VINSANITY COMES TO AN END, BUT CARTER EFFECT ENDURES
Former Raptors star inspired a generation of Canadians to follow their hoop dreams
BULLS OF THE WEEK
The PGA Tour continues to ride a bull market — with North American television audiences averaging north of three million viewers — in the period before the return of professional tennis in August and the planned restarts of Major League Soccer on July 8, Major League Baseball on July 23, the NBA on July 30 and the NHL post-season around the same time.
Stoking the flames going into the final weekend of June is red-hot Canadian Mackenzie Hughes, who carded a 10-underpar 60 in the opening round of the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn.
Edmonton’s stock as a potential NHL hub city only increased Thursday when it was announced that Vancouver — the special event capital of Canada — was no longer in the running.
If the NHL chooses health risk factors as the driver of its 24-team Stanley Cup tournament, the two remaining Canadian cities would get the nod. Yet don’t be surprised if league business and media interests create a Toronto-las Vegas or Edmonton-las Vegas combination, even if the latter means two western hub cities.
Yet the real winner this week was hoops, most notably Canadian basketball. The retirement of former Toronto Raptors superstar Vince Carter was a reminder of what he — and Steve Nash — did to create the golden generation of basketball in Canada.
Many of the almost two dozen Canadians playing in the NBA, not to mention the more than 80 per year playing NCAA Division 1 basketball, are “children” of Carter and the highlight reel footage he compiled in a 22-year career.
Basketball factories in southern Ontario were fuelled by the inspiration provided by Carter, the first NBA player to play in four decades. The Raptors’ historic first NBA championship last year at this time is bound to create a similar second wave in the basketball boom over the next 10 to 15 years.
Add to that the debut of threeon-three basketball as a medal sport at the Tokyo 2021 Summer Olympics and the sport invented by Canadian-born James A. Naismith is the fastest-growing game in both Canada and the U.S., not to mention parts of Europe and Asia.
The NBA is nudging ahead of MLB in several sport business indicators in the U.S. and trails only the NFL in overall fan engagement south of the border. Already second only to soccer in participation numbers in Canada, basketball could very well be behind only hockey and football as the most popular spectator sports in Canada within the next three years.
BEARS OF THE WEEK
The spike of novel coronavirus infections in the U.S. — especially across the Sun Belt from Southern California and Arizona, to Texas and Florida — is causing jitters among owners and other stakeholders in each of the major North American sports leagues.
The NHL will likely wait until the last feasible moment before locking in Las Vegas as one of its two hub cities, while the NBA and MLS are committed to the ESPN Complex at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
Yet there’s no question if the MLS, NBA and NHL plans carry risk, they’re picnics compared to what MLB is trying to get done over the next 30 days in several markets and then — if they’re fortunate — through October.
The Sport Market on TSN Radio rates and debates the bulls and bears of sport business. Join Tom Mayenknecht on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. for a behind-the-scenes look at the sport-business stories that matter most to fans. twitter.com/thesportmarket