Last week I opened one of my favourite pieces of mail….my Toronto FC season seat package. It brought back the days when I was a kid going to Dominion on a Saturday morning and buying tickets to the Toronto Blue Jays game that afternoon for 2 bucks to sit in the outfield seats. It was a different sports scene then. The hometown team was who people came to see and they supported them 100% of the way!!!
In today’s sports market in Toronto, there is a whole whack of teams eagerly competing for fans. There are soccer, baseball, hockey, football, lacrosse, and basketball teams at almost every level of competition. And that doesn’t include the one-offs like curling, figure skating, and golf. Ticket prices continue to climb as the cheering is starting to diminish. There needs to be a pretty big change if we ever want to start seeing parades down Yonge Street with championship cups!!!
Here is the problem. Sports ticketing is now a BIG business and in the end, fans are not going to the games and when they are, they are there to cheer on specific players who may or may not play for the home team.
Corporate Toronto purchases tickets, scalpers purchase tickets, and fans either don’t have access to tickets or have to pay well over the face value of the tickets to attend a single game through an auction site or Tickets Now (which contravenes the Ticket Speculation Act and is punishable by a fine of up to $5000 incidentally). I am one of the lucky few who has access to seats; as one of the 16 000 TFC seat holders…..access to discounted tickets through work, or Leafs seat access through my Marlies season tickets. As a result, my extra seats go to friends and family and I don’t try to make money off them.
On the fans side, since people can no longer afford to buy tickets to local teams, they’ve chosen to support others instead. That’s why you see Crosby jerseys, A-Rod, “Bills in Toronto” and any number of others.
There needs to be a change. The Attorney General needs to shut down Tickets Now and the auction sites for people selling seats over and above the face value of the tickets. That is how you stop seat holders from across Canada and the United States who speculate on tickets (never attending the games themselves) to give them up and put them back in the hands they belong…..local fans! That’s when you’ll see the sale of local team jerseys soar. That’s when you’ll start hearing cheers for the hometown players. That’s when the word “Toronto” on the front of your shirt will REALLY matter.
I will wear my FC jersey proudly all summer long when I finally hang up my Marlies one, eagerly awaiting the day when it comes out of my closet once again for another 40 games of hockey.
You can email Chris with comments and questions about the blog, Duke’s Dog Pound Supporters Club, or the Marlies anytime to dukesdogpound@yahoo.ca.
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