Stadiums and Arenas of Canada

[saffronleaf]

I disagree about the Leafs because, as someone living in the US, I can tell you that hockey is non-existent in the national scale in the US. Even in a regional scale, in a supposed hockey hotbed like Minnesota, hockey is small potatoes. Hockey and the NHL is pretty thoroughly Canadian.

If people from Toronto wanted to support a sports franchise that put them on the map internationally or gave them a foothold in the US, they'd support the Jays and Raptors. And while support for the Jays and Raptors are respectable, it is a little bit underwhelming for a comparable city of its size in the US.

Supporting a hockey team is one of the most insular domestic activities; to support the Leafs because the NHL has teams in the US is a joke because the NHL has virtually zero presence in the US. People don't support these teams in the US.

Torontonians aren't stupid (i.e., they don't think that hockey matters in the US when it doesn't); Canadian media does a good job of slandering the modest successes hockey occasionally has in the US.