A Grizzly Tale
B.C.'S FIRST PRO BASKETBALL TEAM WAS AHEAD OF ITS TIME–AND SUFFERED FOR IT
The Vancouver Grizzlies lumbered into the NBA in 1995, carrying the weight of the league's Canadian expansion effort along with the Toronto Raptors. Although the latter has enjoyed enormous success in a hockey-mad city, the Grizzlies, shepherded by then–vancouver Canucks owner Arthur Griffiths, folded a mere six years later.
There were many reasons for the club's failure, but chief among them was lack of revenue. Perhaps Vancouver wasn't ready for a professional basketball team. Or maybe a perennial loser didn't whet anyone's appetite. (After all, the Canucks were already around; apparently only Toronto can support two losing franchises.) But since the team departed for Memphis, basketball's popularity appears to have surged in the city, somewhat inconveniently for die-hard Grizzlies fans.
Look for that trend to continue. In 2014, basketball was the third-ranked sport in Canada for those aged three to 17, behind only soccer and hockey, according to a study by Toronto-based Solutions Research Group. Taking a longer-term view, Statistics Canada found that soccer and basketball were the only two sports in which participation by five- to 14-year-olds increased from 1992 to 2005.
The kicker? The Raptors' valuation has exploded since the Grizzlies vanished from Vancouver. In 2003, Forbes pegged the franchise's worth at US$217 million. As of this year, the magazine valued it at US$1.7 billion, 11th among the NBA'S 30 teams. – N.C.