Fat Northern Cats

So here's the thing.

For as long as most of us can remember, and certainly back to the days when Harold Ballard ran Maple Leaf Gardens, the Leafs have been assailed as a team that lacked motivation to win because, year after year, the tickets were all sold and business was booming regardless of the win-loss record of the hockey club.

Only if the fans stopped showing up, the thinking went, would the Leafs have to find ways to put a better product on the ice.

Well, is it possible that industrial malaise has spread across the country in the new century?

Think about it. Five of seven Canadian teams (71 per cent) will miss the post-season - the Leafs, Habs and Oilers weren't even close - while only nine of 23 U.S. based teams (40 per cent) will. Of the 14 American teams that will qualify, half or more are in significant to desperate financial trouble. Teams like St. Louis, Phoenix, Florida, Dallas and Nashville know the difference between breaking even and recording a loss, or the difference between a moderate loss and a huge one, lies in getting a few playoff dates. These teams are under the gun to perform.

Now look north of the border.

Every team is profitable, something that seemed like a distant dream in the late 1990s when teams were asking for government handouts and the Ottawa Senators were teetering on the edge of bankrutpcy before finally falling over the precipice.

Five of the league's top eight franchises in average attendance are Canadian clubs. All seven Canadian teams are reporting 100 per cent capacity this season, evidence that Canadian hockey fans, apparently, are far more willing to pay to watch bad hockey than Americans.

Yes, business is booming in all seven Canadian cities. Nobody is hurting. Even Winnipeg, the smallest market in the NHL which lost its team during those tough times in the nineties, is guaranteed sellouts for years to come. 

Every Canadian team is making money and all the tickets are sold, regardless of record. In Edmonton, where the Oilers have been at or near the very bottom of the league for some time, the customers keep buying the tickets and a new arena is in the works. Tom Renney's club has been essentially out of playoff contention since mid-December, but last Friday's home game was sold out.

So if you could once, and still do, accuse the Leafs of lacking motivation to be successful on the ice because they're filling the building win or lose, could the same now be said of the rest of the Canadian teams, or at least those who won't make post-season play?

What's the difference? Not one of these seven Canadian clubs is facing any kind of fan revolt if the team on the ice doesn't do well. Yes, the Leafs make more money than anyone, but they also pay heavily into profit sharing, as do the Montreal Canadiens, one of the league's biggest revenue teams because of their huge rink.

Many believed a hockey apocalypse was in the cards when the NHL not only locked out the players for the 2004-05, but wiped out the Stanley Cup playoffs, as well. Not only did the lockout not injure business in the Great White North, however, business has never been better, and an eighth Canadian team in Quebec City is a distinct possibility.

Fans in Edmonton and Winnipeg will argue their teams are trying hard to be competitive. Well, so are the Flames, Habs and Leafs. Just not very successfully. Only Vancouver is pulling out all the stops to win a Stanley Cup, and if the Canucks weren't such a good team, it still seems unlikely they'd be looking at thousands of empty seats.

Would these teams have to try harder to win more games if they knew the fans wouldn't come out otherwise? Would the Oilers be able to be as bad as they have been if they knew that would means crowds of 10,000 or less?

Its an interesting question. If commercial success regardless of team record has held the Leafs back for decades, the same accusation might be levelled at every other Canadian team these days, and it has been almost two decades since a Canadian club has lifted the Cup.

In Canada, its a matter of hanging out a shingle. Profits will follow, no matter how poor the product. 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[DumbCox]

I don't think any CDN team purposely miss the playoffs. That's ridiculous.

[Ian]

I get so tired of people saying the Leafs (or any other team) is not trying enough to make the playoffs. Every team is doing everything they can to make the playoffs, because there are millions and millions of revenue for the team to make the playoffs. Merchandising, tickets, tv revenue, advertising revenue, etc.

It's great that all Canadian teams are selling out, regardless of their record. But believe me, the suits that run the teams want nothing more than to make the playoffs.

[MichaelC]

Mr. Cox, I don't buy what you are selling on this one. Here is the true problem, it is both the salary cap and the 3 point game. if the rich Canadian Teams were allowed to spend, then you would have the influx of players to augment your team. As Toronto and Montreal have realized, you can't get the mediocre free-agent and build a team around them. Draft and fill is the approach of the day.

