KFC Canada Proves Any Season is Bucket Season With World’s First Winterized Outdoor Basketball Court

KFC Partners with Raptors Star Gary Trent Jr. to Launch Buckets Are Life, A Campaign That Taps into Canada’s Love of Basketball

TORONTO, Jan. 25, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- No one knows buckets like KFC. For decades, Canadians have gathered around KFC’s iconic bucket to share a meal. Now, KFC is rallying Canadians around their shared passion for buckets through basketball in a definitively Canadian way, with the KFCourt, the world’s first winterized basketball court.

While winter is usually considered off season for outdoor courts, KFC believes that nothing should stand in the way of Canadians and their love of buckets. That’s why KFC has created the KFCourt, a winter-friendly basketball court located under one of Canada’s busiest highways, the Gardiner Expressway, at The Bentway.

Reimagining KFC’s iconic chicken bucket as a playable NBA Regulation Size Bucket (RSB), Canadians can come down for a game of pickup or pick up some fresh skills from local hoopers. With the help of the basketball community and Toronto Raptor Gary Trent Jr., who will be making a courtside appearance to teach local fans how to get buckets like him, the month-long activation is giving Canadians a new place to play the game they love.

“Canadians love for Finger Lickin’ Good buckets is only matched by their love of buckets on the basketball court,” says Azim Akhtar, Director of Marketing, KFC Canada. “That’s why we wanted to bring these two worlds together like only KFC can and create an epic winterized court that feeds Canadians’ growing passion for basketball.”

Concerned about the cold? Don’t be chicken! The custom court has everything you need to ball hard:

• Pre-warmed basketballs upon arrival;
• Rotating DJs on select Fridays and Saturdays courtesy of LiveNation;
• A Pepsi Sponsored Warming Centre with heaters and refreshments;
• KFC samples on select days, as well as an UberEats promo code for a future KFC order.

To keep you as crispy as a hot bucket of delicious fried chicken, guests can also gear up in custom, limited edition, Number 11 Puffer Jerseys (honouring the favourite herbs & spices).

KFC is donating court time to local basketball community groups to run their programs, and offering up $5 bookable time slots with funds going to Jump Thru Hoops. Located at The Bentway (800 Fleet Street), running Jan. 26 – Feb. 22, 2023, KFCourt will be open seven days a week to the public, snow or shine. Visit KFCourt.ca for complete details and instructions on how to reserve your spot. Staff on site will be available to answer any questions or join you for a game.

As part of this 360-campaign, KFC is offering crave-worthy game night offers. Through the KFC App and on KFC.ca, consumers will save $5 when they spend $25 on game nights, starting February 13. KFC's Buckets Are Life campaign can be seen and heard through high impact Out of Home, TV and OLV, partnerships with The Scarborough Shooting Stars, The Raptors Show on Sportsnet, BarDown on TikTok, and The Score, and across KFC Canada’s Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube channels.

For official KFC Buckets Are Life imagery, please click here.

For further information please contact:  
Katie Mills, Narrative, katie.mills@narrative.ca    
Holly Wilks, Narrative, holly.wilks@narrative.ca 

About KFC Canada 

Founded by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1952, KFC is now the world's most popular chain of chicken restaurants. To this day the Colonel's own blend of 11 herbs and spices is still used to season our Original Recipe® chicken and it still remains a very closely guarded secret. KFC's specialty is our famous Original Recipe® chicken, but we also feature a variety of freshly prepared sandwiches and wraps, on the go snack items, home-style sides, desserts and beverages. Today KFC Corporation is a subsidiary of YUM! Brands Inc. and operates more than 23,000 restaurants in more than 140 countries and territories around the world including more than 600 locations right here in Canada. To learn more about KFC Canada, visit our website www.kfc.ca

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/66322da6-9e42-486c-abb6-9caf2a7c144f