Damien Cox says we should stop booing the players (or GM John Ferguson) and start booing these guys for the Leafs' abysmal hockey. I can picture it now: Ivan Fecan wheels his Escalade into the CTV parking lot, is stopped briefly at the gate for the mandatory security clearance. The security guy gives Fecan the once-over, nods him through, then adds, "Hey, Fecan -- you suck! Where'd you learn to own a team anyway, you moron?"
Yeah, go on and boo the owners. They're just doing what any owner of the most financially successful hockey franchise in the world would do: stay the course and rake in the mega-bucks. If I lived a little to the west, or to the south, I wouldn't care because I'd be out-of-range of Leafs-dominated network television. But since I am where I am, I'll just keep booing the fans who pay so willingly for this garbage hockey.
2 comments:
"Ask people, even knowledgeable Leaf fans, who owns the hockey club, and it's likely most could at best give you a partial answer. Most know the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan is a major player (58 per cent)."
Wow!?
If erasers, chalk, & chalkboards were still around, I'd make Jim Leech and Robert Bertram of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan go out in the assembly yard of some Toronto high school and clap all of the erasers on a cold and windy day.
58%?? Guess they're not teaching the GM, coach, or players anything. Is that a reflection on the Ontario school systems as well?
I'm tempted to issue a terse, "No comment," because my relationship with the Ontario school system is a mixed bag of tricks. But I'll stick with my original thesis: Leech and Bertram and their crew know their basic math and are playing a can't-lose game. The Leafs could change from a team that stinks on the ice to a team that PHYSICALLY stinks, and it wouldn't make any dint on the clueless loyalty of the fans. Maybe I'm missing some crucial philosophical element that might spur me to make the intuitive leap, a la Don DeLillo in Game 6 -- maybe Canada needs a Don DeLillo to explain to the country what it is about Leafs fans -- but the team is simply a business proposition, and so long as customers fill the arena to capacity I'd say there is actually a sharp disincentive for the owners to improve the team. I'm thinking the only reason they don't further hedge their mutual funds by cutting salaries and bringing in a farm league like the Peterborough Petes is because the Petes might actually win a game!
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