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Originally Posted by freeweed
To be fair you'd know a lot better than I, with my handful of visits to Toronto, and I've never lived in eastern Ontario before.
But... what other franchises? I don't know that there's ever been anything close to the Leafs to even compare it to, so I'm not sure your statement is entirely fair. You may be right, but I just don't see what evidence there is for it. I'll defer to you because you likely know the city 100x better than I do, but what exactly makes you say that?
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I'm referring to the piss-poor support and attendance for the Majors (OHL), Battalion (OHL), and Marlies (AHL).
From an article in the Windsor Star:
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Averaging 2,248 per game, the Majors ranked 19th in attendance this past season, just ahead of the Battalion.
Even during their run to the Eastern Conference final, the Majors couldn't draw a single crowd of 3,000, which is 50 per cent capacity in the 6,000-seat Hershey Centre.
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From the Toronto Star:
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When the AHL playoffs began last month, you might have excused the Toronto Marlies if they'd hoped for a little more hubbub. As they took the ice for their first post-season game, after all, their NHL parent club, the Maple Leafs, was more than a week into its third annual early spring vacation.
If a local fan wanted to satiate a thirst for live-action shinny, then the only choice in the city limits was a trip to Ricoh Coliseum. Alas, exactly 1,063 loyal souls made up the announced crowd for the Marlies' playoff-opening win. John Mitchell, the third-year Marlies centreman from Waterloo, shook his head and sighed at the reality of his team's obscurity.
"We have our booster club, the faithful fans who always come out, and we're thankful for that," Mitchell said. "But some nights you can almost count every face and know a lot of the people in the stands."
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By comparison, the Ottawa 67's drew an average of 7499 fans for a pretty crappy team this season, the Gatineau Olympiques drew just under 3000 (80% capacity), and the Ottawa Senators had 18300 (98.8% capacity). This is not even mentioning the many Junior A, B, and C teams in the Ottawa area that are well-supported. I'm not saying that Toronto is a bad place, but they just seem to be focused on top-tier professional sports of any kind rather than hockey in general.
Toronto is clearly a city that supports their NHL squad, but has very little interest in junior or minor league hockey. With their population they should be at least in the middle of the pack for all three franchises, but always seem to settle near the bottom. I won't believe Toronto is a hockey town until someone shows me evidence to prove it as all I'm seeing is hockey apathy at this point. Will they support another NHL franchise? Maybe, but it would be a real tragedy for places like Winnipeg and Quebec to lose out just to see empty seats at the centre of the universe.