It’s time to admit the Raptors experiment is a failure and start over—and that means a lot more than a new roster
This September will mark the 20th anniversary of Toronto being awarded an NBA franchise, and if you are among that hardy group who still call themselves fans of the team, you know that everything is changing… again. The new CEO, Tim Leiweke, has decided to find a new GM. That means a new philosophy, new players, perhaps even a new coach. But this summer of renewal and optimism shouldn’t stop there. After 18 seasons that have produced exactly one playoff series victory, it’s time to truly start over: a new name, new colours, new everything. Call it a giant mulligan to reignite the hopes of Canadian basketball fans discouraged by two decades of futility.
Generally, I’m against rebranding teams. The colours and logo are meant to establish tradition and tie one generation of fans to the next. Too often, suits think a uniform redesign is just a quick route to increased merchandise sales. They end up alienating core fans and breaking the link to history that underpins so much of a team’s identity.
But the Raptors are a special case. This is a team that screwed up its branding from the start, got worse over time and never gave fans a flag worth rallying around. Way back in the beginning, the brain trust that brought the NBA to Canada embraced short-term fads instead of an enduring identity. Jurassic Park was raking in cash at the box office and dinosaurs were popular, so they named the team after an animal that had been extinct for millions of years and had no connection to the city. They chose purple, red and black because retail consultants told them the clothes would sell. They were right. At first, merchandise flew off the shelves. The team racked up $20 million in sales in the first month and had the seventh-most popular merchandise in the league before they’d played their first game.
The trouble is, fashion is fickle, and over the years the purple looked more and more dated. The lack of success on the court has undermined any hope of building a genuine sense of tradition and pride. A redesign to emphasize red a few years ago did little to galvanize a fan base disillusioned by constant losing and the abandonment of big stars.
It’s time to admit the 20-year history of the Raptors has been an unmitigated failure. A new era has begun. Put the first two decades of Toronto basketball into a time capsule, give fans a reason to look forward and forget the past.
This story originally appeared in Sportsnet magazine. Subscribe here.