He invested heavily in the soccer team because it was the one outfit that could spend its way to competence. Leiweke made a bunch of quick decisions that turned the ship. One paper called him “the ultimate Hog Town dim bulb.” It got so bad that Leiweke had to apologize for promising to be good at his job.Īnd, of course, because we can’t get anything right, we were wrong about that, too. The reaction to this sort of U.S.-style carnival barking was not mockery. “If Chicago had one million people, Toronto will have two,” Leiweke said. His only worry was finding a spot big enough to hold it. He told reporters he had the parade route planned. He said a bunch of weird things about how many construction cranes he could see from his office window. He was going to take down most of the 1950s and 60s memorabilia that covered every vertical inch of the Leafs’ arena. On that July afternoon, Leiweke made a series of wild proclamations about where he saw things going. There was a pervading sense that Toronto was not only a place where nothing went right, but that nothing ever could. The star turn on the soccer club had announced that his side was not just awful by sad North American standards, but “the worst team in the world.” The Leafs were coming off that Game 7 against the Bruins. It had been a decade since any of those four teams had taken a single playoff round. No major-league team had won anything in 20 years. It’s important to remember how desolate the Toronto sports scene was as he arrived. That’s when newly hired Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment CEO Tim Leiweke did his first interviews. You can trace the beginning of it to the day – July 15, 2013.
It can only be fully appreciated in retrospect, a place we are rapidly approaching. And then hailing rocks.Įight years isn’t a bad run.
Once this curse gets going, it has a way of turning the bluest skies grey. The Blue Jays don’t look totally pooched, but wait for it. Toronto FC has become a basket case no one cares about (again). The Raptors are mired in a rebuilding phase, a no-man’s land more than a few NBA teams never emerge from. The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the midst of blowing the season in Month No. The megacorp overseeing most of the operation has gone all War of the Roses. That’s how long the New Golden Age of Toronto sports lasted. Log In Create Free AccountĪ little over eight years.
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