Why are Toronto Sports fans so angry?

With all the idiocy on display at the Rogers Centre on Monday night, one might characterize it as a sense of entitlement; a sense of being entitled to get drunk and obnoxious. I wonder though, if it isn't more about a sense of resentment. There is a sense of resentment in this city that draws fans to games that don't actually feel connected (of the irony!) to their teams. Professional sports in Toronto isn't just big business, it is big, EXCLUSIVE, business. The people in control aren't just intent on growing their own profits; they are intent on cutting off anybody else that might also stand to gain. The Southern Ontario/GTA market is GIGANTIC, and just like our transit infrastructure, it is criminally underserviced. Especially when it comes to the numbers 1, 2 and 3 sports in this area, hockey, hockey, and hockey.

The faces of pro sports in Toronto

Not only are the Maple Leafs perennially terrible, but their resistance to a second NHL team in the GTA has single handedly prevented more GTA residents from seeing NHL hockey than they could ever possibly provide. The sports fans of Toronto, who almost all love hockey, don't get to create a connection to the team because the closest they get to interacting with the franchise is their TV bill with Leafs TV on it.

The environment among Toronto sports fans right now is one of pure resentment and cynicism.  The fans don't expect to be rewarded for their support, so they behave as such. The fans don't expect to win, so they behave as such. The fans simply don't care. The crowds of young, obnoxious, drunk idiots are, to use internet speak, saying "IDGAF". They aren't invested in their teams because the teams are just a business. They're just a brand, like Sobey's and Metro. They are just there to get drunk and give a big middle finger to "the man". Toronto's sports teams have come to embody everything that is wrong with corporate America. They are "the man"; faceless entities taking our money and providing nothing in return.

This is what happens when all of your sports franchises (but especially your most important one) are run by a faceless, earless, voiceless entity. Larry Tannenbaum can apologize all he wants but everybody in Toronto knows that the Leafs are going to be run by yet another unaccountable consortium.

It’s like a sense of pure nihilistic cynicism has set in with a fairly significant portion of Toronto sports fans; enough so that these incidents keep happening anyway. And not that I am about to start spouting off and throwing my beer at people in the Rogers Centre crowd, but I understand where it is coming from.

Face palming his own team...

I have been a died in the wool Maple Leafs fans since I was old enough to understand sports. And to me, choosing a pro sports team to root for has never been about rationalism. It has been about where you were born, where you were from. That is the essence of sports in my view. If everyone just cheered for the best team than sports wouldn't be all that much fun. But even I am moving away from the Leafs. And it isn't necessarily a rational choice. It is just a slow emotional drift. I don't detach easily, and I have never seriously considered switching NHL allegiances, but I have just become so disillusioned not just with the poor play of the Leafs, but with the fact that MLSE are limiting the supply of NHL hockey to a starving consumer base.

Nobody has seriously questioned the validity of a second GTA team for nearly two decades now, and yet we still don't have one. Instead we are stuck with perennial losers who price out more and more GTA residents every season. It is so crass and so calculated that it doesn't seem logical for me to continue supporting the team. I can drive to Ottawa, Detroit or Buffalo for games any time I like. It just seems stupid on my part to continue giving money (or even just the intangible "support") to an organization that clearly does not care if I am a fan.

It has come to the point where I (and I bet a lot of other Leaf fans) have to ask myself, "why am I a fan of this organization?” There are other organizations that are working harder to give back to their fans, and are more successful at creating a winning team. Why shouldn’t I support Buffalo? They may not win it all, but they won’t treat me like a wallet that needs vacuuming.

With all that said, I probably haven't been to a Leafs game in five years. $80 for a nosebleed seat to see the worst organization in hockey? I don't think "no thank you", is a strong enough response. $80 to get in the door to see the Leafs? Go fuck yourself.

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