If The Raptors Got Sold

[OzRapFan]

Yellowknife

[JustBrown]

Wikipedia lists MLSE's top assets as:

# Toronto Maple Leafs professional hockey team (2009 value: $470 million USD (1st in the NHL))[5]

# Toronto Raptors professional basketball team (2009 value: $386 million USD (11th in the NBA)) [6]

# Toronto FC Major League Soccer team (2008 value: $44 million USD (2nd in MLS)) [7]

Air Canada Centre, a multi-purpose arena in Downtown Toronto, Canada ($265 million CAD)

Not too shabby...

[nubreed000]

Wikipedia lists MLSE's top assets as:

# Toronto Maple Leafs professional hockey team (2009 value: $470 million USD (1st in the NHL))[5]

# Toronto Raptors professional basketball team (2009 value: $386 million USD (11th in the NBA)) [6]

# Toronto FC Major League Soccer team (2008 value: $44 million USD (2nd in MLS)) [7]

Air Canada Centre, a multi-purpose arena in Downtown Toronto, Canada ($265 million CAD)

Not too shabby...

Can you say "cha-ching"? Yea...there's no way MLSE would ever sell any of their franchises, so unfortunately for US fans...we're screwed.

BTW why do some people say "the MLSE"? That makes no grammatical sense.

[Bendit]

GSW just got sold for 450 million....and the gazillionaire from Oracle lost.

What does that make the Raptors worth? (dont know if buildings are involved).

[Mack North]

I think they're gonna get moved to Buffalo, and instead of having a traditional monkier like say "Raptors", they're just gonna be called simply "The Buffalo's". New York Knicks vs. The Buffalo's! True story...

[Spilak]

It could make financial sense for the teachers fund to sell the raptors. If you think about it, the only goal of the teachers pension fund is to earn the maximum return for now and in the future for the fund. Obviously the group would never sell the leafs because the earnings from the team are indefinetly gaurenteed and enormous every year. Even a one time sale of the team for a astronomical amount wouldn't make sense because it's conceivable that the earnings could continue for hundreds of years. The raptors however are not so bullet proof because they don't have the same history and fan base. IMO the only circumstance that I could see Mlse and the teachers pension selling the raptors, would be if they had an opportunity to obtain another NHL franchise in Toronto. The massive hockey market in the gta would be more than enough to healthily support an NHL team and they wouldn't steal fans from the leafs, it would be the raptors, the jays, and Toronto fc. The NHL is by far the most profitable sport in Canada especially Toronto and mlse couldn't having the second NHL team eating into raptor profits. The only way they could do it, is if they think it would make long term sense to sell the other two franchises in order to pay the enormous price tag the NHL would demand for a 2nd team in Toronto. Sounds crazy but owning two hockey teams in the biggest market in Ontario would create an incredible rivalvry and the profits would be ridiculous. Focusing on hockey could be in the best long term interest of the teachers fund but it could possibly come at the expense of an NBA team in Toronto or at least the end of the raptors. To answer the question, I would cheer for okc no question about it. Miami /OKC rivalry?

[Tim W.]

I would cheer for them because I would buy them and move them to Vancouver.

[Arsenalist]

The Raptors are also 14th in league attendance:

http://espn.go.com/nba/attendance/_/sort/homeTotal

From what I can tell, the team is pretty profitable, sure we force-feed season tickets to Leaf STHs, but that's just a way of doing business. We're selling our merchandise to the whole country and that's a fact never to be discounted. What NBA team has a default loyalty of 35 million people?

Raps aren't going anywhere unless we somehow manage to get owned by a total asshole of an owner who just wants to move the team for kicks.