This coming weekend, Toronto will host the 2010 MLS Cup. Unfortunately our hometown TFC will not be participating in the final...for those "out of the loop", TFC didn't qualify for the playoffs, again this year! The Colorado Rapids will play Dallas FC down at BMO Field on Sunday night and yes, it's going to be a cold one...it may even rain. The temperature and TFC not participating aside, this should be a big event...or at least it's supposed to be. This is the Championship for Club Football in North America and it's being competed for in our city...did you even know? Do you even care? This event, this championship, should be compared with the Super Bowl. In the NFL, the league championship is played at a rotating, often neutral, site. In the NFL, the Super Bowl is being played at Cowboys Stadium in Texas this year...we can safely assume that the Cowboys won't be making the big game this season.
- sorry Badke! It's gonna be a party in Texas and the city will revolve around the Super Bowl for at least a week but I'll be socked if the party in Toronto for the MLS Cup even makes City TV news...it's been pretty quiet so far. Ok, there is far more history with the NFL compared to the MLS and yes, the quality of football in the NFL is the best in the world while the quality of football in the MLS is a work in progress but isn't soccer in the GTA popular enough to gather a crowd & create a buzz? I'm sure if TFC was playing in the game, the city would be in a frenzy and the MLS Cup would be the hottest ticket in recent memory for Toronto sports fans. People have suggested we could support a 2nd NHL franchise and many people believe the NFL could thrive in Canada biggest city. Toronto is a sports town and if you build it, we will come...but would we? Is Toronto really a sports town or are we sports snobs?
The Buffalo Bills recently played their latest instalment of the Bills in Toronto, "hosting" the Chicago Bears at the Rogers Centre. This is the NFL, the biggest league in North America and they brought their brand of football to Toronto...ok, maybe it wasn't exactly "their brand of football" since they brought the Bears & Bills, a team that FINALLY won its first game this past weekend, but still...it's the NFL...it's supposed to be a big deal! The game was played in the Skydome and reports suggest just over 50,000 people attended the game or 94% of the Rogers Centre capacity for you stats geeks like me. This was the lowest attendance for a Bills in Toronto regular season game and the attendance numbers are on a downward trend. I've heard rumours that many tickets had to be given away to encourage people to go. Toronto is supposed to be a sports town and aren't the Bills our adopted team. Sure, I'll acknowledge that the Buffalo Bills aren't "Toronto's team" and perhaps people would come out in truck loads if we did have the Toronto Bills (or whatever name you'd like to call them)...but is being the hometown team enough to earn a following?
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| Bargnani can dunk but this may be the only proof |
I recently had an extra ticket for the Toronto Raptors game against the Charlotte Bobcats. Canada's only NBA franchise and the hometown team...Our Toronto Raptors! The hometown team playing an early season game against an opponent they should beat...aka, almost guaranteed win night = good times for all. This was a game when you figured the Raps would even score over 100 points and everyone would get a free slice of Pizza Pizza pizza the next day with their ticket stub. It shouldn't take more then 24 hours to find someone interested in going to a Raptors game under these circumstances but it wasn't until almost 6pm on the day of the game that I found a sports buddy...and tip-off was at 7pm! This was a free ticket to an NBA basketball game and I simply couldn't drum up enough interest until about an hour before the game. Sure, the Raptors & Bobcats are two of the worst team in the NBA right now but this was still a professional basketball competition that "attracted just over
14,000 people". OK, I was unlucky because more then a handful of folks were out of town or had prior commitments but what shocked me more was the number of people that simply didn't want to go; some diehard sports fans that didn't want to watch the Raptors play basketball. I'm hoping I wasn't the reason they didn't want to go but I also understand that the Raptors have lost some of that "shine", that sparkle that draws you to the games. We don't really have a superstar guy anymore and I can only watch so many lay-ups over the course of a couple hours - does anyone else want to take Andrea Bargnani by the shoulders, shake him, and ask him why he doesn't dunk? The LA Lakers have Kobe, the Miami Heat have "the big 3"...that's what you need to bring people out to the arena, you need to have an exciting team or one of best players in the league...right?
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Bautista rounding the bases after another home run;
check out the empty seats behind him! |
Jose Bautista, the Major League of Baseball Home Run leader in 2010, was one of the best hitters in all of baseball this year - the numbers don't lie. Let's not forget about the teams play. The Home Run Kings of 2010 in baseball was our Toronto Blue Jays. This teams has history, this team's won Championships and with all the long balls flying out of the stadium, plus the Majors best hitter, the Blue Jays should draw a crowd. There's little else in baseball that gets people out of their seat faster then a home run. The Blue Jays hit 251 home runs in 162 games this past season...this was 46 more home runs than the Boston Red Sox (2nd in the league) and 56 more than the New York Yankees. All that excitement down at the old ballpark and the Jays ranked 26th in average attendance...out of 30 teams in baseball. Ok, the Jays didn't make the playoffs and never really challenged for a playoff spot but they played an entertaining style of ball, they had one of the leagues best hitters and even with all the history, the Blue Jays could only averaged 20,000 people per night - under HALF of what the Skydome (err...Rogers Centre) can hold. The Maple Leafs average just over 19,000 people and they haven't seen the playoffs in ages...maybe Toronto really is a Sport Snob? Or maybe Toronto really isn't a Sports Town or a Sports Snob but Toronto is only a Hockey Town?
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| The MLS Cup |
I want to believe that Toronto is a great sports town and that we support more then just "our teams"...or that we support more then just the Leafs. I was lucky enough to volunteer in Whistler for the 2010 Winter Olympics and I know Canadians support more than just hockey and that we support all levels of sport. Soccer is one of the most widely played sports in Canada and the MLS is where the best players in North America play. FC Dallas only lost 4 games all season and the Colorado Rapids were one of the highest scoring teams in all of the MLS this past season. The MLS Cup doesn't come around every year and it may be a long time before it comes back. This should be a great game of soccer and I really hope the people of Toronto & of the GTA show up on Sunday night.
