Accept it, Toronto: You

Egg Nog · Post #101 » by **Egg Nog** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:15 am

FurBurger wrote:Accept it Austin Burton, you are a hack sports reporter for an insignificant publication.

Hahaha, badass...

SharoneWright · Post #102 » by **SharoneWright** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:25 am

Egg Nog wrote:
FurBurger wrote:Accept it Austin Burton, you are a hack sports reporter for an insignificant publication.

Hahaha, badass...

Austin Burton, small market reporter?

Marz · Post #103 » by **Marz** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:29 am

SharoneWright wrote:
Egg Nog wrote:
FurBurger wrote:Accept it Austin Burton, you are a hack sports reporter for an insignificant publication.

Hahaha, badass...

Austin Burton, small market reporter?

Lol, I think I'll chuckle everytime I see the name "Austin Burton" from now on.

Raps in 4 · Post #104 » by **Raps in 4** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:31 am

Bosh won't be a HOFer because he's not good enough, not because he plays in Toronto. Toronto isn't a small market team either, it's the NBA team for pretty much all of Canada (not to mention only LA, NY, and Chicago have larger populations than Toronto).

C Court · Post #105 » by **C Court** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:44 am

Don't get worked up over what someone named Austin Burton wrote. From what I can tell, Burton is in his mid-20's and has no credentials or professional expertise that makes his opinion any more valuable than that of the average blogger in regards to assessing small vs. big markets.

He's a graduate of Seattle University with a BA in Journalism which took him from 2000 to 2005 to attain. Are you kidding me? Five years for a Bachlelor of Arts degree??? :lol:

COY0607 · Post #106 » by **COY0607** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:04 am

Centre Court wrote:He's a graduate of Seattle University with a BA in Journalism which took him from 2000 to 2005 to attain. Are you kidding me? Five years for a Bachlelor of Arts degree???

lol.......been there

VerbalKint · Post #107 » by **VerbalKint** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:12 am

This guy's a real idiot. What a stupid article.

Bosh, the face of the franchise, is a great player and a charming personality and a nice guy. Do you know why he’s nowhere near as popular as Chris Paul or Ray Allen? Because he plays for the Raptors.

New Orleans is a big market? Didn't Ray Allen play in Milwaukee for 7-8 seasons and made a name for himself there as part of the "big three"? Is Milwaukee a big market? Why even point out that our team's games were on NBA-TV? Does he realize that we were playing another team that essentially shared the same fate? Why doesn't he write about Howard bolting from the small market Magic?

Unknownone · Post #108 » by **Unknownone** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:17 am

Centre Court wrote:Don't get worked up over what someone named Austin Burton wrote. From what I can tell, Burton is in his mid-20's and has no credentials or professional expertise that makes his opinion any more valuable than that of the average blogger in regards to assessing small vs. big markets.

He's a graduate of Seattle University with a BA in Journalism which took him from 2000 to 2005 to attain. Are you kidding me? Five years for a Bachlelor of Arts degree???

What makes it even more suspect is that it was five years for a BA at an academically inferior university that lives in the shadow (and always gets lost in the shuffle by) of the much more esteemed University of Washington.

Who actually buys Dime though is my personal query? Along w/ Slam - in this day and age when Conde Nast sees fit to retire the widely read Portfolio and the Quincy Jones-founded Vibe dies a quick death after some 15 + years owing to the sluggish economy, how long before these 2 publications get shuttered as well? Both have always looked suspiciously like basketball-themed Teen Beat periodicals for the most part - loosely masquerading as neojournalism.

Post #109 » by **Morris_Shatford** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:26 am

Meh,
Upper crust in terms of revenue
Top half in attendance

Yeah we are small time... :roll:

This whole article seems geared at trying to placate the New York mob that is slowly realizing they have been terrible the last few seasons under the promise of a 2010 Shangri-La that doesn't seem to be happening.

mrsocko · Post #110 » by **mrsocko** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:29 am

Don't we have an advantage in somways over the Americans. We have 33 million people who cheer for the Raps. The more International players who come and play for us will make us popular around the world. We could be the ABBA of the NBA. The most popular small market team in the world.

Austin Burton's article is like a Rick Mercer "Talking to Americans" episode.

The NBA must get some monies from over sea sales of TV rights or merchandise. I bet the Purple dinosaur rules over seas!

djsunyc · Post #111 » by **djsunyc** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:32 am

he sure told us...

SilentRAM · Post #112 » by **SilentRAM** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:52 am

VerbalKint wrote:This guy's a real idiot. What a stupid article.

Bosh, the face of the franchise, is a great player and a charming personality and a nice guy. Do you know why he’s nowhere near as popular as Chris Paul or Ray Allen? Because he plays for the Raptors.

New Orleans is a big market? Didn't Ray Allen play in Milwaukee for 7-8 seasons and made a name for himself there as part of the "big three"? Is Milwaukee a big market? Why even point out that our team's games were on NBA-TV? Does he realize that we were playing another team that essentially shared the same fate? Why doesn't he write about Howard bolting from the small market Magic?

My thoughts exactly. Milwaukee? What do they have there? Cheese? What about Oklahoma?
Seriously, I think the majority of NBA players would rather live in T.O. than some of these cities in the States.

