4
city carparks within a kilometre of the arena
$8
cheapest of them for a 6pm to 10pm weeknight stay
6
minutes on foot from the closest one
2
that switch to a flat event price on some nights
Both teams play in the same building
The Leafs and the Raptors share Scotiabank Arena, so parking for a hockey night and a basketball night is the same problem with the same answers. Anything below applies to a concert there too.
The arena sits between Union Station and the waterfront, which is the most contested parking in the city on a weeknight and the best served by transit. If the game is the only reason you are driving in, the honest advice is to take the train. What follows is for when you are driving anyway.
The evening maximum is what makes it affordable
Most city carparks switch to a night maximum at 6pm, and it is routinely half the daytime one or less. A 7pm face-off means arriving inside that window, which is why a game is one of the cheaper reasons to park downtown rather than one of the dearer ones.
These are the municipal carparks within a kilometre, priced for 6pm to 10pm on an ordinary Tuesday:
| Carpark | Walk | 4 hours |
|---|---|---|
| 40 York Street | 6 min · 369 m | $12 |
| 2 Church Street (St. Lawrence Garage) | 9 min · 585 m | $8 |
| 92 Front Street East (St. Lawrence Market North) | 14 min · 891 m | $9 |
| 110 Queen Street West (Nathan Phillips Square Garage) | 15 min · 984 m | $10 |
The furthest of them is about a fifteen minute walk, which on a night when twenty thousand people leave at once is often faster than being parked under the building.
Event nights can be priced differently, and we cannot tell you when
This is the caveat that matters, and it is the reason to read the card rather than only the price. 2 of those carparks publish a special event rate: a flat price charged on entry that replaces the usual maximums on the nights it applies to.
- 2 Church Street (St. Lawrence Garage) publishes $12 at entry on event nights, against the $8 above.
- 110 Queen Street West (Nathan Phillips Square Garage) publishes $20 at entry on event nights, against the $10 above.
The card gives the rate and never the nights. The operator decides which nights count, and that decision follows no calendar we can see: it is not the City's events listing, and a fixture in the building is not in itself a reason to expect it. So our price is the ordinary one, and the honest thing to say about the event rate is that we cannot tell you when it applies.
What it is worth knowing for is the size of the gap. Choosing between two carparks a few minutes apart, the one with no event rate cannot surprise you and the one with an event rate can, by the difference between the two figures above.
Every carpark's full card is on its own page, event rates included, exactly as the operator publishes it.
Leaving is the part to plan
Arriving takes as long as it takes. Leaving is twenty thousand people doing the same thing in the same ten minutes, and the carpark you chose decides how much of that you sit through.
A surface lot four streets away empties onto ordinary traffic. A garage beside the arena empties onto a queue for the same ramp as everyone else. The few minutes of extra walking usually come back with interest, which is the opposite of how it feels when you are choosing.
Search the actual night
The prices above are one Tuesday. Your game is not, and a Saturday afternoon game prices differently again, so search the window you will really be there for.
The Scotiabank Arena page lists everything nearby with a map, and upcoming fixtures set the window for you, with an hour of slack either side of the start.