海角社区官网

The Leafs were once the people鈥檚 team, and there鈥檚 still a legacy of generational fandom that carries them through. Management has focused on players who come from here, and seeing John Tavares at Gold Standard sandwiches or Mitch Marner walking his dog has a resonance that points to the local bond between 海角社区官网and its NHL hockey team: 鈥淭he players come from my home, too.鈥� But the PWHL鈥檚 Sceptres have won the affordability game and their matches are more 416 than 905, finding neighbours in the stands more often than at Leafs games. The WNBA‘s arrival will further steal from the Leafs’ accessibility, with听 the average fan challenged by cost. With no end in sight to rising rent and the price of homes听鈥� and no plan for rent control by the city or province听鈥� the edge of the razor is sharp. Cut us and we may no longer bleed blue.

Conversely, our winter days are still imbued with the story of the Leafs, and their narrative is something to chew on when the days are darkest. Change is always part of city culture and life, but it鈥檚 hard to imagine change at the level where we no longer hang on to the Leafs’ fortunes day-to-day, especially with the Raptors in perpetual rebuild and the other leagues still new . And even though the results of Game 7 hurt, and will hurt for awhile, it only adds to the team鈥檚 drama and plot line. We鈥檙e still a city suckered by a pot boiler听鈥� Rob Ford, the Greenbelt, Kawhi鈥檚 contract听鈥� and to think we鈥檒l stop tuning in to see how it all ends would be naive.听

There are so many good things happening here, and you have to ask yourself whether one of those things is still the Leafs. Go to a street festival like Do West in Little Portugal in a few weeks, or find grass in a teeming neighbourhood park or head to a Saturday market in Weston, then talk to someone, like myself, who played music in the 1980s, where streets atrophied on weekends and neighbourhoods were empty. In so many ways, it鈥檚 a better place, and the Leafs have to decide if they鈥檙e better, too, and whether there鈥檚 a better way than always tilting to the corporate.

Right now, more and more people see them as a wall of expensive fabric that squeezes kids for a spot at Maple Leaf Square and charges money to secure a table at Real Sports. When you鈥檙e winning Stanley Cups听鈥� or frig, just reaching the Conference Final听鈥� you get to skirt these complications. But when you鈥檙e habitually falling short, there鈥檚 more to pick at until eventually, all that鈥檚 left are the bones.听

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