T-Rap1 · Post #113 » by **T-Rap1** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:55 am

Man this guy is an idiot I would definetley say that with the moves Riley has made this offseason (0) that wade is more likely to leave than bosh ....I say if bosh re-signs we bring all these American journalists to the press conference and ask them how my a$$ taste

tellemagain · Post #114 » by **tellemagain** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 3:05 am

The sight of kids or grown men outside of Canada rocking Bosh jerseys is rare enough — actually catching somebody in a Jose Calderon or Andrea Bargnani jersey would be like seeing Bigfoot walking down West Broadway.

The closest the Raptors have ever come to being a legit big-market organization was when they had Vince Carter in his prime. Vince was the most exciting player in the world for a time; and even then he could only get the Raps so close. When Vince left, so did the Toronto’s chances of reaching actual “big market” status. And when Bosh is gone next summer to, yes, a bigger market, and Hedo Turkoglu is the focal point of Raps’ marketing, expect that status to drop even more.

I wonder how many Raptors jerseys will be sold in Europe next season? I wonder if this brilliant writer has even taken that into consideration?

It's time for folks to realize that the NBA expands beyond American borders. The NBA realizes this...in fact the league has pushed to gain a foothold outside the U.S...and if the American media or players for that matter can't recognize this, maybe thier agents and accountants will!

Brownman06 · Post #115 » by **Brownman06** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 3:29 am

Why do Americans make it so easy to hate and laugh at them?

Rebel INS · Post #116 » by **Rebel INS** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 3:44 am

Dime mag editor: Hey writer, I noticed your last online article got the most hits we've gotten all month...good job...here's a raise

can we chill out on the indignant asshurt outrage? the comments section there is as pathetic as the article itself. Not a good look toronto

Post #117 » by **DG88** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 3:48 am

Hey Austin Burton

with your turrible article.

Bendit · Post #118 » by **Bendit** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 4:02 am

What an incredibly mentally straight-jacketed piece. Its a testament to the brilliant insight of the worldview of some of our cousins to the south. The fact espn and usa Today etc etc do not cover much of anything beyond their myopic backyard is consistent with like 45 million votes for the incredibly progressive tandem of MCCain and Palin in the last election, 70% of the population not being able to point Iraq on a map, dont know or care that we are helping out in Afghanistan and probably wouldnt cover a nba basketball franchise in London, England (another small market). Many in the deep south still think we live in igloos.

No lessons to be learned from idiots like from whoever wrote that. Did VC get anymore famous because he moved to N Jersey? Is max money here any less than in NY or LA? Any basketballer doing ads for Rolex or Cadillac?

Personally I think CB has miles to go in his comedic pursuits to be anything more than at a hobby level. Think he would get many hits at his site if he werent a nba baller. He should stick to his day job and practice some post moves.

canguy20m · Post #119 » by **canguy20m** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 4:17 am

Yosemite Dan wrote:The GTA has almost 4 million people and we're not a big market team. Yet Vince Carter was regularly the top all star vote getter, by a large margin, and the Raptors were one of the top road draws in the league during Vince's heyday. For a city that is supposedly Siberia to the US media we did pretty good around Vince's prime.

The players make the team, if we have an exciting team fans want to watch regardless and all of a sudden we are a major league city. The truth is we have boring players and guys like Bosh, Jose and Bargs and thier style of play does not make NBA fans tremble with excitement. No matter where Bosh plays, a finesse big man does not capture fans' imaginations.

A good example is the Blue Jays. Now they're considered small market but in the late 80's and early 90's they routinely had the highest payroll and were considered a glamour team and a big market team because they were selling out every game. In fact many of the have-not teams complained about the Jay's payroll and how they couldn't compete much like the Jays' complain now about the Bosox and Yankees. The Jays had stars like Henderson, Winfield, Morris and Molitor and were a top 3 draw on the road for years. Somehow in the 16 years since they were a contender the population of Toronto has doubled yet now they're small market. The fan base hasn't shrunk, (TV #'s confirm that) it's just the Jays have been mismanaged since 1993 and haven't come close to the playoffs and aren't giving fans a reason to go. Had Pat Gillick stayed as GM the Jays would have continued to be a perennial contender and might be selling out to this day. If anyone of you were old enough to remember during the late 80's and early 90's the Jays were the top team in the city, over the Leafs, so the hockey city excuse doesn't fly there.

if you want a real comparison don't use the gta. use the golden horseshoe area because that covers an area comparable to those of metro cities in the US like Denver, Chicago (Chicagoland has about 30 thousand sq km's). then Toronto has 8-9 million people.
why is Miami called a big market ? in baseball it's an even smaller market than Toronto and it has had more recent success.
Chris Bosh isn't as popular as the Lebron and Wade because he hasn't shown yet that he's a superstar. given what he's accomplished in the league so far I think he's more popular than he should be even in the US.
espn and tnt serve US audiences. if the raptors don't win they don't get on either of those networks. when they're not being shown Americans don't know about them and they don't want to see them (shows up in road attendance). the only way to fix that is to get more Canadian teams in the league. there's no excuse for not having teams in Montreal and Vancouver.

Mustard_Tiger · Post #120 » by **Mustard_Tiger** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 4:37 am

This guy doesn't seem to understand the definition of a small-market if he thinks the Toronto Raptors are in one. Yes...they don't get the kind of American media attention that many American teams get, but that's to be expected, and it doesn't mean they reside in a small market.