Patrick Mahomes wants Kansas City to become a city of champions and he’s recruiting the Toronto Raptors to help him do it.
The 2020 Super Bowl MVP took to Twitter to advocate for the 2019 NBA champs to play their home games in Kansas City next season.
“Bring them to to KC,” Mahomes tweeted in response to a report the Raptors were looking for a home in the United States due to the coronavirus-related border closure between Canada and the U.S.
Kansas City mayor Quinton Lucas responded to Mahomes, saying he was “working on it.”
Bring them to KC!https://t.co/di5r6bIAh7
— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) October 26, 2020
Yahoo Sports insider Vincent Goodwill reported last week that the Raptors were looking at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky., as a potential home for the 2020-21 season. But Rick Bozich of the local Fox-affiliated TV station WDRB reported shortly after that talks had fallen through in part because of the team’s reluctance to play in Kentucky because of the death of Breonna Taylor, who was shot and killed by Louisville police officers in March.
The COVID-19 pandemic has already forced other Toronto pro sports teams to find temporary homes this year. The Toronto Blue Jays played a majority of their home games this season out of Buffalo, N.Y., while Toronto FC is finishing the season and playoffs from West Hartford, Conn. With the NBA reportedly targeting a late-December restart to the next season and the U.S. seeing a rise in positive coronavirus cases, the Raptors will likely need to do the same.
If the Raptors do end up in Kansas City, the T-Mobile Arena would be their likely home. The nearly 19,000-seat arena opened in 2007 and has been part of pitches by the city for expansion of NBA and NHL teams in the past.
