The maple leaf and the colour red, dropped from the logo design of the Toronto Blue Jays, are about to find a new home on the uniforms of the Toronto Raptors.

The National Basketball Association team will unveil a second road uniform for the coming season that will incorporate the colours red, white and black, along with a maple leaf displayed prominently on the team's shorts.

"This is not at all, in any way, a reaction to what the Blue Jays have done," Raptors president Richard Peddie said yesterday. "These sorts of design changes have to be submitted to the league for its approval like a year in advance.

"We're not slamming the Blue Jays. We're just going in a different direction."

Last week, the Blue Jays took heat after they unveiled a new logo that was missing two of the key elements that many felt defined the baseball team as Canadian -- the colour red and the maple leaf.

The club's new logo, in full use next year, features a stern-looking bird with the word "Jays" in what the team describes as "blue, metallic silvers and metallic graphite with black-and-white accents."

The Raptors are a couple of weeks away from launching the new uniforms, but Mr. Peddie yesterday revealed the news about the colours and the maple leaf.

The team's name will run across the front of the jersey in place of the city's name that is on the current road uniforms, which are purple and black.

Mr. Peddie said that he hopes the new look will help the Raptors in their continued efforts to market themselves as Canada's NBA team.

"With the departure in Vancouver of the Grizzlies we really want to be thought of as Canada's team, not just Toronto's team," Mr. Peddie said.