To my second point, the 3 point era is killing the league. Teams that are sitting on the edge of the bubble like Calgary or Winnipeg, and to some degrees Toronto at the trade deadline don't make big moves because there is always a hope they might make it in. But in the real world of 3 point games that is a much tougher task these days. You are hard pressed to make up ground on any team. So, what you have at the deadline is false hope, and the reality does not set in until 2 weeks before the end of the regular season. It is only at that point that teams realize they truly can't make it, and it is too late to dump contracts and rebuild.

[matt]

Just wait and see if Montreal continues to sell-out if they go through another season like this one. Toronto is not a hockey market it's a 'business market'. There are many great Leaf fans who we never hear from. The people who we do actually hear from are so inconsequential in the hockey world. Yes, most all Canadian teams are in similar positions, but none as embarrassing as Toronto.

[MZ]

Here's Cox again, trotting out the old "blame the fans" argument.
First of all, it's wrong to blame fans for being fans. If we like the team, how are we ever wrong to support them and watch them play live?
Secondly, the argument is stupid economically. How much more money does a playoff team make than a non-playoff team? A FORTUNE. Inflated tickets that are guaranteed to sell out, TV deals, enthusiastic fans buying up merchandise, it'd be crazy. Imagine Toronto after the Leafs win a Cup. Would anybody NOT own a jersey?
The idea that owners/management are fine with losing as long as they're selling out seats has been around for ages, and it's never, ever been close to correct. If you're a sports team, you want to win. If you're a business, you want to make money. Both are achieved simultaneously.
Finally, what do you suggest the Leafs do, Damien? They spend to the cap on players, they spend more on scouting and non-cap front-office talent than anybody in the league. MLSE is not pinching pennies here.
Of course we'd like the team to do better, but to blame a lackadaisical management who's happy as long as the dumb fans keep coming to games is idiotic and wrong.

[slick]

I think it is in MLSE's best interest to get the leafs into the playoffs not because they care about hockey but because of the money involved. They can charge outrageous prices for playoff tickets and the fans will still buy them. Advertising and TV rights would also be more than regular season rates. I would assume merchandise sales will also increase due to all the bandwagon ridership. Bottom line I definitely think Management wants their teams to make the playoffs not because they care about the Stanley Cup but because they love money.

[Andrew]

The angle I find interesting in all this is what you hear often from other fans in Canada - "Leaf fans are stupid for constantly filling the building." Thing is, as Damien points out, ALL Canadian fans are guilty of this. We can't help ourselves. And I don't agree that it's necessarily a bad thing. I mean, the loyalty of Cub fans and (until recently) Red Sox fans was considered admirable, right? In addition, you know the owners of these clubs know if they could get a deep run in the playoffs, they'd make scads of money.

[Lewis McClain]

Of course the teams want to win. Playoffs mean more money regardless. What it really means is Canadian fans are more interested in the sport than Americans. And i am an American. I'm different however. As HNIC is my favorite T.V. show. I have been a Leafs fan since the early 60,s, and will continue to be regardless of record. Teams in Atlanta, and Florida are a mistake. Those people would just as soon go to the movies. With the exception of some vacationing transplants from the north. Northern U.S. cities, and Canada are where the real market is. And please new owners of the leafs, do not, i repeat do not mess with HNIC.....

[Regg]

Talk about grasping at straws! Now that the media has exhausted talking about the Leafs and which player had what for breakfast, now here comes the dribble. The Leafs, Canadians and Calgary are doing sub-par because each has poor management period!

[John Hunt]

The problem is not the fans. That is a tired, unimaginative excuse thrown out by lazy thinkers.

The problem, especially in Toronto and Montreal, is a generational (and in the Leaf case, multi-generational) absence of a true visionary running the hockey program. The last true visionaries running the Canadiens and Leafs were Sam Pollack in Montreal and Conn Smythe in Toronto. (Pollack disciple Serge Savard was the last Canadiens GM to have a team win the Stanley Cup.)

