After 14 seasons of great fan support for a so-so team the Toronto Maple Leafs are pulling up stakes and taking their Baby Leafs back to Ontario to play out of Toronto, That's where we got them from in 1991, they got such lousy fan support from New Market , St. Catherines, Syracuse, and Mocton that they played in these 4 cities in less than 10 years , our reward for building a state of the art stadium and selling out for the first 10 years was a team that didn't make the playoffs in 3 years and when fan support fell off a little bit , we get the financial bs that playing out of Newfoundland is too expensive , when all the Toronto people ever paid for was the salaries , the city of St. John's covered everything else including any losses . Bravo T.O. was again you have shown that you respect and appreciate nothing other than yourselves. I do hope that the sporstfan of Toronto support your farm team just as much as they did 15 years ago when you came here for the greener pastures, don't you realize that Edmonton put their farm team in Toronto last winter and are now looking for a new home. With such a management team T.O. has we will all be dust by the time the Leafs get near the Stanley Cup again , will make the Rangers 54 year drought look miniscule.
Baby Leafs leave !!
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Mikey the Flower Guy
It's a GREAT DAY to live, and love!
- Nov 10, 2002
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Probably thinking they have the worst financial agreement of any major league hockey team with their minor league club, and a city that for 3 years has been unwilling to negotiate. Then there is the problem of flying a "kid" off the Rock at a moment's notice to anywhere on the continent when an emergency injury replacement is required.
Ryan
Ryan
PS - Having been to St John's and seen the arena, I do have to agree it's a lovely venue. I hope they can find a quality tenant soon.
Ryan
Ryan
Don't know the exact agreement between the city and the parent Leafs but, the city has been negotiating and were promised a 10 years agreement with the Leafs operating the rink , no city union employees , and the city subsidizing the operation to the tune of a couple of million dollars per year , but something changed in T.O. and nothing was enough and the city laid their final offer on the table and the Leafs walked away. Look at it this way Ryan , would you as a taxpayer want increased property taxes to keep a MINOR LEAGUE hockey team , that is not competitive and hasn't been for quite a while. How would you like a 3-5% increase in your property taxes to subsidize the Parent Leafs so that a select few that can afford it can go watch them lose year after year after year.... They are trying to land a Quebec Junior league team to take advantage of the teams in Moncton, Halifax and Cape Breton , who by the way all had AHL teams like us , when the league was fighting to survive and had 7 teams in Atlantic Canada which was more Canadian content than the NHL.
No, I wouldn't want those things ... that's why it's probably best for everyone that the Leafs relocate. Nobody voided a contract, they waited until the existing one expired.
Would you as a business owner be content with a contract with a service provider that was substandard to deals your direct competitors had?
Ryan
Would you as a business owner be content with a contract with a service provider that was substandard to deals your direct competitors had?
Ryan
Actually most of us have that problem now , dealing with suppliers that also supply ,supermarkets and chain stores with the same product at a greatly reduced price , so in that sense we are subsidizing our bigger competitors. The sticking point with me is that this team although basically devoid of talent for the last 5 years has been well supported by this community , so much that we build a new stadium ,originally budgeted for 30 mil but cost over 40 mil with the promise from the Leafs that they would be here , we are now saddled with a white elephant while the leafs go back to where they didn't get the support 14 years back , unless the mind set of the area has changed , ask the Blue Jays about fan support when times are rough , they will be looking for another home in a year or 2 . Remember the St. Catherine Saints , the New Market Saints , New Brunswick Hawks , and what ever they were called in upstate New York . Somehow I think the LEafs are throwing out the Baby with the bathwater and hopefully they will drown in it.
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