The time has come “NBA2TAMPABAY”, the Toronto Raptors are unable to start the 2020 NBA season in their home city of Toronto due to COVID 19 restrictions, choosing Tampa Bay as their host city.
With other cities like Buffalo, Louisville, and Rochester, all in the running the Raptors organization and the NBA decided to choose Amalie Arena and Tampa Bay. I feel the adjacent location of the Tampa Bay Area with other NBA markets made this a no brainer for the league. A born rivalry between the new Tampa Bay Raptors and the magic and heat with definitely add excitement to the upcoming season.
I am hopeful Tampa Bay will be in a similar situation Oklahoma City was before they got the Thunder. Due to Hurricane Katrina the at the time New Orleans Hornets had to play their home games in OKC which at the time did not have an NBA franchise. A few years later the Seattle SuperSonics would relocate to OKC becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder.
At this time it is unclear if fans will be allowed to attend games, but either way fans in the Tampa Bay Area have a new sports team to cheer for. The Raptors won the NBA championship two seasons ago so their team is still pretty solid. This a huge step forward in Tampa Bay’s NBA chances in the future, the community should be excited to embrace the team as our own. Thunder Alley is starting to look a lot like Jurassic Park!