Scotiabank Arena was originally constructed in 1941 as the Toronto Postal Delivery Building for postal deliveries and was temporarily used by the Department of National Defence during World War II. The building was reconstructed in 1997 and opened as the Air Canada Centre on February 19th, 1999. The Bank of Nova Scotia acquired the naming rights to the arena in July 2018.

The capacity of Scotiabank Arena varies depending on the event. For basketball games, the capacity is 19,800 (20,511 with standing room), for hockey games it is 18,800 (20,270 with standing room), for lacrosse games it is 18,800 and for concerts it is 19,800.

The nearest international airport offering direct flights from London, with a flight time of approximately 8 hours, is Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), which is approximately 17 miles away from Scotiabank Arena.

The Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ) is approximately 1.5 miles away from Scotiabank Arena and offers an alternative if you are already in Canada or the US and looking to travel to/from Toronto. You will then you have the choice of most US domestic airlines including Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, American Eagle, Frontier Airlines, Jet Blue, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, United Airways and WestJet.

The Scotiabank Arena is located near Toronto’s Union Station, which links it with Toronto’s major public transit systems. You can take the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) bus, streetcar, or subway to get to the arena. The 6 Bay and 72 Pape buses stop at Union Station. The 509 and 510 streetcars also stop at Union Station. You can also take the Yonge/University/Spadina subway line to Union Station. You could also make use of apps such as Moovit to get directions to the arena using public transportation.

Rideshare services such as Uber or Lyft are also available in the vicinity.

Scotiabank Arena is in the South Core district of Downtown Toronto. The South Core is a neighbourhood located in downtown. It occupies the eastern portions of the Railway Lands. The district is bounded on its western side by Lower Simcoe Street, its eastern side by Lower Jarvis Street, its northern side by the railway tracks and southern side by Lake Ontario.

Beyond the Airbnb and Sonder options there are many hotels nearby to suit all budgets. Some of the closest hotels include One King West Hotel & Residence, Delta Hotels by Marriott Toronto, and The Omni King Edward Hotel.

The Toronto Raptors sell their tickets via Ticketmaster.

The official ticket partner for the NBA is nbatickets.nba.com.

Here are links to the main ticket resale sites. Click on the link, which will open up a new window, and you can compare the prices on the different ticket resell sites, bearing in mind that the prices shown are before the selling platform fees are added, so take time to have a read of my tips to Buying Tickets in North America.

• SeatGeek
• SportsEvents365 (Click on the Search Button)
• StubHub International
• StubHub US
• Ticketmaster US
• TicketNetwork
• Viagogo
• Vivid Seats

I recommend downloading the team’s Mobile App to your phone as it contains much Gameday information for the stadium.