There is a maximum of 7,851 seats in Ricoh Coliseum for the Marlies' games. Courtesy of Flickr/Stu_Spivack
Angelo Mazziotti
Photo Editor
I am a hockey fan who just happens to currently reside in Toronto. Since I was old enough to remember I have heard that Toronto, is first and foremost, a “hockey town.”
This is just simply not true.
Growing up in this area, I have come to know a few sports truths.
The first is that Toronto is a only a “Leafs town.” The second, and more important, is other than the blind followers who comprise the so-called “Leafs Nation,” Toronto is a city chock-full of fair-weather fans.
The Leafs are and always have been an anomaly. They continued to draw sell-out crowds all last season despite posting the worst record in the Eastern Conference.
Since the Air Canada Centre opened, Leafs fans have always had a problem with the corporate seats, which are a little less than raucous but a quick jaunt west down Lake Shore Blvd. from the Air Canada Centre sits The Ricoh Coliseum, home to the Leafs’ AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies.
A quick call to the Toronto Marlies box office revealed the maximum capacity for Marlies games is 7,851.
The first home win for the underachieving Marlies club drew an announced attendance of just 2,046. The Marlies are dressing some big names this season including former London Knights standout and current Maple Leafs top prospect Nazem Kadri.
This is not only a disgraceful attendance but it should be setting off alarms high up in the boardrooms of Maple Leafs brass. Former Marlie John Mitchell was quoted on thetorontomarlies.blogspot.com saying he wished more people would show up.
“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.”
This is no doubt a sentiment shared by the faithful but few Toronto Marlies fan base.
Don’t blame it on a lack of trying on the Marlies’ part.
The Marlies recently revved up a brand-new ad campaign with closer ties to the Maple Leafs and GM Brian Burke. We’ve all seen the commercials with Burke telling us, “every game is a tryout.” I wish somone would have listened to him.
So wave your Leafs flags high, Toronto sports fans, but it wouldn’t hurt to sometimes remember there are other teams in this city as well.
A few of them even play hockey!
I have to disagree with what is said in this piece.
What you are putting forward is a common argument to hear around Toronto, an argument that usually comes from fans of other NHL teams or fans of the Marlies and Junior Hockey.
Obviously in Toronto the Leafs are going to be the number one topic of discussion because they are the biggest game in town. Yes the Marlies are averaging what seems like a small amount of people per game but if you look at AHL attendance the Marlies are only about 1,500 off the average for the league. The AHL is just not very well attended, and it doesn’t need much more than that.
By your logic there can be no hockeytown because every city has it’s own team and thus can’t be fans of hockey.
If Toronto did not have a legitimate claim to the moniker of hockeytown how do you explain the thousands of people who showed up at Yonge and Dundas to watch the Gold Medal game in February. If what you are saying is true none of those people would show up because there were no leafs on the team. In fact ther would be cheering for the USA because of Kessel, Wilson and Burke.
I’m not going to say that Toronto is without a doubt hockeytown. I will say that along with Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Minneapolis-St. Paul it has a legitimate claim to the name.
A final point, you say that the Marlies feature many big names this year when in fact they only have one. Nazem Kadri is the only name people care about when it comes to the Marlies. I am a Hamilton Bulldogs fan and I can tell you that going to their home opener against Toronto the only player that people cared about on that team was Kadri. Sure there are other names that die-hard leafs fans will know like D’Amigo, Holzer, Aulie and D. Mitchell but to the average fan Kadri is the only player that matters on that team.