Canada Basketball, MLSE, and the Toronto Raptors announce a unique partnership leading up to the 2024 Paris Olympics

The GIST: Canada Basketball, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), and the Toronto Raptors announced a unique partnership initiative on Wednesday to promote the NBA team’s imagery during Team Canada’s 2024 Paris Olympics run. We really are The North.

The details: World No. 5 Canada’s Senior Women’s National Team will feature the Toronto Raptors logo on its uniform shorts in upcoming games before the Paris Olympics. To celebrate, the organizations hosted a girls basketball clinic for the local Toronto community, which featured Canadian National Team athletes as guest coaches.

• WNBA stars Kia Nurse, Natalie Achonwa, Bridget Carleton, and Laeticia Amihere were a few of the big name attendees. At the clinic, Carleton also reiterated her hopes of bringing a W outfit to Toronto.

The environment: Canada’s women’s game enjoys a rich history that spans over a century — basketball was invented by a Canadian, after all. The sport’s continued popularity explains why tickets for Toronto’s WNBA exhibition game sold out in one day, filling Scotiabank Arena’s 19.8K seats with avid women’s hoops fans this May.

• That doesn’t include the millions of W supporters who are tuning in across the Great White North: Canada’s average regular season WNBA game viewership increased by over 95% during the past three years. Not bad, eh?

Zooming out: Even though MLSE relinquished its WNBA bid, the company is still finding ways to support women’s basketball, all while driving Raptors fandom. This unique crossover also illustrates how popular men’s and women’s teams can amplify one another’s success — take note, friends south of the border.