Toronto Maple Leafs

I don't know where to start really.  They haven't won a championship since 1967.  That is a long time now.  How could this be?  How is it possible that a team that generates the most money, fills out their arena every game since 1902 and prob has the largest fan base of any sports team in the world can be in such a mess?  Every team in every sport in the world that has the financial edge on other teams succeeds whereas the Leafs don't.  In MLB you have the NY Yankees, in NFL the Cowboys or Steelers and in NBA the Lakers or Celtics.  These teams dominate on the court or field because they dominate at the gate or on TV because of large viewing audiences.  So in that case the Leafs should be a cakewalk because they have more money and fans than all the other 29 teams combined..right?  Well it's not that simple.  The problem starts with the fact that hockey as a sport is not popular in most of the USA.  Pro hockey is not the same in every other part of Canada either as it is in Toronto for that matter.  If Montreal or Vancouver or any other Canadian city didn't win anything for close to 50 years, that franchise would not exist today.  But it is thriving in Toronto, loss after loss after loss.  So the reality is that one city generates the buzz and tows the line for everyone else.  I think its a lot more than that.  The Maple Leafs organization realizes for the NHL and hockey to become a sport and BUSINESS like all the others, it needs to become popular and expand into the USA.  Without going into every draft pick given away or good players traded for nobodys, let's just say i know the Leafs intentionally "sabotage" themselves to make other teams better.  The Blackhawks were drawing flies before they won the cup.  Same goes for Tampa, Carolina, etc.  The league( aka Leafs) knows that winning in the US creates interest.  This is why NJ Devils, the "mickey mouse" organization won.  No team is stupid enough to essentially give up Scott Niedermayer for Tom Curvers or two 1st rounders and a second for Kessel when they were supposed to be rebuilding.  This just helps improve the Bruins which gives them a better chance of winning helping to create more fans both young and old.  The reality is is that until the NHL is accepted mainstream like NBA, NFL or MLB, the Toronto Maple Leafs will just keep on losing.  Ask yourself this...If the Leafs won the cup, how would that improve the state of hockey as a business?  because that's just what it is.....a business. 

very true, it confuses me sometimes the whole suituation. but its just very unfortunate for the youngsters in toronto. and i come to learn one thing too. that dispite all that , the toronto fans are true fans, look at most sports like you said. only if toronto was as good as its fans...
i am not a toronto fan also. but they remind me of the nordiques fans a little, even if there was no team there would still be fans, those are some real hockey fans. and that waffle guy!! cmon most basement teams have tons of empty seats. theres still people goin nuts!! real fans.

Leafs suck...I could write paragraph after paragraph as to why but why state the obvious?

In the past, most American teams got second or third tier players because 90% of good hockey players came from either Ontario or Quebec and all dreamed of playing in front of their home crowd.  There was no benefit to playing for a team like Chicago, New York or St.Louis either financially or emotionally.  This is why they never won.  Up until the Leafs won their last cup, the NHL was more of a beer league than a business.  It all changed once criminal owner Harold Ballard took over and realized he controlled a monopoly.  To futher demonstrate the Leafs quest for a competitive league they threw out their 2 top players of the 70's and early 80's for NO ONE.  They threw out future Stanley Cup winner Lanny Mcdonald to the Colorado Rockies for no one and Captain Darryl Sittler for a minor league player named Rich Costello and a draft pick.  That would be equivalent to the Penguins throwing out Crosby and Malkin and getting back an AHL player and a draft choice. These "moves" were intentional to make the Flyers and Colorado better teams.

What is the obvious?  The Leafs are a billion dollar industry.  Do you think a company that successful could make such poor decisions inadvertently? No.

so its all a big conspiracy

 

  Touche

...you write well, I give you credit for that.  But what exactly ARE you saying, in one sentence?

...that the Leafs ARE the NHL and make decisions surreptitiously which are only in the best interest of US franchises and the masterplan of US market domination?  You cannnot be serious.

