By HOWARD BERGER
TORONTO (Jan. 21) — It’s a bit of a pastime in this city for professional athletes to wonder why crowds that attend sporting events are so typically moribund. At times, these athletes go so far as to request — through the media — that the ticket-buyers make more noise. The most famous appeal came from baseball hall of famer Dave Winfield more than 16 years ago. Winfield signed as a free agent with the Blue Jays late in his career and was a key factor on the very promising 1992 ballclub. As the Jays were vying for the first of consecutive World Series titles, Winfield sat down in the dugout at SkyDome before a game with the late Toronto Star columnist, Jim Proudfoot.
Having played at Yankee Stadium for eight seasons, Winfield knew what it felt like to perform in front of rabid audiences, even when the ballpark in The Bronx wasn’t filled to capacity [crowds of 25 and 30,000 were common in New York prior to the Yankees dynasty of the late-’90s, when sell-outs of more than 50,000 became the norm ]. “This place is so big and the people fill it every night,” Winfield said in ‘92, as the Blue Jays constantly put 48,000-plus in the ‘Dome. “But, it’s so damned quiet in here. We have a great team and a chance to win a championship, but we need our fans to be more vocal… to show support more loudly than on most nights. Right now, they wait for us to do something at the plate before they start to get into the game.”
Proudfoot went hard with Winfield’s comments and they quickly became a rallying point. For a period of time, the baseball fans at SkyDome responded, and it had a positive effect on the team.
That exchange — more than a decade-and-a-half ago — came to mind this morning when talking to Maple Leafs’ veteran Matt Stajan about the club’s legendary woes on home ice. In case you aren’t aware, the Leafs are again a sub-.500 team at the Air Canada Centre [8-10-4 going into tonight’s encounter with Boston], and have gone more than two full games without even scoring a goal. Traditionally — and with a notable exception of playoff games — hockey audiences in Toronto have been almost solely reactive. Given that the Leafs haven’t appeared in a playoff game in almost five years, the ACC is the equivalent of a cathedral most nights, and the players occasionally wonder how they might react to a crowd that appeared jacked-up at the start of a game — coming out of the national anthem. Such an atmosphere is not the least bit unusual in places like Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and in western Canada, where the hockey audiences routinely bear their soul. I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it now… having covered the Stanley Cup Final since 1992, I’ve never heard anything close to the noise that reverberated through Rexall Place in Edmonton when the Oilers were facing Carolina for the 2006 championship.
Without a doubt, the ACC would be similarly raucous if the Maple Leafs were vying for the Cup, but it would also be an aberration. Toronto hockey crowds nowadays make voluntary noise only when booing former players they feel have betrayed them [look out Mats Sundin]. Otherwise, reaction from the corporate-heavy crowd is generated by the mostly inane ramblings of the videoboard above centre-ice. Stajan said today he wishes it were different.
“Yeah, I’ll take this opportunity to say we want our crowd to be as loud as they can be from the start of the game to the finish,” he implored. “Obviously, the start is the most important time. You come out from the dressing room in an atmosphere you are used to, and want the fans to cheer as loud as they can. We’d love to have that on a nightly basis here. We get it some nights, but we’d like it more of the time. Obviously, we have to do a better job of [providing] excitement, but we also want to test them a bit. Hopefully, our great fans can start to bring more excitement and energy to this building.”
It’s probably no coincidence that the Leafs start slowly on home-ice most nights. To that end, the game operations staff has tried to jack up the environment prior to the opening face-off. Public address announcer Andy Frost has legendary pipes [I’m eternally envious, Andy], and he bellows at full-voice while introducing the players in the Leafs’ starting line-up. Recently, Andy was asked to include the birth-place of the players, and that’s a feature unique to the ACC. Though no one will confirm it, the operations staff appears to add artificial noise to the pre-game shtick, and the place sounds like it’s going to explode.
Once the announcements end, however, the only fans you are bound to hear are those that operate in the ceiling of the arena. Perhaps unavoidably with the terrible Leaf teams of recent ilk, there’s a sense of impending doom in the building. Fans appear to be waiting for something bad to happen, and they usually don’t have to wait long. So, maybe it’s impossible at this stage of the Leafs’ most recent restructuring for Stajan’s wish to come true. Perhaps if Brian Burke and Ron Wilson follow through and peice together a contending team, the hockey crowds at the ACC will break from their traditional mold.
Until then, it’ll likely the players will have to ask for noise… as Matt Stajan did today.
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He’s asking fans that have been booing them lately for “more noise”?
How hard did that soccer ball hit him?
- Down Goes BrownIt’s very true. The “centre of the hockey universe” has little to do with the fans. The media coverage of hockey in Toronto is unmatched and without question lives up to that billing, but if you asked a sample of Leaf fans how the Marlies were doing this year, you would get conflicting answers. This is not a hockey town in the traditional sense of fans knowing or caring about the sport at all levels. It is a Leaf town and no one will debate that, and when the Leafs aren’t in contention it’s even harder to keep people interested. But the fans waiting for the Leafs to do something and the Leafs waiting for the fans to do something is really not going to solve anything on gamedays at the ACC.
