Let me tell you, I love Vancouver sports so much. You already know that we have the Vancouver Canucks who are currently in the playoffs, and just pulled off an impeccable 3-1 comeback to become one win away from advancing to the next round, if you didn’t know, the AHL affiliate of the Canucks, the Abbotsford Canucks, picked up a huge in overtime as well to advance to the second round of the Calder Cup playoffs, and the Vancouver Warriors have had one of their greatest achieving season, leading the entire National Lacrosse League with the highest attendance growth in the league.
But now I think it is finally time that Vancouver brings back a team we only had in the early 2000’s, the Vancouver Grizzlies. If you saw one of their games in person then maybe you wouldn’t be the biggest fan, since the owner was egregiously terrible. But, when the NBA hosts exhibition pre-season games down here in Vancouver, everyone and maybe even including yourself, were sure to attend. Heck, I even went to a game back in 2017 when Kawhi Leonard was making his debut as a Toronto Raptors, and the Rogers Arena was going crazy all throughout, from start to finish.
Is the @NBA staging a return to #Vancouver? 🇨🇦🏀
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver hinted at potential expansion, expressing ongoing interest in Vancouver. 🤩 With 27 active Canadians in the NBA and the former Vancouver Grizzlies, the city's basketball passion is unmistakable. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/gFzkloMiad
— 604 Now | Vancouver (@604Now) November 15, 2023
Earlier this year, a poll was taken by Metro Vancouver residents on if they thought that having a basketball team would be ideal, and 59% of voters agreed it would be a good or even very good idea leaving you and I to only think that time will tell and we should get an NBA team. Fewer than 6% were against the idea, so why don’t we have a team again? NBA Commissioner Adam Silver mentioned around a year ago that a relocation could be very likely, but was mainly mentioning Las Vegas and Seattle as prime destinations, but you know what I have to say about that? I think it’s pretty lame that those are the cities mentioned, as they already both have gotten NHL teams within the past 6 years, and Vegas is also getting the relocating Oakland Athletics, so I think that it is due time for Vancouver to get basketball.
But, do not worry at all because what I am about to say will make you feel a bit of joy. Adam Silver has had talks about the possibility of an expansion team coming to Canada, with Silver saying Vancoiver and Montreal would be prime contenders to be the Canadian counterpart to the only other Canadian team in the league, the Toronto Raptors. Vancouver basketball history does not tell the whole story though, as you may or may not know, the Grizzlies were not performing well at all with terrible marketing under terrible management and even now commissioner Adam Silver was aware.
“There was a moment in the league where prospects seemed down in terms of the team. Attendance was down, ratings were down, so I understood from an economic standpoint why the team owner wanted to move the team.” said Silver
The Vancouver Grizzlies would only call this place home for six years, until the inevitable happened and the team had relocated to Memphis. Fans were betrayed and hurt, especially by former owner, Arthur Griffiths. He had once promised the city that basketball will stay in Vancouver and that basketball belongs here, but that promise would later be defunct as the team would be sold and become referred to in the past tense. That was a different era and a different time though, as when Adam Silver speaks on the possibility of Vancouver getting an expansion team, he would be totally for the idea of Vancouver basketball; “In retrospect, I wish we had a team in Vancouver right now. I think that we do have regret…we were a bit ahead of our time,” Silver said.
Success wanes, but not entirely at times. When you look at the Toronto Raptors current position in the league, you would not be pleased as they sit near the bottom of the eastern standings, missing the playoffs and play-in tournament entirely. Yet, at one point in time, the Raptors were not just a championship calibre team, but the championship team. As you and more than most Canadians probably know, the Raptors won the championship in 2019, cheating aura all around Vancouver.
Why did I mention the Raptors and their ups and downs you ask? Simple, it shows that the Canadian market is more than wide open and even though the Raptors are currently not succeeding, they were at a point in time, as every team and their city has to go through their triumphs.
Adam Silver has always been for creating a great fan experience, and just doing whatever would please fans to an extent. We have seen multiple different innovations and systems come from the Adam Silver era, such as the play-in tournament and this year’s inaugural in-season tournament, and Vancouver could be next when it comes to Silver’s everlasting development of the NBA. “Over time, given the development of the sport in Canada, there’s no doubt that at some point we’ll look to see whether there’s an opportunity to put a second team in the country. Based on what we’re seeing now in terms of the interest that we could sustain it in Canada.” said Silver.
One of the biggest problems that come with Vancouver possibly getting an expansion team, is who would actually want to own the team? The price tag is really hot right now for an NBA expansion, sitting at a hefty amount of roughly two and half billion dollars which would be too much, even for current Canucks owner, Francesco Aquillini. He commented back on the possibility back in 2018, but it was shot down as he was not trying to overpay, and now the possibility gets lower and lower, as the price tag continues to run up in price. It feels like everything is going up in price you know? Canucks tickets, the price of an NBA expansion team, and the worst of all, gas prices.
Vancouver residents are more than ready for another sports team and we are ready to bring the noise. Even if the team does not succeed at first, it’s nothing new to Vancouver sports fans as the Canucks have failed and failed, over and over, but look at them now, shining on the biggest stage of them all after all those defeats the team and us fans had to witness. Toronto Raptors have already been classified as Canada’s basketball team, but let us just pray that Vancouver will be able to assist in being one of Canada’s basketball teams. We have seen the attendance growth within the Vancouver Warriors organization as they led the league, and we can easily see a future with Vancouver basketball doing the exact same thing.
Many NBA players are Canadian, with some of the best players in the league today, being a part of the Canadian population. At the end of the day, the league is not opposed to running it back in Vancouver and bringing an expansion team to the big city, but the big question will remain, who will own the team, and you’ll just have to wait and see. Vancouver only has one of the major four sports leagues, and I think it is now time to make it two and I believe we are all in agreement on this one.