Sports - Toronto Hotels .com

With its own major professional sports teams and longstanding annual events such as the Toronto Marathon and the Grand Prix of Toronto, Toronto may very well be the sports capital of Canada. And what's more central to Canadian culture than hockey? From April through mid-June, hockey fans of all stripes descend upon the Air Canada Centre (ACC) in downtown Toronto to experience the excitement and fever of the National Hockey League Playoffs leading up to the prestigious Stanley Cup. The hometown team, Toronto's Maple Leafs, have won the Stanley Cup 13 times in their history. Enormously popular, the Leafs have sold out every home game since 1946.

There's more to see at the ACC than hockey. The arena is also home to the NBA's Toronto Raptors and the National Lacrosse League's . Canada's national summer sport, lacrosse, picks up where the energy leaves off at that end of the hockey season. Having won five NLL championships in their short history, the Toronto Rock raise the bar for this rapidly growing sport. And over at Rogers Centre (formerly the SkyDome), the Blue Jays have brought America's favorite pastime to Toronto for over 30 years. The only Major League Baseball team in Canada, the Jays were the winners of consecutive World Series in 1992 and 1993.

The summer is also alive in Toronto with notable international events that attract fans and participants from around the globe. During two days in June, the Dragon Boat Race pays tribute to the ancient art of this Chinese sport, with 100 boat races along the center islands of the city. The race draws over 5,000 paddlers to Toronto for these friendly competitions. One of the world's oldest and most anticipated events in tennis, the Rogers Cup, is held at Rexall Centre in July and August. Wimbledon and the U.S. Open are the only tennis competitions with a longer history. The men's and women's tournaments alternate on an annual basis between this Toronto site and Montreal.