Louisville is viewed as a possible alternate location should the Toronto Raptors need a place to play within the United States next season, according to Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports.
The NBA is clearly hoping to have teams play games in their home markets next season, but travel to and from Canada has been banned by the U.S. as the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic.
As Goodwill noted, the Raptors could follow the lead of baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays by temporarily moving home games to a facility in the United States. (The Blue Jays played home games in Buffalo this past summer.)
For the Raptors, that may mean Louisville.
“Louisville wouldn’t be first in line in the event of relocation or expansion; Seattle is,” Goodwill reported. “But it seems to be an easier sell to get the Raptors in Louisville for a short period — or even sharing a current NBA market, according to sources.”
Per Goodwill, the league and Board of Governors are set to hold a call Friday to discuss an array of topics, with how best to move forward on the 2020-21 season being the focus.