Raptors, Maple Leafs and Sabres move up home game start times to limit World Series overlap
Those games conflict with Game 1 of the World Series, which will take place at Rogers Centre, down the street from the Raptors’ home.
www.nytimes.com
The Raptors and Maple Leafs, who play down the street from the Blue Jays' Rogers Centre, moved their games up one hour. Tom Szczerbowski / Getty Images
The Toronto Raptors, Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres are adjusting the start times of home games that conflict with the World Series to minimize overlap with the Toronto Blue Jays’ games.
The NBA announced Wednesday that the Raptors’ home opener against the Milwaukee Bucks, scheduled for Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, and their second home game of the year, against the Houston Rockets at the same time on Oct. 29, will now start at 6:30 p.m.
Those games conflict with Game 1 of the World Series, which will take place at Rogers Centre, just down the street from the Raptors’ home, Scotiabank Arena and Game 5 of the World Series, if necessary, which is scheduled to be played at Dodger Stadium on the 29th. All World Series games are scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET.
Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs’ home games against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday and the Calgary Flames on Oct. 28 will now be played at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively. They conflict with Game 2 at Rogers Centre and Game 4 at Dodger Stadium. While the Sabres’ home game on Friday, Oct. 24, will start at 7:00 p.m. ET after originally being scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
This is the first time the Blue Jays have been in the World Series since they won two titles in 1992 and 1993. Rogers Communications, which owns the Blue Jays, is also the majority partner in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the company that owns the Raptors and Maple Leafs.