<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Toronto Raptors are finally getting some revenge. The red-headed stepchild of Canadian sports, formerly known as the ?Craptors,? have emerged from the darkest period in team history and are headed for the franchise's first division title. But if you go online you might think the Raptors were already a basketball dynasty. Leaguewide, Toronto fans have earned a nasty reputation for savagely defending their team online, even when the Raptors couldn?t defend for themselves on the court. The official team website (www.raptors.com) is the second most popular in the NBA receiving 80 per cent more page views than the league average. There are more websites and blogs devoted to the Dinos than any other franchise and local podcasters have been celebrated in the New York Times and Sports Illustrated. Through the power of online balloting, fans recently flexed their muscle by voting star forward Chris Bosh onto the Eastern Conference all-star team. ?[The Raptors] have the most rabid fans of anyone in the league,? wrote sportswriter Bill Simmons of ESPN.com in a recent column. ?There are more of them than you?d ever think, they take every slight personally, and they?ll absolutely keep sending emails to people like me until their team is given the credit they deserve.? Until recently the franchise didn?t deserve much credit. They?d suffered four losing seasons in a row, disgraced superstar Vince Carter had given up on the team and fled town. Rock bottom came late last season when they had the dubious honour of surrendering 81-points to basketball villain Kobe Bryant. In the face of such humiliation and shattered expectations, the team?s dwindling fan base regrouped and fled underground ? to the blogosphere ? where they could cheer for and talk about their team without anyone knowing their secret shame: they like the Raptors. Toronto Star basketball beat writer Doug Smith equates this phenomenon to group therapy. ?It?s a place where like-minded fans can vent; whether they?re venting about the right things doesn?t really matter,? he says.</div> Source: Macleans Very cool article.
Raptors have some faithful fans no doubt, but they basically have a whole country supporting them instead of just the city of Toronto.
<div class="quote_poster">MrJ Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Raptors have some faithful fans no doubt, but they basically have a whole country supporting them instead of just the city of Toronto.</div> I'm guessing a huge majority of Raptor fans are in Ontario, so I don't think that has that much to do with it. Vancouver is a huge market and they basically had half the country and look what happened to them. Don't forget the Raptors also have to compete with the Leafs.
I think what people forget about vancouver is that they we're screwed over by their terrible ownership group. Vancouver was perfectly capible of supporting a team when it the Grizz packed it in for Memphis.
<div class="quote_poster">a13x Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I think what people forget about vancouver is that they we're screwed over by their terrible ownership group. Vancouver was perfectly capible of supporting a team when it the Grizz packed it in for Memphis.</div> I miss the Grizz I wish I could get a mint Grizzlies stiched jersey somewhere
<div class="quote_poster">a13x Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I think what people forget about vancouver is that they we're screwed over by their terrible ownership group. Vancouver was perfectly capible of supporting a team when it the Grizz packed it in for Memphis.</div> You think there were enough b-ball fans to support the team though? No doubt it's a huge market but I'm still wondering if they can support an NBA team. Of course, it didn't help that the Grizz absolutely sucked but we were pretty bad back then also.
<div class="quote_poster">Eclipse Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">You think there were enough b-ball fans to support the team though? No doubt it's a huge market but I'm still wondering if they can support an NBA team. Of course, it didn't help that the Grizz absolutely sucked but we were pretty bad back then also.</div> I guess it's somewhat subjective to consider whether they could have stayed or not. Winning team definately would have helped. When you look at a team like Atlanta that has sucked for so long, they should have lost their NBA team years ago with the attendance problems they have, but with ownership keeping the team in place they provide stability. I really think that in Vancouver's case the team was moved because ownership saw an opportunity to sell out and make a profit. They had everything they needed to succeed except for a good product on the court and a decent GM. They were losing money but if they had run their basketball operations reasonably well that never would have happened. I think by the end ownership perferred to tank it out in order to make it easier to move the team. 1995-96 15 67 .183 1996-97 14 68 .171 1997-98 19 63 .232 1998-99 8 42 .160 1999-2000 22 60 .268 2000-01 23 59 .280 Who can sustain being that terrible for so long? I think the draft pick thing also massively screwed Vancouver and Toronto over. Charlotte never had to agree to any sort of pick protection when they came into the league. (random rant) We get the "you're team is going to move" card waaaay to often because we're in Canada. People where saying that crap about the raptors when they were 3rd in the league for attendance. When I look around the leauge I see lots of other teams that were more likely to be moved than toronto and no one was saying anything about them.
