Raptors training facility renamed OVO Athletic Centre for Drake
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Just call it the 6 God Centre.
Actually, you can call the Toronto Raptors practice facility down by the lake the OVO Athletic Centre thanks to an extended partnership between the Raptors and global recording star Drake, who has served as the club’s global ambassador for more than five seasons.
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The new branding at the facility went up late in the day on Wednesday.
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“We were looking for the right opportunity and this one made sense with everything we are doing,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri told the Toronto Sun in a phone interview on Thursday afternoon.
“The connection with him and the history of the Raptors as a basketball fan, obviously as a global ambassador, with the players, with the community and the courts he is building (in Toronto through donations) and the work he is doing. But as a businessman, too. Everything really connects,” Ujiri told the Sun. “As you drive along that highway and you see the OVO and the owl (the logos of Drake’s brand) and the connection with the Raptors, I think it makes sense for people.
“I think it’s a happy partnership that people find joy in because he is in the fabric of the Raptors. That’s just who he is. It’s natural.”
As global ambassador Drake has promoted the team and the city in his music and online, while also partnering in jersey designs and with “Drake Nights” for certain games, which have been rebranded more recently as “Welcome Toronto” nights, including Thursday’s game against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers at Scotiabank Arena.
Toronto’s new practice jerseys will sport OVO (October’s Very Own) branding via the OVO owl logo on the upper left chest and will be for sale.
Ujiri travelled to England, where Drake was performing, to give him a ceremonial key to the Toronto facility, which originally opened in February 2016 as the BioSteel Centre.
Ujiri said Drake said “it was one of the most meaningful things that he has done because this is his city It’s really cool to see this evolve into a partnership like this.”
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