The 2,300 tickets for the Toronto Raptors intra-squad basketball game Sept.聽28 at the University of Victoria鈥檚 CARSA gym went rock-star fast and sold out in less than 20 minutes Thursday.
鈥淲e have had sellouts before at CARSA gym [for UVic Vikes basketball games] but nothing with this immediacy,鈥� said UVic athletic director Clint Hamilton.
鈥淭his was a first for us. You get a sense of the demand, and of what a premier property the Raptors have become in sa国际传媒, and how excited the community is by how quickly the tickets went today.鈥�
The size of the CARSA venue had several people on social media wondering why the intra-squad game isn鈥檛 being held in Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. The facility has a capacity of 7,006 for hockey and would be able to fit in hundreds more for basketball because of floor seating.
鈥淭here is not another public event [by the Raptors], so if you didn鈥檛 get tickets for the intra-squad game, you鈥檙e out of luck,鈥� said fan Ken Dill.
鈥淭here has been quite the discussion on Twitter.鈥�
The Raptors鈥� 2017 training camp is from Sept. 26 to 29 at CARSA gym.
All practice sessions will be closed to the public. The only chance to see the likes of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry dribble聽and shoot will be in the intra-squad game.
People on social media have suggested scheduling another intra-squad game, moving to a larger venue such as the Memorial Centre, or having a 鈥減ublic meet and greet so at least the kids could meet their heroes.鈥�
The first two aren鈥檛 likely to happen. The team is here for a short time with much preparatory work to get through before the NBA preseason. And the logistics of finding and paying for installation of a basketball floor at Memorial Centre at this late date would be challenging. There are, however, expected to be youth basketball clinics hosted by the Raptors.
鈥淚 do feel for people who didn鈥檛 get tickets and understand their disappointment,鈥� Hamilton said.
Tickets are by donation with a suggested $100 for floor seats, $50 for between-the-baskets blue bleachers, $30 for end-zone seats and $20 for students. Standing-room tickets will go on sale at 5:30 p.m. on game night. Ticket proceeds go to the Golf for Kids Charity Classic, whose tournament at Bear Mountain last weekend raised more than $1 million for Island youth charities.
Led by star players Lowry and DeRozan, the Raptors have captured a following across the nation as Eastern Conference contenders the past few seasons.
This is the ninth time the Raptors have held their training camp outside Toronto and the fourth consecutive year, and fifth overall, in sa国际传媒
鈥淲e are extremely proud being sa国际传媒鈥檚 only NBA franchise. We don鈥檛 ever want to take that [enthusiasm] for granted,鈥� said Raptors coach Dwane Casey in a statement, when the Raptors announced the University of Victoria as their 2017 training camp venue last month.
The Raptors head even farther west following their Victoria camp for a pair of exhibition games in Hawaii Oct. 1 and 3 against the Los Angeles Clippers.
