Are fans finally fed up with lousy Leafs?

[BCartfall]

Playing out the string of a couple of meaningless seasons, the Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning combined to compile a laundry list of unwatchable sins against the fundamentals last night. There were a couple of missed open nets, a long line of errant passes, a conga line of gifted breakaways and more bad breakouts than most of us have seen since puberty.

Perhaps because dismal games like this haven't been all that unusual at the Air Canada Centre this season, the big screens above centre ice flashed something that long-time observers of the club didn't recall having seen in previous seasons. It was a promotional ad touting the benefits of renewing Leafs season tickets, the key incentive of speedy re-upping being an invitation to a "meet and greet" with Brian Burke, the general manager. The face time with Burke, apparently, was the latest in the line of sweeteners meant to entice a faithful that, once upon a time, didn't need enticement.

It's just the latest smidgeon of a suggestion that one of the most durable fan bases in all of pro sports – a rabble not fazed by economic recession or on-ice regression – is getting a little softer. Maybe the 3.5 per cent ticket-price increase the Leafs announced a couple of weeks back, en route to their fourth straight exclusion from the NHL's playoff tournament, isn't sitting as well with the downturn-era loyalists as management had hoped it would.

...

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/Hockey/article/601647

[Green Lanterns]

very much so...however they are my team. and i will always cheer..even if i have to do it when no one is looking. last night wasn't that bad. 8-6 win over Calgary but still kind of a boring game.

[CRDragon]

Im sick of them being on Hockey Night in Canada again and again.

I want to see more Montreal and Ottawa games at that time slot (4:00pm)

and dont fricken move Leafs vs Canucks games to 4:00pm PST @ Vancouver just so Leaf fans can watch it at 7:00pm EST.....

[Jickernaughts]

Im sick of them being on Hockey Night in Canada again and again.

I want to see more Montreal and Ottawa games at that time slot (4:00pm)

and dont fricken move Leafs vs Canucks games to 4:00pm PST @ Vancouver just so Leaf fans can watch it at 7:00pm EST.....

down with the maple laughs

[Dancing Penguins]

Im sick of them being on Hockey Night in Canada again and again.

I want to see more Montreal and Ottawa games at that time slot (4:00pm)

and dont fricken move Leafs vs Canucks games to 4:00pm PST @ Vancouver just so Leaf fans can watch it at 7:00pm EST.....

The worst thing about it is the leafs always get my favorite commentator (Jim Hughson).

[The Null Corporation]

Im sick of them being on Hockey Night in Canada again and again.

I want to see more Montreal and Ottawa games at that time slot (4:00pm)

and dont fricken move Leafs vs Canucks games to 4:00pm PST @ Vancouver just so Leaf fans can watch it at 7:00pm EST.....

The worst thing about it is the leafs always get my favorite commentator (Jim Hughson).

I totally agree with Ottawa needing more CBC non-ottawa-valley games. But Montreal has it's own CBC (the French one lol) so do they really need to double-up on two networks. A few extra ones can't hurt, seeing as the Leafs won't be making the playoffs anytime soon, but IMO give then 5 more Saturdays on English CBC, and give Ottawa 5-10 more on the "rest of Ontario" CBC. It's hard to build a fan base if those unlucky Sens fans outside the Ottawa Valley never see them (save for games against said Leafs).

CBC HNIC schedulers need to get their heads out of their a$$es and realize that there is more than just leaf fans in Ontario, and screwing over the fans of the (usually) more competitive Ottawa Senators isn't really fair. Toronto hasn't made the playoffs since '04, and in that time, Ottawa has made every playoff AND went to the Finals in '07! Sure they're 13 points out of the playoffs atm, but isn't every team allowed one "down" season every 14 years?!

[Sparta]

Im sick of them being on Hockey Night in Canada again and again.

I want to see more Montreal and Ottawa games at that time slot (4:00pm)

and dont fricken move Leafs vs Canucks games to 4:00pm PST @ Vancouver just so Leaf fans can watch it at 7:00pm EST.....

Move to Montreal or Ottawa then.

a) The reason that so many leaf games are shown are because their fan base is ever-present, just about everywhere in Canada. TV is based on viewership, and the fact that a meaningless end of season Saturday night Leaf game gets a higher television audience than some of the playoff games that the Sens had when they went to the final... well that says it all.

b) This is a perfect opportunity, money-grabbing wise, for CBC to capitalize on the hockey market. If anyone is familiar with British Television Giants SKY, they will know that they have the perfect model in place: They have two different "normal channels", and three different "sports" channels (namely, SKY 1, SKY2, AND SKY SPORTS 1, SKY SPORTS 2, SKY SPORTS 3). This way, people watch what they want to watch .

CBC could do something like that in the future. However, what is more promising is perhaps an interactive CBC feature come time of the game. Keep one CBC channel throughout, but when you have more than one game playing, give the viewer the ability to choose which game they want to watch by using the remote control - CBC should strike a deal with Bell or Rogers and allow them to do this. That way, Bell or Rogers viewers can simply push a button and watch whatever game they want.

[snipers]

as much as the leafs suck, they're my team... and i cheer for them no matter what.