Despite boasting Canada’s sports teams, Ontario’s capital doesn’t live up to hype
With the Maple Leafs, the Raptors, and the Blue Jays, the home of the CN Tower is also home to the self-proclaimed centre of the hockey universe, and two professional teams that bare the responsibility of representing an entire nation in their respective leagues – a formula that should seemingly add up to a city that worships it’s sports.
But does Toronto, after it talks-the-talk, actually walk-the-walk?
Sure, the Blue Jays own the longest playoff drought in the MLB having not appeared in the postseason since 1993, and maybe getting into the disappointment that is the Maple Leafs needs an article (most likely a novel) within itself. But, cue the Toronto Raptors.
After stealing the hearts of the 416-area code and the country through the brilliant marketing campaign of #WeTheNorth for the short-lived – but loved – playoff run, the Toronto Raptors are off to the best start in franchise history. Compiling an 8-2 record as of Nov. 14, Kyle Lowry and company sit confidently in first of the NBA’s Eastern Conference.
The last time the Raptors were found atop the standings at the beginning of a season was six games in on Nov. 12 of 2004 – ten years ago. Fun fact, basketball fans, this Jurassic Park inspired team has never been ranked first seven games in prior to this season in its entire existence.
With the amount of complaining we (disclaimer: ‘we’ encompasses everyone who demands sympathy as a sad-and-bitter ‘Toronto sports fan’) do as a fan base, you would think we’d have the parade route planned already. That’s what we’re known for after all, give us a single win and we’ll show you the blueprints.
Yet, with all of our practice in parade planning, these surging Raps are struggling to make the front cover of a newspaper, or be the top story on any sports network. Instead the city of Toronto would seemingly rather read about the Leafs’ tough loss to the Buffalo Sabres (seriously, it’s like we want to torture ourselves).
The argument, then, would be that Toronto – none other than the centre of the hockey universe – is actually just a hockey city, right?
Wrong.
We’d rather blanket our obsessive love for the boys in blue with our said-to-be eternal admiration for the beautiful game in general as an excuse. It makes us feel better about ourselves to think that we actually just love the sport of hockey more than anything else.
But the sad truth is, Toronto is not a sports city, and it’s not the centre of the hockey universe. Toronto is a Toronto Maple Leafs city.
We whine and grumble about the challenges we’re forced with being a Toronto sports fan, yet we ignorantly refuse to acknowledge the success around us.
One step below our beloved Maple Leafs sits the American Hockey League’s (AHL) Toronto Marlies, a team that in 2014 was one game-seven-win away from reaching the Calder Cup Finals for the second time in three years.
Yet, despite icing a championship contending club several seasons in a row, the Marlies still have an average attendance of 6,000 per game. That’s only about 500 over the AHL average. Looking at teams such as the Hershey Bears located in Hershey, PA and the Lake Erie Monsters in Cleveland, OH who draw 8,000 per game on average, it’s not exactly bragging rights for the self-proclaimed hockey universe.
Then there are the Mississauga Steelheads of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). As OHL teams saw an increased yearly-attendance average of 4,041 in 2013-14, the Steelheads sat at just above half with 2,585, and are currently at a decreased 2,294 average for the 2014-15 season.
Maybe a not-so-successful major junior hockey club doesn’t draw the most attention for a few reasons, and it’s quite possible we’re just tired of the always-overestimated Blue Jays falling short. However, none of it makes any more sense when you remember the Maple Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup in 47 years (that’s more than double my age, people) and have only made the playoffs once in the last 10 years.
Toronto sports fans love to complain about the disappointing hand we’re dealt in the world of sports, and it’s genuinely heartbreaking more often than not. Yet, with our own world of sports so readily accessible to us, we don’t have a clue on how to represent it, even when the win-column is higher than we’re used to.
The Maple Leafs will always be the frontrunners, and there’s no challenging that. Perhaps Toronto is stuck as the central hub for Leafs fans. But maybe – just maybe – an NBA Championship title could give Toronto sports fans a well-deserved break.
Here we go again, planning the parade route.