Albeit Dallas' new football stadium is a masterpiece when it comes to sports arenas/stadiums, but Toronto could easily host the All-Star game and use the Rogers Centre dome is size was the factor on why we would never be able to host the event. I think if Stern and the NBA are trying to promote the game world wide, then why not take the opportunity to let Toronto host and show the world that we're no different than then metropolis' of Chicago, New York, Boston, etc.
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Someone was asking me Sunday night about the feasibility of an all-star game in Toronto.
Simple answer?
No.
Yes, the city’s great and has lots of hotel space and convention floor space and clubs and restaurants and there’d be every chance it’d be warmer there than it was in Dallas.
The issue is the Air Canada Centre.
It’s a good building, with good seats for fans in a nice downtown location and most things work well in it.
But it’s too small. No back-of-house space.
Heck, there aren’t even enough dressing rooms for the folks who sing and dance, let alone all the stuff they bring with.
Honestly, the scope of this all-star thing is huge; people, props, stuffed animals, more people and props. The Air Canada Centre, for all its charms, simply doesn’t have the facilities to handle everything smoothly.
Heck, when the Raptors get into the playoffs, they have to feed the media in a hallway – single tables stretched out along a wall – because the joint can’t handle the extra people.
I can’t even guess what it’d be like with an all-star game and, if they apply, I bet the league would have some concerns.
Sorry.
Besides, we keep hearing that after Los Angeles next year, the new arena in Orlando might be a host and so, too, might New Orleans be so you could be looking 2014 at the earliest anyway.
Maybe Maple Leaf Sports applies and gets it for a long-off year and, who knows, maybe they do the Saturday at the ACC and the game at the dome but I’d be surprised.
Simple answer?
No.
Yes, the city’s great and has lots of hotel space and convention floor space and clubs and restaurants and there’d be every chance it’d be warmer there than it was in Dallas.
The issue is the Air Canada Centre.
It’s a good building, with good seats for fans in a nice downtown location and most things work well in it.
But it’s too small. No back-of-house space.
Heck, there aren’t even enough dressing rooms for the folks who sing and dance, let alone all the stuff they bring with.
Honestly, the scope of this all-star thing is huge; people, props, stuffed animals, more people and props. The Air Canada Centre, for all its charms, simply doesn’t have the facilities to handle everything smoothly.
Heck, when the Raptors get into the playoffs, they have to feed the media in a hallway – single tables stretched out along a wall – because the joint can’t handle the extra people.
I can’t even guess what it’d be like with an all-star game and, if they apply, I bet the league would have some concerns.
Sorry.
Besides, we keep hearing that after Los Angeles next year, the new arena in Orlando might be a host and so, too, might New Orleans be so you could be looking 2014 at the earliest anyway.
Maybe Maple Leaf Sports applies and gets it for a long-off year and, who knows, maybe they do the Saturday at the ACC and the game at the dome but I’d be surprised.
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