The losses are piling up. The stars have been traded away. No trumpets are needed to alert anyone that the Toronto Raptors are on a downward spiral.
The whole organization will be in trouble until they can get a winning record.
The Toronto Raptors were the first and only NBA champions outside the United States in 2019, a mere five years ago.
Today, the Raptors look different after drafting several rookies and letting stars like Pascal Siakim and Fred Vanvleet go.
Even though they have gained a young core featuring Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett and Gradey Dick, I fear if the Raps' record doesn’t improve after acquiring these pieces, I fear that Toronto may end up like many former franchises.
The Seattle SuperSonics was a storied franchise that was beloved by fans and feared by foes.
Despite averaging a winning percentage of .500, the team relocated to Oklahoma in 2008.
In an X post, Detroit Pistons fans were heard chanting to sell the team after losing 25th consecutive games.
Pistons is another storied franchise with three NBA championships.
Just because a franchise is noteworthy, it doesn’t mean they are safe from moving.
Our old neighbours, the Vancouver Grizzlies, racked up many losing records before moving to Memphis.
During their six seasons in Vancouver, the team racked up a 101-359 record, an average winning percentage of .215, according to sports statistics company Basketball Reference.
Losing records affects a team's impact in the city as fans will become uninterested. Uninterested means fans won't show up at home games. And one thing almost all teams faced before the relocation was the downward spiral in attendance.
The Association for Professional Basketball Research followed the attendance record of the Seattle SuperSonics and what after winning the 1978-1979 NBA championship.
In the five years after winning the Larry O'Brien trophy, Sonics attendance peaked during the 1979-1980 season with an average attendance of 21,725. But it continued to drop to 10,902 by 1983-1984.
For the Raptors, after winning the 2019 championship, the average game attendance was 19,795, placing them third in the NBA attendance report by ESPN. The numbers would rise and fall throughout the years.
The Raptors would remain in the top 10, with the worst year being 2021 with an average attendance of 2,312 when the team temporarily relocated to Tampa for the COVID season.
The common thread with all these teams was that they struggled to keep a fan base and consistent revenue.
Though the Raptors have a team value of $4.4 billion and rank 11th in revenue, according to Forbes magazine, teams need an average winning percentage of .400 to be buoyant.
NBA fans have seen what happens when a dedicated fan base isn’t enough. It all depends on the team's ability to stay afloat for the long term.
