With the Air Canada Centre set to celebrate its 10-year anniversary in February, MLSE decided to put even more money into the building than usual this off-season.
An $8-million scoreboard and control room upgrade has already been installed while construction is underway for what is to become a large atrium entrance that will feature a 60-by-40-foot screen overlooking an outdoor plaza.
The company sees the renovation as a reward for its fans.
“We have great support here,” said Bob Hunter, who runs the ACC. “The fans continue year after year to give us that support. I mean it’s like an ‘IOU’ in our books, we owe it to them.
“When you’re sitting at home watching your high definition television and you come down here and you see 10-year-old technology, (it’s) not the same. It’s like keeping up with the Joneses – you’ve got to continue to reinvest.”
The company also invested heavily in the control room that operates the scoreboard to ensure it had the top technology available.
“This will be the best videoboard/control room combination of any arena in North America,” said Curtis Emerson, a control room engineer. “We will set the standard for this season.”
It will take a little longer for the new atrium to be completed. The Air Canada Centre was built for $265 million using entirely private money and one of the few regrets MLSE was left with afterwards was that there wasn’t enough room for a more impressive entranceway.
MLSE later partnered with two other companies and purchased more land around the stadium to make it happen. A 54-storey condo is currently under construction along with an office tower and the planned atrium will complete the area.
When it’s finished, there will be restaurants and a permanent broadcast studio for Leafs TV and Raptors TV in addition to the giant video screen, which will show games involving the home NHL and NBA teams.
“It’s about creating a plaza,” said Hunter. “It’s about creating a fun, exciting square. That’s why we had so much support from the city because they believe it’s overdue.”
Bargnani a three? Why? Why now? Why consistently? I can see the odd – very odd – occasion when it might work but as a matter of course? I don’t think so. Never have. Can’t imagine I ever will.
Look at it this way: If they are planning to run an offence around the unique high- and low-post skills of Chris Bosh and Jermaine O’Neal to create perimeter space for shooters, who do you want taking those shots?
Andrea Bargnani? Jamario Moon? Jason Kapono?
Seems a pretty easy question to answer from this angle.
Kapono’s a better shooter than either of those two right at the moment – I don’t think anyone out there can debate that – and the benefits of having him on the court alongside O’Neal and Bosh in this case seem to be enormous.
here’s apparently a report in the Spanish media today (in Spanish so I’m using very rudimentary translation skills) that says Jose Calderon, “if he’s okay”, will play next summer for Spain at the Eurobasket.
This comes a day or so after Pau Gasol said he wasn’t sure if he’d play next summer.
The Calderon news should hardly be surprising. If he’s healthy, and the NBA season doesn’t take too much out of him, I have no doubt he’d want to continue a national team career that’s been brilliant over the last three summers.
The Raptors will likely hold their breath, but I fully expect them to let him play if he likes. After all, in Beijing, when Calderon suffered that minor groin strain (and it was minor, it’s fully healed, he’ll be fine for camp so quit hyper-ventilating), he sat out the two most significant games of the summer rather than risk anything.
That has to ease some minds over here.
While TJ Ford blossomed with the Raptors, Jose Calderon will make them forget about him in a hurry. Overall I like the Ford-O’Neal trade for the Raptors, with the assumption that O’Neal will be able to play at least 70 games and will be healthy for the playoffs. Other than that the Raptors pretty much stood pat this offseason.
+5 wins from a full season of Jermaine O’Neal (and the corresponding banishment of Andrea Bargnani to the bench).
-3 wins since the odds that O’Neal wont get hurt and miss at least 20 games are about 50:1.
+1 win because the TJ Ford/Jose Calderon sideshow has finally been decided.
+3 wins because Chris Bosh is continuing to get better and better.
Raptors final record this year: 47-35.
This is another Atlantic Division team with promise. They got rid of one injury plagued player (T.J. Ford) for another (Jermaine O’Neal). The last few years in Indiana, O’Neal basically tanked and needed a fresh start. He has one now and it will be interesting to see what the Raptors do with a two center lineup. Jose Calderon, with Ford gone, will now be holding down the point guard position by himself. It looks promising for the Raptors. If Chris Bosh plays anything like he did in the Olympics, the Raptors are in a good place in the East. The other thing the Raptors have is a decent bench with Jason Kapono and Croatian Sensation, Roko Ukic. Toronto should be battling Philadelphia for the second spot in the division.
If the Raptors commit to running a simple version of (i) the San Antonio Spurs’ High Middle Pick & Roll/Pop Series, with a few specific (ii) Horns’ based sets … there is NO VALID REASON whatsoever for Jamario Moon & Joey Graham … in combination with Calderon [an efficient & productive 3PT-Shooter], O’Neal and Bosh … to not form the Best 5-Man Unit possible for this team, this season … using a POWER based ’3 Out/2 In’ Offense which emphasizes Middle Pick & Rolls/Pops with Corner/Wing/TOTK 3PT-Shooting and significant improvement in the all-important areas of Team REBOUNDING and Team DEFENSE.
Since his arrival in Toronto AP has managed to fly under the radar. Rarely are we critical of his play and only on occasion do we give him praise. He does just enough to stay out of the dog-house but his play isn’t exactly deserving of the penthouse. Parker does almost everything well but nothing spectacular. If there is one major criticism of Parker’s play it’s inconsistency and it’s his inconsistency that I find mightily concerning as the season approaches.
I personally think his problems on defense are highly exaggerated and we can and should be able to do things to increase his floor time while still being able to make a half-decent defensive stand. Listed at 6? 8?, Kapono has more than enough size to stay in front of a shooting guard and take away the dribble penetration by laying off of him. He doesn’t have the quickness to take away the jumper by playing tight but 1 out of 2 ain’t bad here. The same holds true when defending SFs except they have posted him up with great success. We obviously need to provide him help here just like we did with Jose Calderon or Anthony Parker. Kapono’s case is no different.
What worries Anselmi is that hockey participation in the Greater Toronto Area has decreased from 46,000 players to 37,000 in the last 10 years. During that time, the Toronto Raptors have become a popular alternative to the Maple Leafs, especially with new Canadians and young adults.
“Soccer and basketball concern me a hell of a lot less than hockey,” said Anselmi, whose job also entails overseeing the MLSE-owned Raptors and Toronto FC. “The Leafs fan is ageing … it’s nothing that a little winning won’t cure.”
Others will point to the Raptors as a real contender now in the East because of Jermaine O’Neal (which is a stretch to begin with), but when comparing conferences that was essentially a lateral move. O’Neal went from a pedestrian Indiana Pacers club to a slightly above-average Raptors team. In other words, when comparing conferences, who in the West is worse than the Raptors after their acquisition of O’Neal? One could make the argument that any of the top eight or nine teams out West are actually better than the Raptors.
Related posts:
Joey Graham a starter?
Anthony Parker not consistent?
Both ideas are simply preposterous. Graham will never play for more than the minimum after his contract ends here, and I believe he’ll be out of the league by the time he’s 30.
Anthony Parker has been the most consistent player on our team, year after year.