Nets vs. Raptors Game 5: We The North Makes Tickets Scarce

You haven’t had to be one of the thousands of Toronto Raptors fans camped out at Maple Leaf Square outside of the Air Canada Centre to know that this Northern Uprising is the real deal. Make no mistake the Raptors are Canada’s team right now.

While the Raps earned a split in Brooklyn, flocks of red-clad fans joined outside the ACC to watch their team battle the Nets. We The North, RTZ and Northern Uprising signs were everywhere. There was enough energy in downtown Toronto that you’d almost think it was the Leafs who were making a postseason push.

Sports Interaction’s NBA Playoff Odds

That’s why you’re going to have a hard time finding a ticket for Game 5 when the Raptors come back home to the ACC to host the Nets with the series tied at two games apiece. Sports Interaction has the Raps as 3.5-point favorites and Stubhub had just 440 tickets remaining for Wednesday’s game as of Tuesday afternoon. The cheapest ticket you could get was $192.05.

Maybe it should come as no surprise at this point. Sunday’s Game 4 was reportedly had the second-highest viewership of a Raptors game ever, checking in at about 885,000.

This marketing campaign the Raptors have put together is hitting all the right notes. First it was Drake coming on as a team ambassador, but it’s been so much since then. The Raptors final figured out that being Canadian and different from the rest of the NBA is cool. Playing basketball in snow is tough. Embracing the North Side idea was brilliant. Being different in sports marketing often makes a lot of sense – especially when you have a global icon like Drake leading the way.

“The main thing is that we’re trying to build something new here,” Raptors fan Casey Bannerman told the Toronto Star. “We’re known so well for hockey. And for us, it’s showing the NBA, the rest of the world, that we’re the lone Canadian franchise. So I think, for us, it brings in patriotism, it brings in pride of city. And that’s why we’re so passionate.”

The Raptors mirrored that passion in Brooklyn in Game 4 with Kyle Lowry battling through a knee injury to score 22 points while DeMar DeRozan added 24 points and four rebounds. Toronto will need both of its big guns again on Wednesday, but at least this time, they’ll have the crowd behind them.