Why have the Leafs never hired a visionary? Probably because the owners do not know enough about running a hockey team to know how to pick someone to run a hockey team. (Peddie and the Leafs outside attorney headed up the search committee to pick Burke. Go back and read the newsclips about how that sausage was made. Whatever you think of Burke, how he was selected was just pathetic.) Maybe because there are just too many constituencies in ownership who come up with too many excuses to pick a candidate with radical ideas (e.g., "too young", "too radical", "too inexperienced", "this is a difficult market"). Maybe because the most talented and radical candidates do not see a big corporate parent as having their backs when (not if) things go poorly, wondering if they will get thrown overboard when the fans take out their frustrations on the parent's other businesses.

[MeganticOutlaw]

Don't forget, Winnipeg failed to make the playoffs last year as the Thrashers. It isn't always dollars that dictate success or failure.

[pmtest]

I think the problem is that the owners need to be huge fans. The cap is not to blame, it just makes it so that you have to make sure great management is in place. There is no salary cap for paying for top management. The 3 point games apply equally to everybody. Not to be blamed as well.

[Norm Singer]

I remember when Burke was in Vancouver saying "All it takes is a 25 cent phone call to move this team" when fans weren't attending. Crowds of seven to ten thousand were common when the Canucks stunk, or as we like to say "Toronto'd". So don't lump us in with the morons who continue to support bad product. We stopped showing up and the Canucks got progressively better--they EARNED our support. Maybe if the government stopped allowing Bay Street to write off their tickets on the backs of taxpayers you'd see some changes.

[Nick]

I think it has nothing to do with sales revenue. It has everything to do with fanaticism that comes along with hockey mad markets. Chicago, Florida, St. Louis, Dallas, and Pittsburgh were all teams (in recent memory) that were able to tinker with their team's roster and management without the fan and media scrutiny that is ever-present in Canadian cities. That lack of pressure allows management and players to make mistakes and grow without constant mass criticism. Fast forward and now teams like Chicago and Pittsburgh who have re-kindled a large fan base are now faced with maintaining that bar under renewed pressure. The problem with Canadian teams, is that pressure and expectation will always be there, even when a team as young as Edmonton that needs to make mistakes, is trying to get better.

[Alex Singer]

My only question, Damien, would be why do you have other teams in the US which seem to be doing as well financially as the Canadian teams (not that I've seen the books) because they've been around a while so they have large dedicated fan bases which are not only are they going to make the playoffs, they're cup contenders. So, of the original six, the four from the US (Chicago, NY Rangers, Detroit and Boston), all have clinched the playoffs, and 2-4 will have home ice for the opening round, while the two Canadian original 6 (Toronto, Montreal) are at the bottom of the league. Financial success and strong fan bases usually doesn't dictate on-field or on-ice mediocrity (think of the Yankess/Cubs dichotomy). It's just that with the salary cap, parity of the Canadian and American dollars, the financial success of the Canadian teams being better than ever -- with the exception of Vancouver, the Canadian teams are all mediocre and I don't get it.

[Larry Rainey]

Damien, another factor that can hurt Canadian teams more than others is that every visiting is loaded with Canadian boys, often local boys, who usually come up big in games where they know friends and family are there, or that the games are on Canadian TV networks. It's not an excuse, but it IS a factor for Canadians teams in their home rinks, and even on the road when games are broadcast back home in Canada, that US based teams do not have to deal with usually in their games. How many players from the Toronto area or even Ontario do you see usually have big games against the Leafs. The list is endless. Also, with very young teams like the Leafs and Oilers, the pressure cooker environment in these hockey hotbeds is harder for them to deal with then with more veteran teams.

[Neil B]

The reason that the Leafs didn't do well under Ballard has nothing to do with a 'desire to win', or lack thereof. They drafted like crap, they rushed players into the Bigs before they were ready, they gave up on players before they were finished developing, they demanded that players work outside their skill set & comfort zone, and they let their egos stand in for sound hockey judgement.

You could cut & paste that last paragraph into the season summary for the Leafs, Flames & Habs.

The Oil & the Jets had realistic expectations of themselves: the Oil needed one more year of seasoning before they were ready for the playoff bubble; and the Jets were expected to be a bubble team - which is what they are. The 'Nucks are once again competing for first overall. So, the real script of the season is that three of seven NHL teams have lived up to their expectations, and that one (the Sens) has wildly exceeded expectations.