No, that is not what i'm saying at all.  There is still little interest in hockey outside of the Ontario market even after all these years, but it is getting better because of the effort the Leafs are making into expanding the game.  Look at all 30 teams as a business because that is what they are.  If there is only one team that has all the fans and all the money, what kind of business is that?  In no other sport is it so lopsided except maybe the CFL and that is the reason why people stay away from it droves.  In the CFL there is only the Saskatchewan Roughriders,Calgary Stampeeders and the BC Lions to some extent.  Most people from Ontario watch NFL because there are 32 viable teams which create interest and generates monies.  Again the NHL has only a handful of teams and desperately need more. 

last time i heard which was a few years ago the dead wings and avalanche were top two merchandising teams in the nhl but i'm sure it's is different now but come on doesn't that do a little something to adjust your superior knowledge of what team or teams run the nhl. I get your point but maybe they have had a wack job for a GM and need a guy like Pierre Lacroix to run things. pierre turned the avs organization into almost a dynasty single-handedly.

what are you talking about? have you not seen the interest in Raleigh over this weekend or noticed how intense the games are between teams like the stars and avs or the sharks and ducks to name a few. my opinion is you obviously haven't been outside your Ontario for quite some time or you are a desperate leafs fan that is just coming up with some over thought excuse as to why they have made shitty decisions and can't win games!!!

I am not a Leafs fan and the "interest" over the weekend is great.  I have memories of the Colorado Rockies, although it was mostly Mcdonald, Barry Beck, Rob Ramage and Rene Robert.  The team was known more for their fists than their scoring abilities.  I still have some hockey cards of them. Too bad there wasn't enough "interest" to keep the team in Denver at the time. 

Some interesting points, yet I would like to make a few remarks.  Regarding your quote that "every team that has the financial edge succeds in sports".  Simply not true.  Do the Cubs, or until recently the Red Sox not come to mind? In the MLB certain teams can merely buy any players they want, as there isnt an actual hard salary cap.  Recently, the NFL has adopted a salary cap, and look what has happened? The NFL has the most parody of any sport.  Steelers are more the exception to the rule, as the Redskins were for a long time the richest team.  Indeed the leafs have made bad decisions, but to say the team is purposely losing is a little ridiculous.  Do you honestly think leafs management would not want to win AND make money? Coaches and GM's would not take the job for the leafs if they were told that the team is going to lose on purpose.  Some teams just cannot seem to make the right choices.  Theres a team like the leafs in every major sport (Cubs, Knicks, Raiders etc). 

Why is Buttman hesitant to expand in Canada where there's a much greater interest?  Why go thru the agony that is Atlanta and Nashville and Phoenix?  The reason is simple, everyone knows that the Canadian teams will be supported because people of Winnipeg and Hamilton and Saskatoon and Victoria and GTA Toronto and Halifax and Quebec City and Kitchener and Regina and Whitehorse and Yellowknife are already watching and supporting hockey.  The NHL isn't going to be able to cultivate any new revenue from these locations.  The league's only hope is to go grass roots into the USA.  There are 350,000,000 Americans that either don't watch, play or support hockey.  The league is doing a much better job then in the past where they just plopped a franchise in Kansas City, Oakland, Hartford, Cleveland and Denver without realizing if the viewers aren't knowledgeable, involved and participating, it just won't work.  The Leafs, as absurd as this might sound to anyone reading this is very much behind it.  I know.

That last point is not as easily assailed as the stuff you were writing up above - with all do respect I suggest you have altered your basic argument substantially and "toned it down" in post #16.  Agreed, the Leafs are all-in if it means expanding into untapped markets.

*all due respect* that is

Having been a bit critical, I will agree with Dangerbay that there are some obvious incongruencies vis a vis the Leafs' traditional financial and political heft in the League and their abject lack of resutlts ... sounds like we are of the same era (Beck, MacDonald, Robert...ah those were the days)... it is bloody odd that the Leafs have had but 2 haydays since 1967... 1992-3-4 and the Quinn years yielded 4 semi-final appearances and one hell of a great party in the T-dot I can assure you..... sad that the best thing about April around here now is the eternal hope we place in the Jays.

Same with the Chicago Cubs.

The Leafs will never, and I mean never put a stanley cup team on the ice, as long as they are continuely sold out! Period! Why would they? The prices for 2 descent tickets in Toronto is far and above the average family can afford. Most are owned by corporate. If they were to win the Stanley cup, they would lose a rediculous amount of money, and thats why I will never see a Stanley cup in Toronto.....Its all about the money!

Very interesting take DB
Definitely makes us Yanks think a bit