You can't compare the Leafs to the Cubs and Red Sox!
Wow some people are daft.
Even if Fenway/Wrigley are larger, even if they have twice as many home games in baseball... when those teams are in the dumps you can pretty much go see a game for nothing at either of their parks (certainly not the Red Sox in the past decade or so though). You'll never, ever in your lifetime be able to go see a Leafs game for half of the original admission price from a scalper or just walk in and get tickets from the box office. If the Red Sox tanked, you can bet your ass you'd be able to do that shortly there after, and you can do that for the Cubs even when they're playing well most of the time.
Leafs fans are a different breed. They just spend spend spend on a horrible return for their entertainment dollar. There's really nothing quite like it in all of sports. A second NHL team in the region would do wonders for showing all those morons how bad they're being duped.
There seems to be no convincing you that the Cubs are well supported and profitable (your original description of the Leafs).....your experience of getting tickets for next to nothing is not one I have seen in my 10+ visits to Wrigley....what I see is an entire part of a large city that turns into a massive party every time the Cubs take the field....with the possible exception of very early in the season when the weather totally sucks and Wrigley is a cold place to sit.
So you are entitled to your opinion on this, as I am....doesn't make either of us "daft" just that we have had different experiences.
What the Cubs clearly show is the relatively little impact that an alternative team can have on the established brand. To Chicago baseball fans, the Cubs have always been the favoured team and the Sox the week sister.
I will use the last decade as an example (a decade when the Sox have won a World Championship and had pretty good teams most of the time).
The average Cubs attendance in the last 10 seasons.....37,248 for 94.12% sold out (adjusting the capacity for the various minor expansions during that time)....The Sox (who downsized their stadium during this decade) have averaged 26,131 for 62% sold out.
Fans who identify with a team/club/franchise do not move on to another team just because there is a winner across town. A team in Hamilton, or anywhere else in the GTA/SO will always be considered "the other" team and have to work very hard to draw away from the established brand/tradition that is the Leafs.
(note....not factored into Cubs attendance are the few thousand watching from across the street in the various rooftop establishments.....across the street they charge $250 a head for a roof view of the game with some food!)
Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox
Capacity Average attendance Percent sold Capacity Average attendance Percent sold
2008 41,118.00 40,743.00 99.09% 40,615.00 30,877.00 76.02%
2007 41,118.00 40,153.00 97.65% 40,615.00 33,140.00 81.60%
2006 41,118.00 39,040.00 94.95% 40,615.00 36,511.00 89.90%
2005 38,884.00 38,753.00 99.66% 40,615.00 28,923.00 71.21%
2004 38,884.00 39,138.00 100.65% 40,615.00 24,437.00 60.17%
2003 38,884.00 37,032.00 95.24% 44,321.00 23,944.00 54.02%
2002 38,884.00 33,248.00 85.51% 44,321.00 20,701.00 46.71%
2001 38,884.00 35,196.00 90.52% 44,321.00 22,077.00 49.81%
2000 38,884.00 34,438.00 88.57% 44,321.00 24,047.00 54.26%
1999 38,884.00 34,739.00 89.34% 44,321.00 16,656.00 37.58%
37,248.00 94.12% 26,131.30 62.13%
wish my posting skills include knowing how to get those colums to line up!
source for attendance figures is
www.baseball-almanac.com
I haven't given MLSE a dime in more than 8 years, but lack of opportunity is a definite factor in that outcome. Anyway, Toronto is too big a hockey town for just one NHL team, so I say the more teams the better.