But then, that wouldn't sell as many newspapers as panicking does.

[HP]

Canadian hockeys fans like going to NHL games and in Toronto there just isn't enough seats to satisfy that demand. If the NYC area has Isles, Devils and Rangers then GTA should have at least a 2nd team.

[The Dude]

So many people missing the point. Cox isn't saying any team doesn't want to make the playoffs, off course they all do. He is just pointing out a common statement made by many, including many in Leafs Nation, that if a team sells out regardless of how they perform, they will have less pressure to make the postseason. The idea being, that no matter what happnes the fans will be there next year, so where is the pressure? Maybe there is some truth to this, maybe not, but it is a common statement made about the Leafs, but as Cox points out, why can't you apply this to almost all Canadian Teams?

[Matt]

success on the ice is a result of various long-term management processes that were set in motion years ago. the Leafs are the only team that fits your argument here Damien, and maybe the Flames as they have also been becoming stale over the last 5 years.

[just thinking...]

Realize you are not trying to isolate "the fan" as the issue but there is an element of accountability to the fan base to ice a competitive team that routinely competes for a playoff spot (ex. Detroit) and in some years can be labelled as legit Cup contenders. However, to assume mgt teams are not putting their best foot forward to deliver competitive teams is false. The issue with TO in particular (MTL and Clgy have had rec3ent playoff experience) is mgt making untimely and poor decisions. That will not go away for the Leafs as the head decision maker keeps steering the ship in the wrong direction which does not make Toronto a destination of choice for high profile free agents. Additionally, the assets he has overpaid for will bring no franchise type player in this direction in the way of trade. So fans in TZoronto love hockey period as they have a long wait for a competitive team in front of them...

[Rich S]

It isn't that American fans aren't necessarily interested in watching poor teams or even above average teams play ice hockey, it's that they'd rather watch NBA or NFL or MLB games (depending on the time of year). The NHL in the states has to compete with a lot more local sports offerings than the NHL teams in Canada do. The only competition for sports fans money north of the border are the Toronto Blue Jays and Raptors. For the rest of Canada their options are NHL hockey or Minor League hockey or Junior league hockey.

[me]

This article is just a broken record playing over and over. It's the same old argument Cox. I know you are an okay writer...not that great...but really were you desperate to just fill some space because your editor was begging for a story?

The problem with Canadian hockey is that it can't grow because folks driving the ship are too reactionary to bad publicity and play. You can't keep changing the direction just because the waters are too rocky. Stay the course and you'll arrive at a championship at some point.

[sundance]

all the more reason to bring more nhl teams to canada.

[Rick Skouin]

I believe that no proffessional athelete ever wants to lose but by the same token we have all seen well paid atheletes "mail it in" rather than compete for every moment they are in the game. There have been many average teams surpass everybody's expectations by showing up every night every shift and follow the game plan to T, the 67 leafs were just such a team!

I think this years Leafs were almost such a team, no better than average but for a good part of the season they showed up every night, followed the plan, worked hard each shift and had some success until the wheels fell off just after the allstar break, I'm sure we all can point to various things that conspired to bring our ship down ( on the bright side this year they did get past the christmas break before the wheels fell off, lol ).
Burke also has not lived up to his promise to turn this team into a rugged and tough team that would contest every square inch of ice so that no team would ever take the Toronto Maple Leafs lightly again, and this team is indicative of that. The one promise he did keep is he would do things his way and he has (and to his credit he has shouldered the blame for all his mistakes) but so far his way is not working for any of us (Except for Ron Wilson who gets paid not to work, lol how do I get a deal like that?) and its time to hold him accountable for his inability to bring the leafs onward and upward.
I think if the leafs do not turn the corner soon we need to replace Burke with a proven man of vision who can also put that vision into a real team on the ice, there are a few who come to mind, Scott Bowman, Bob Gainey, John Muckler. We should pull out all the stops to finda GM who fits into this category, although to give Peddie his due he thought that Brian Burke was and still is a man of vision he just lacks the ability to put that vision on the ice.