Kansas City pushing efforts to host Raptors in upcoming 2020-21 NBA season

It’s been over 35 years since Kansas City tried their hand at the NBA, and it’s safe to say it didn’t go to well the first time around. Now the City of Fountains is pushing to host the Toronto Raptors in 2020-21.

The NBA has never really been a large fan of the small market, from Vancouver to Seattle we’ve seen teams pop up and suddenly disappear. Now while the Sonics found four decades of success upon their departure, the same can’t be said for the Grizzlies. Regardless, this same fate found Kansas City in 1985 and poor attendance numbers don’t lie. The product on the court wasn’t good, fans didn’t show up, and now the Kings sit along the west coast.

Although Wednesday morning I woke up to a tweet that had been gaining quite some traction as of the previous afternoon:

That’s right. Mayor Quinton Lucas drafted up a proposal and send it over to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, as well as the Toronto Raptors organization. I was surprised, but it seems after his response to Patrick Mahomes’ tweet, he was getting the right to work.

The memo follows the issue presented to the Raptors when it was made clear that it isn’t likely they’ll be able to play their games in Toronto due to Canada’s pandemic travel regulations. It seems they’re ending up in the same boat as their counterpart Blue Jays and neighboring Montreal Impact.

Now I should say this was more of a “we have a place, we have the people” kind of memo. I wouldn’t bank on any certainty of Toronto making the jump down to the midwest in a hurry. They have a lot of options, I’d assume cities such as Buffalo, New York City, Pittsburg, or even Seattle could probably disclose a more affordable proposal before Kansas City.

We have to consider what it would cost for Toronto to move their operations to Kansas City. This would include players, coaches, team staff, trainers, business operators, you know the drill. Now obviously a large city such as Kansas City can facilitate this kind of move, but it’s the financial burden that would probably stray those away. Pandemic concerns are going to be a huge struggle for the NBA this season, but the Kansas City area has facilitated operations safely with decent testing numbers.

Finances are the ultimate demise for most teams moving, and while this would be a temporary stay in Kansas City, it’s hard to imagine our taxpayers moving to bring an NBA team back here after the Raptors go back home. Keep in mind, not all of the City’s population are sports fans. People don’t want to put hard-earned money toward something they don’t care about. It was a problem in Seattle, and it even caused issues when the Hornets had a similar transition to Oklahoma City following Hurricane Katrina.

A solid argument to be made however is the economic impact it would have on the greater Kansas City area. With the beginning stages of fan admittance starting to take place, we might even see safe ways for fans to attend the games in Kansas City.

Recently, the University of Kansas had announced it would permit up to 1500 fans for their home games. If this trend can be picked up with safe execution, I think it would be a win for the area. This would be beyond popular for downtown restaurants and shops. Power and Light would see more consumer traffic, boosting business owners to help contribute more to the sports scene. Honestly, who wouldn’t want to wear a “Toronto-Kansas City Raptors” jersey.

There hasn’t been any substantial comment from either Commissioner Silver or the Toronto Raptors organization yet, and I doubt we’ll hear much about their situation until the NBA confirms it’s a plan for the upcoming season. Regardless, it’s all speculative right now but that’s not to say we shouldn’t stay on our toes. This could be Kansas City’s first step in getting back in the NBA.