OVO Athletic Centre, Basketball training facility in Exhibition Place, Toronto, Canada
OVO Athletic Centre is a modern training facility located at Exhibition Place that serves as the home base for a professional basketball team. The venue combines multiple gymnasium spaces with training areas, medical facilities, and athlete support zones all under one roof.
MLSE hired an architect in November 2013 to design a practice facility, since the Raptors had trained inside the Air Canada Centre since 1999. Exhibition Place's Board of Governors approved the site on August 14, 2014, and Toronto City Council followed on August 25; construction began that November. MLSE paid the CA$30 million cost and leases the land for $205,000 a year, with the City taking ownership after the term.
The name comes from October's Very Own, the lifestyle brand and record label founded by Aubrey "Drake" Graham, Oliver El-Khatib and Noah "40" Shebib; the Raptors signed a naming rights deal with OVO on March 14, 2019. Drake is a global ambassador for the Raptors, and the OVO brand replaced BioSteel and Toronto Raptors Training Centre as the facility's name.
The building is not open to the public as an attraction; 32% of the space is reserved for community use, with courts shared between MLSE and community groups. It stands on leased City of Toronto land at Exhibition Place, near Dufferin Street and the Gardiner Expressway. The number 30 is mounted in black on the brick section to the right of the glass facade.
The building sits on leased public land at Exhibition Place; MLSE pays the City $205,000 a year plus taxes for a 20-year term, and after two optional ten-year extensions the City takes ownership. The lease also reserves 32% of the facility for public use, with courts shared between the team and community groups.
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