My Easter present was a pair to see the Toronto Marlies. This is our AHL team, one level below the NHL; a league of coming talent, guys playing out the string and career nearly-men.
The Marlies name has a long history here. It was the Leaf's major junior team for decades. The Leafs played Saturday night at the Gardens, the Marlies on Sunday afternoon. It provided a steady stream of talent for the parent club until the beginning of the open draft era. The last great Marlies team of the mid-70s sent two stars to the Leafs: John Anderson and George Ferguson.
These pro Marlies have their own arena, the Ricoh Coliseum down at the Ex. It's a cozy new barn, seating just under 8,000. A roomy, no frills sort of place to watch a game. Our seats were excellent, about 30 feet from the ice, between the centre line and the north blue line. Just about perfect.
The game was a bit of a dud for a neutral, but the home fans were happy. The Marlies scored four times in the first period against the Lake Erie Monsters (who hail from near Cleveland) and cruised to a 6-1 win.
It's been a good season for the Marlies. They're first in their division. The team has a lot of veteran players to go with the prospects. Some of those prospects have spent a fair bit of time in the Bigs this season too. I don't really understand how championships are won in a developmental league like the AHL, I do remember that the last time Toronto's farm team did well, in the early 90s, it was a harbinger of good times for the senior side. So here's hoping the Marlies go deep this spring.
Hockey aside, the most interesting thing there was the crowd. I figure the arena was a bit under half full. There are clearly some hardcore fans in their Marlie jerseys, but we saw lots of Leafs jerseys too. Perhaps most touching was a trio of older guys in their St. John's Maple Leaf jerseys, one of them a former 14 year season ticket holder with the ex-franchise. But what stood out was the number of kids. There were entire minor hockey teams in their jerseys. Children running around the concourses, others high-fiving Duke the Dog, the team's mascot. In front of us was a dad with his two young daughters. He was, by turns, watching the game, feeding the kids, entertaining the kids, checking out their coloring book. Behind us, another family with youngsters.
I see parents and kids heading off the Leafs games every Saturday night, actually it's mainly dads and sons and I'll see them pull into the parking lot across from work in pretty spiffy cars.
We paid $30 each for our seats, the top ticket at Ricoh is $38. Imagine bringing two or three kids, with food, parking, a program. For the Marlies the bill would be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $175 for the game. That buys you one less than one comparable seat at the ACC.
NHL hockey up close is amazing. The quality of play, even for middling teams like Toronto's is excellent. TV captures some of that skill and speed, but there nothing like being able to see the whole ice from a good vantage point. You see the game in a different way. For most of us, it is a rare treat.
The AHL isn't the NHL, but it is pretty good. There aren't too many players on the ice who haven't been in an NHL camp or at had a cup of coffee at the top of the heap. The players don't make big league money, but they play like they want to. In some cities, it's the only game in town and the crowds are excellent, the media coverage considerable.
Toronto doesn't happen to be one of those cities, and that doesn't make much sense to me. The families who populate the fan-base seem to get it. The team could just use more of them. Our media really only pays attention to the Leafs. Anything else is second-rate, even if it wins. Ironic, given this is the top farm team in the system.
But more importantly, the team gives fans something the Leafs doesn't: an affordable way to watch quality hockey. I could get to four Marlies games for the price of one gold at the ACC. And the odds are pretty good that in those four games the home team would win. I wouldn't make the same bet on the Leafs.
Most Canadians watch pro hockey on the tube. In-the-arena fandom at the
No comments:
Post a Comment