Were it not for five years of inept management and unending greed from Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Toronto FC might still be seeing crowds at BMO Field more akin to what we saw last night at Jeld-Wen Field in Portland. Of course the same warning will be issued about buying into the hype and support of a first year team. New York and Chicago fans were quick to dismiss TFC's year one box office success and electrifying atmosphere as a result of simply being the "flavour of the week", especially among today's super trendy, faux-wordly, young Torontonian. TFC fans scoffed at the suggestion. "This is a soccer city" they would say. "We just needed the team and the stadium".
Well, five years on, the team has gone nowhere on the field, has steadily declined as a box-office draw, and lost of all it's trendy "footy" cache; only to become soccer's version of the Maple Leafs, a big city laughing stock.
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| TFC Celebrates in front of a packed BMO Field |
Chief among them, the Timbers are not owned by an organization as unscrupulous, and and as tone deaf as MLSE. MLSE's justification for continued ticket price increases in spite of the team's terrible performances was that they weren't pricing by Major League Soccer standards, they were charging by Toronto standards (of course, MLSE sets this "standard" with their two other pro sports properties, but alas). This is probably the biggest example of the selfish arogance displayed by MLSE with regards to TFC pricing. The product on the field was terrible. So terrible that any reasonable owner (Like Seattle's Drew Carey who apologized for and refunded fans after a 4-0 home defeat of his Sounders) would feel guilty about taking money for such trash. TFC was fielding a deplorable line-up, playing in a third tier football league, and charging as if they were Manchester United.
That kind of greed and that lack of forethought has, is, and will cost TFC in the long term. Their growth, never mind as a team, but their growth as an organization and as a brand has taken a huge hit. The kind of grass roots support that created the first year scenes that MLSE then used as marketing for the next several years, the grass roots support that makes Jeld-Wen Field in Portland look like a manic green cauldron, that has been seriously damaged, maybe irreparably.
I know this seems like a crazy concept to the marketing geniuses at MLSE, but maybe charging to the hilt on absolutely everything you can isn't such a great long term plan. Maybe ensuring that your customers won't expect to be ripped off at every corner might help you retain customers. If Paul Beirne and Tom Anselmi were watching TV late Wednesday night, they got a good glimpse at two vastly different scenes; and two scenes that are both plausible outcomes in Toronto. While Seattle played to a rabid crowd of long time supporters (of course the Timbers, like the Whitecaps are an old USL team), FC Dallas played in front of friends and family (and I think alot of them skipped out after half time) for their Champions League tie.
If MLSE keeps trying to charge Toronto Maple Leaf hockey prices for, what is essentially,Toronto Maple Leaf inter-county baseball caliber competition, they're going to find their golden goose dead, burnt and worthless pretty quickly. Toronto fans will pay (the Leafs and Raps obviously still draw), but if they think you are trying to rip them off (cough...Bills in Toronto...) they will turn their back on you. The reason MLSE thinks they can charge so much for TFC, that Toronto is an expensive city with alot to do, is the exact same reason that it will be quite easy for potential long time TFC fans and supporters to shrug their shoulders and move onto something else.
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