TORONTO WORST SPORTS CITY IN WORLD !!

Columnist Cathal Kelly of the Toronto Star takes issue with ESPN’s opinion that Toronto is “ The Worst Sports City in the World” in his Tuesdays article.

ESPN’s latest shot at the great city of Muddy York was published on their upmarket web platform Grantland. The short version of the article is this….nobody loves hockey more than Toronto; and Toronto is terrible at hockey.

Kelly’s position is that when it comes to the NHL team the Maple Leaf Execs are trying to lose games because it’s just as expensive to win as it is to lose when there is a salary cap in place. He believes it is incompetence at the top, not a “capitalistic cabal”….uh ya…

Contrary to this statement its only as expensive to run a losing team as a winning one IF they are both running at the cap…kind of obvious. And while I’m a die hard Leaf Fan and would love to jump on the “ I could run a team better than those clowns” bandwagon, the reality is the team has to be run a certain way to appease those who pay the bills and they are looking for value. If the fans are going to pack the place whether they run 40%, 20% or sell out, what possible incentive is it for management to spend the extra money? Does the  pencil pusher in accounting running the financials really cares if they made the playoff?…or made the money? The fans speak volumes and $$$ when they don’t show up to a losing teams games…and while it would be nice to say that management cares about attendance, the reality is they care much more about the money.

Kelly goes on to say guys like Brad Richards won’t come here to play because they are afraid of disappointing fans, and it’s a healthy fear. This is just one of the stupidest statements I’ve heard. Richards doesn’t care one iota about disappointing any of us, he cares about getting paid, being in a well-run organization that can compete and living a nice lifestyle. Sure he can get paid here, but there is no recent history that shows this team can compete and why play where you’ll be on the front page every day after you lose a game with a hundred media guys asking stupid questions…when you can play in a city like Nashville or Carolina, can be more competitive and be virtually left alone….they get in the paper behind womens archery most days. (not to mention the weather).

His final thought is that what the team doesn’t reflect on us a community, and he is right to a degree. It’s not a reflection, it’s a much more direct blow. When we show up to financially support a team that seems to have no game plan or incentive to get better, we are saying “hey its ok guys, just do your best” to management. These guys could care less about what we think of them, it’s the $$$$$ that shout….and they shout louder than a Damien Cox critique.

Now fellow lemurs, let’s all go take a long walk on a short pier…….

Mr. Two Cents

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