phil Granovsky of Atlantic
Packaging Limited; and David Peterson, former premier of the Province of
Ontario, who served as chairman. Originally, Bitove and Slaight were each to own
44 percent of the franchise , with the bank holding a 10-percent stake and Granovsky and
Peterson 1 percent each. The ownership group later cut in former Detroit Pistons
star Isiah Thomas, who received a 5-percent share from both Bitove and Slaight.
Thomas later became a club vice president and the architect of the Toranto
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 25,000 fans to the SkyDome, in 1989 and 1992. 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.
The NBA was not considering
expansion when Palestra put down an unsolicited application fee of $100,000, but
the possibilities 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 legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson in their camp and
support from Metro Toronto to develop a new arena on civic lands. In July 1993
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 1990s 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 , 1993, that PBF be conditionally awarded a franchise
for the 1995-96 season to become the 28th team in the league. The NBA Board of
Governors endorsed that decision on November 4 and set a record expansion fee of
$125 million, about four times the amount levied for the previous expansion. 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.
The
league's longstanding opposition to such a scheme ran up against the province's
unwillingness to do away with a game that could put some $100 million into
Ontario's coffers, some of it earmarked for hospitals. It took three months of
sensitive negotiations involving the league, the PBF, and the province to
resolve the dispute. The province finally acknowledged the boost an NBA team
would provide to the local economy through taxes-$81 million the first year
alone, according the the Metro Toronto Convention and Visitor Association-and
the creation of 4,000 jobs necessitated by construction and related
activities.
The Toronto Raptors club took on responsibility for various youth
and community programs in order to offset dropping basketball from the betting
slips. For its part , the NBA, eager to gain the Toronto Raptors
market and wanting to preserve good relations with its new constituency,
contributed $1.5 million to medical research, donated $2 million in television
time to promote tourism in Ontario, joined with the Toronto Raptors team to
create a charitable foundation, and agreed to hold the 1995 NBA Draft in
Toronto.
Tips In Purchasing Titanium Tube Plugs Tips In Purchasing Titanium Tube Plugs December 5, 2015 | Author: Janine Rhodes | Posted in Marketing .
opener at the SkyDome on November 3 , 1995, Toranto Raptors club President John I. Bitove
could congratulate 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 New York Knickerbockers in 1946, had been an
arduous process, fraught with obstacle after obstacle. It had not been such a
struggle a half-century ago, when the Huskies became a charter member of the
Basketball Association of America, the forerunner of the NBA. In fact, Toronto
had hosted the new league's first game on November 1, 1946, when the Knicks beat
the Huskies, 68-66. The Toronto franchise folded at the end of the 1946-47
season , however, and the NBA wouldn't return to Canada for
nearly 50 years. The current franchise traces its roots back to April 23, 1993,
when the NBA announced that it had received a formal application from
Professional Basketball Franchise (Canada) Inc. (PBF).
The ambitious group's
president was Bitove, the son of a leading Canadian food services family and
president of Bitove Investments Inc. (His father, John Bitove Sr., had
approached the NBA about a franchise in Toronto during previous expansions.) The
PBF group also included Allan Slaight of Standard Broadcasting Limited; Borden
Osmak, a vice president of The Bank of Nova Scotia; Phil Granovsky of Atlantic
Packaging Limited; and David Peterson, former premier of the Province of
Ontario, who served as chairman. Originally, Bitove and Slaight were each to own
44 percent of the franchise , with the bank holding a 10-percent stake and Granovsky and
Peterson 1 percent each. The ownership group later cut in former Detroit Pistons
star Isiah Thomas, who received a 5-percent share from both Bitove and Slaight.
Thomas later became a club vice president and the architect of the Toranto
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 25,000 fans to the SkyDome, in 1989 and 1992. 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.
The NBA was not considering
expansion when Palestra put down an unsolicited application fee of $100,000, but
the possibilities 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 legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson in their camp and
support from Metro Toronto to develop a new arena on civic lands. In July 1993
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 1990s 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 , 1993, that PBF be conditionally awarded a franchise
for the 1995-96 season to become the 28th team in the league. The NBA Board of
Governors endorsed that decision on November 4 and set a record expansion fee of
$125 million, about four times the amount levied for the previous expansion. 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.
The
league's longstanding opposition to such a scheme ran up against the province's
unwillingness to do away with a game that could put some $100 million into
Ontario's coffers, some of it earmarked for hospitals. It took three months of
sensitive negotiations involving the league, the PBF, and the province to
resolve the dispute. The province finally acknowledged the boost an NBA team
would provide to the local economy through taxes-$81 million the first year
alone, according the the Metro Toronto Convention and Visitor Association-and
the creation of 4,000 jobs necessitated by construction and related
activities.
The Toronto Raptors club took on responsibility for various youth
and community programs in order to offset dropping basketball from the betting
slips. For its part , the NBA, eager to gain the Toronto Raptors
market and wanting to preserve good relations with its new constituency,
contributed $1.5 million to medical research, donated $2 million in television
time to promote tourism in Ontario, joined with the Toronto Raptors team to
create a charitable foundation, and agreed to hold the 1995 NBA Draft in
Toronto.
Tips In Purchasing Titanium Tube Plugs Tips In Purchasing Titanium Tube Plugs December 5, 2015 | Author: Janine Rhodes | Posted in Marketing .