Raptors 905 Unveil Logo, Announced as D-League Expansion Team

For the first time ever, the NBA D-League is heading north.

“Raptors 905” was announced as the newest NBA D-League team this morning, to be owned and operated by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment who also own the Toronto Raptors. Raptors 905 will be the affiliate club of the NBA’s Raptors. The team will play their home games in Mississauga, Ontario (what, that wasn’t obvious with the name?) out of the Hershey Centre.

What’s a 905, you ask? The area code of the suburban area which surrounds Toronto on all sides, spanning from Niagara Falls in the south to beyond Oshawa in the east and areas north. The term is quite common to describe this region but usually only while within it or Toronto, for example “Where you living?”, “I’m out in the 905”, etc. Toronto’s traditional area code, “416”, has recently been used by the Raptors in promotional materials as “The 6ix”. Hopefully that’s where it stops.

“We are thrilled to bring an NBA Development League team to basketball fans across the 905 region. Raptors 905 will give our young players a great opportunity to develop and gain valuable experience, while providing high level, affordable basketball to the community.” – Masai Ujiri, Raptors 416 president and general manager in a press release

The club answers the many “why are you naming a team after an area code?” questions with this: “The 905 pays homage to where the team is located in Mississauga and the rapid growth of Toronto’s suburbs.” So there you go, mystery no more, it’s named “905” because Mississauga’s area code is 905.

Methinks a better answer would have been, “Look, it’s like the Warriors using the term ‘Golden State’ instead of Oakland and then we’re putting it at the end of the name because it kinda sounds like ‘Beverly Hills 90210’ that way, and we like to name our teams after 1990’s American entertainment”.

The logo features Raptors 905 written inside a basketball, at the top of the ball are three claw marks – similar to the NBA’s Raptors 416 new team logo. Colours of black, silver, and red are identical to that of the parent club.

With the birth of Raptors 905 comes the death of the Mississauga Power, the National Basketball League of Canada team which had called the Hershey Centre home up until earlier this morning. The owner of the Power is an investor of the new 905 club.