Kansas City has competition as another suitor emerges to house Toronto Raptors
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has already shown his ability to get Whataburger to open a restaurant in Kansas City.
Can he do the same with an NBA team?
After Mayor Quinton Lucas said he was working on convincing the NBA that Kansas City would be a good temporary home for the Toronto Raptors during the 2020-21 season, Mahomes* tweeted that he wanted it to happen.
*This is from an August Peter King column for NBC Sports: “Mahomes wants to invest in other ventures (maybe an NBA team) and is determined to be a champion of local causes in Kansas City too.”
Because of the pandemic, the Toronto Blue Jays played home games this summer in Buffalo as travel between the United States and Canada was limited. Canadian Major League Soccer teams have found temporary stadiums in the United States, too.
With the NBA reportedly targeting a December start for the 2020-21 season, the Raptors still hope to play in Toronto, TSN reporter Josh Lewenberg reported. He said “several contingency options” have been discussed, but added Louisville was not an option.
Lucas tweeted about the Raptors on Tuesday:
Lucas made his initial comment about letting the NBA know Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center is available after a report surfaced that Louisville was interested in housing the Raptors.
While Louisville may not be in the mix, Buffalo threw its hat in the ring.
New York State Senator Tim Kennedy wrote a letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Raptors president Masai Ujiri offering KeyBank Center as a home, per WIVB.com.
“The fact we had the Blue Jays play here and our community came together in a moment’s notice and were able to host not only this incredible major league team but doing in such short order was a demonstration of what we have as a community,” Kennedy wrote, per the television station.
The KeyBank Center has a seating capacity of 19,200 for basketball games and is the home arena of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres.
On Monday night, the Buffalo Common Council followed Kennedy’s lead and offered to serve as a home for the Raptors if needed. This is from Jeff Preval of WGRZ-TV in Buffalo:
The LECOM Harborcenter is a mixed-use development that has a practice facility and hotel, and it connected to the KeyBank Center.
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 10:54 AM.
