The 6. Home of the Toronto Raptors. Canada’s Team. The Raptors have always had a strong presence across the league with previous stars such as Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani, and DeMar DeRozan. It is to no one’s surprise that they are able to break into FanWide’s Top Ten NBA Teams ranking at the #9 spot.
Despite always having Kyle Lowry to help lead their team, the Raptors acquired all-star forward Kawhi Leonard and shooting guard Danny Green in a recent exchange for DeMar DeRozan. Although this trade stunned the league as the Raptors did not think twice about trading away their star, it has paid off for them as Kawhi has helped Toronto maintain its position as one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference rankings. Additionally, the recent signing of Jeremy Lin will for sure boost fan support from the Asian Canadian and Asian American community as many other previous Chinese players have done for organizations. For sure we cannot forget about the fact that the Raptors are music superstar Drake’s favorite sports team. Enough of the summary, let’s get right into how the Toronto Raptors were able to rank 9th in FanWide’s Top Ten NBA Teams rankings.
Visit FanWide.com to find a Toronto Raptors game watch party or fan club near you.
Here’s the list of teams which have been announced so far:
9) Toronto Raptors
Methodology
The NBA is unique in many aspects of fan support. It is very difficult to rank a team based solely off of their on or off court success. Therefore, FanWide chose to use data from both categories to create a ranking that is one of a kind. All the metrics used in this ranking were weighted equally in order to ensure there was a balance between the different factors. Additionally, all of the metrics were applicable to all 30 of the NBA teams. As a result, our top ten ranking is the most balanced and unique ranking for NBA teams. More information about our methodology can be found here. FanWide will be releasing the top ten NBA fan clubs in the next few weeks.
Toronto Raptors Rankings
| Category | Count | NBA Rank |
| Fan Clubs on FanWide | 0 | 28 (tie) |
| NBA Championships since 1977 | 0 | 12 (tie) |
| All-Stars(last 5 years) | 8 | 3 |
| National Games Televised Last Year (ABC, ESPN, TNT, NBA TV) | 27 | 7 |
| Wins (last 5 years) | 263 | 4 |
| Attendance (Average) | 19,839 | 4 |
| Value (in billions) | 1.4 | 12 |
| Total Followers (in millions) | 5.71 | 15 |
Fan Clubs on FanWide: 0 (tied for 28th)
This is the most surprising number in the rankings for Toronto. With such a big market city and being Canada’s only NBA team seems to make no sense as to why the there are no fan clubs listed on FanWide. The explanation to such a statistic is that FanWide is currently only tracking fan clubs which exist in America. Yet, a team from Canada stands little chance in having a strong fan base in America as it is from a different country and has not yet won a championship. Whether you fan club is in the US or Canada, let us know so that we can help your team!