There is something about Toronto that makes us special. It has nothing to do with the amount of sports teams that we have to offer or the types of people that live in this city. It has to do with loyalty. Every major sports team has it, it’s just a matter how much loyalty they really possess. No matter what league you look at, whether you go to a Toronto FC game on a rainy Monday night or a Leafs game that means absolutely nothing because they have already been eliminated from the playoffs. Why do we choose to support team that give nothing back?
Argos have not won a Grey Cup since 2004 (long for a league with 8 teams). Toronto FC has yet to make the playoffs since their introduction in 2007. The Raptors made the playoffs in 2008 but lost in the first round and have gotten worse since. The Blue Jays have not seen October baseball since the World Series in 1993.who cares about the Toronto Rock. And our beloved Maple Leafs have not made the playoffs in the new NHL (2005 till now) or have won a Stanley Cup since 1967. (Yes Habs fans we all know!) For some reason though we still fill our stadiums year in and year out to watch meaningless sports that are over priced and give us no hope. I am not saying Raptors games are sold out but we do have pretty good attendance.
Where am I going with this?
Well this year seemed like a hopeful year for the Blue Jays. I was pumped the city was pumped, the players were pumped, but at the half way point it looks like the same .500 ball club from the past couple of years. The Leafs on the other hand seem to be going nowhere. There is no hype, there is no hope, and yet we still cheer and pay $150 for nosebleeds in the ACC! This could be a good thing. No pressure on a team where they are consistently under a microscope and a boat load of cash in the owners pocket. I hear these boycott rumors about joining as one and raiding MLSE head offices but that will solve nothing and makes other NHL teams laugh at us more.
We still pay for overpriced tickets where you can only see half the ice, while in Floride they have $2 Tuesdays for the same seats. What is wrong with us? Have we been brainwashed to dig deep into our bank accounts because our pockets can not hold a stack of $100 bills to dish out for 1 Leafs game? I am not saying do not go to Leafs games because we sucks and our tickets are over priced. Im just saying maybe it is time we think about what we are really doing to ourselves by dishing out boats loads of money and then paying for a therapist because we cant deal with our depression on our own.
I guess I got lost in exactly what I wanted to talk about when it comes to loyalty, but filling up stadiums on a consistent basis for nothing shows that we have a form of rare loyalty where there is no hope for a win, just a good business deal done at the end of the first period while the seats directly behind Carlyle get colder then ice 10 feet away.
so true
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