Airbnb is courting Toronto sports fans with its latest rental on the market: a free overnight stay in a private suite at the city’s sports arena complete with premium tickets to see both the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors play. Instead of taking bookings, though, Airbnb is hosting a contest to determine the fan most deserving of what the company is billing as the “ultimate sports weekend.”
And it is a pretty exciting weekend planned for anyone obsessed with Toronto sports. On the weekend of January 23, none other than Hockey Hall of Famer and former Maple Leafs captain Doug Gilmour will play the role of Airbnb “host.” And the room that he’s hosting? Airbnb is transforming a private suite in the Air Canada Centre—home of both the Maple Leafs and the Raptors—into a bedroom with a balcony overlooking the lower bowl.
Beyond that, Gilmour will take the winner on a sports apparel shopping spree, hook them up with platinum ice-level seats to see the Maple Leafs play the Montreal Canadiens, and hook them up even further the next day with courtside tickets to watch the Raptors go up against the Clippers. The winner will also sit in on each team’s warm-up practice and attend Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock’s post-game press conference.
Toronto fans aren’t the first that Airbnb has wooed with this kind of contest. The home-sharing company has also arranged fantasy weekends for Red Sox fans at Fenway Park, VIP concert tickets for Grateful Dead fans in Chicago, and most recently a Halloween overnight stay in the catacombs of Paris.
This particular Airbnb contest is accepting entries right this second, asking for short original essays arguing, “Why I’m the biggest Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors Fan and what it would mean to me to stay overnight at the Air Canada Centre.” The contest closes at 11:59 p.m. on December 15, so get on it, sports fans.