- BukatorAs a long time Leaf fan, I can’t remember a time when a Leaf crowd didn’t sit on its hands during the regular season. You identified the problem, Howard: too many suits.
- DavidI remember a Foligno wants noise during a playoff run.
And it’s a chicken and the egg thing for Leaf fans. Give them something to cheer about.
- GuidoI’m sick and tired of this story.
If they really want louder games, buy some of the tickets from the blackberry using stuffed shirts, and put them on sale for regular joes to buy.
Now one might be inclined to say that the “Fans first” game wasnt loud.
Do you really expect people to get THAT excited over and exhibition game full of AHL players on both rosters?
- RandyAlso Matt Stajan needs to shut his mouth, he cant decide if he wants people to be loud or if he wants to tell them to stay home which he’s done on a couple of ocassions but the media has looked the other way.
- RandyI’ve been the ACC a few times and I honestly am in no rush to reture. We were in the nosebleeds and there were some kids ahead of us with the plastic air horns. Every time they would blow those things the other patrons would turn and scowl at the kids. The only other person making noise was a drunk at the far end. AND the Leafs WON! So, yes, as far a crowd noise goes, the ACC is a mausoleum. Of course, a better product might liven things up a tad.
- bobbyshowTrading Stajan for picks or prospects would give me something to cheer about.
- PaulBPlay a more exciting game. That will get the fans charged up a little bit. Who are you anyway Matt Stajan, a two bit hockey player. You have no right to speak for the team. Do you speaking with your play.
- JimWhen the ACC allows fans to go to the game instead of salesmen who are trying to impress clients the noise level will go up.
When Stajan asks the fans to make more noise he doesn’t realize we are making noise, in bars and on our couches cause we can’t get tickets and even if we could we couldn’t afford them.
- JoeThere is no point asking for more noise from a crowd aged 50+ that uses an NHL game to conduct “business.” Open the seats up to people who care about hockey and thier beloved Maple Leafs, and you will get more noise than you can handle. Question is with the current team will it be cheers or jeers?
- steveMaybe Stajan can’t hear the crowd from the seat of his pants…if this marshmellow spent less time on the ice and more time on his skates maybe we’d have something to cheer about. It is really hard to stand up and cheer for a bunch of ECHL’ers (that is right…I straight up skipped the AHL).
- The RockMost of the paying customers would change places with Stajan in a T.O. second .
- Chas CalzTell him to shut the h.. up !
I an Englishman, who moved to Toronto in 92 and fell in love with the Leafs ever since.
I’m a massive fan of both hockey and soccer, and can’t get over how much differences there are in the atmospheres of both sporting events.
FIRST - when we go to the ACC to watch games, we are essentially doing the exact same thing that we are doing when are at home: sitting on our heavy arses, planted to the couch, with a cold beverage (of choice) in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other, watching and waiting for things to unfold - much like an immobile vegetative growth coming out of the couch itself.
Compare this to English soccer games, where fans constantly for the entire duration of the match (including intermissions), SING and CHANT about favorite players, legendary players, opposition rivals and players, and famous and important historical moments in the team. Sometimes though, it’s not even song and chant, but overall a level of vocalizing that is heard - yelling at the referee, or other players, or your own player. They are so into the game, and they are NEVER ever sitting - almost always they are standing.
SECOND - Team success. Over in England, teams who are destined to failure (ie. Derby County, who were demoted from the English Premier League virtually with still close to half the season left), still sold out their home matches and still made a whole lot more noise than the ACC could ever make - this again, knowing that their team is destined to fail. That is akin to the Leafs fans giving their side a rousing roar of approval and adoration when they are down 6-0 to the *insert hated rival*.
Some of the best Goliath upsetting David stories in European football have also been founded by some amazing atmospheres - Liverpool in 2005 won the European Cup almost solely on an amazing home crowd during their trophy run - akin to the Oilers and Rexall Place a few season ago.
For me it’s really simple: If you are going to go watch your beloved team, get behind them and support them. If not, then it just lays weight to the fact that Toronto fans are some of the worst in the league.
- SunnyI really hope someone with power in MLSE gets this OBVIOUS message. LET THE REAL FANS BUY THE TICKETS! Its so embarassing to see the atmosphere in Montreal and then compare it to Toronto. I love the leafs to death but my god, we call ourselves the centre of the hockey universe? One of the greatest franchises in hockey history? Something is not right here… the ACC should be rocking every single game. The team is also supposed to be good!
- Matt RobertsTo the englishman sunny, go watch an OHL junior world of diference. Go watch real canadian hockey at an OHL arena. The atmosphere puts the ACC to shame. Suits in the ACC are just embarassing. I dont know what the hell they are thinking , at least throw a leaf jersey over top. How can we solve this ? NEW TEAM in toronto people! 2 teams in toronto will solve this catastrophe
- camaro99zSmall wonder why the cheering doesn’t compare to other cities — the only way a true hockey fan can get in the ACC is to save for months and pay a ticket scalper who has a fistful of tickets 5,6, or 7 times the price of the ticket. The suits who can afford tickets every game don’t cheer loudly.
- Ron