Raptors will finish the entire 2020-21 season in Tampa

The Raptors, the NBA’s lone Canadian team, have played their home games at Amalie Arena, home of the Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning. They first announced the decision to relocate to Tampa for this season in November.

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“Florida has been really welcoming to us and we’re so grateful for the hospitality we’ve found in Tampa and at Amalie—we’re living in a city of champions, and we intend to carry on the tradition of winning for our new friends and fans here,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri said Thursday in a statement. “But home is where the heart is, and our hearts are in Toronto. We think often of our fans, of our Scotiabank Arena family, and all those we are missing back home, and we can’t wait until we can all be together again.”

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After getting off to a slow start to the season, the Raptors are 12—13 and sit in fifth place in the Eastern Conference. They are 6—5 at home on the year.

The U.S.-Canada border remains closed to nonessential travel, and the league would have otherwise needed an exemption to a requirement that anyone entering Canada for nonessential reasons must isolate for 14 days.

Last year, the Canadian government denied the Blue Jays’ request to play in Toronto and the team played all of its home games in Buffalo.