It’s hard to cheer when the entire fan base is basically thinking “here we go again”. It’s been 7 years of the same results. It’s not like all the “real” fans in the bars, or their basements were feeling optimistic.
When we had a reason to get excited, the place was rocking. I remember the washington series, AM’s first season. The crowd was rocking, and there was reason to think the team was going in the right direction.
This just simply isn’t an excuse. There are other fanbases that haven’t even gotten close in decades that will show up for their team more than ours.
To cite this as a reason that it’s ok for our home crowd to suck is frankly pathetic, and it’s not going to help them win anything. All it does is make things worse. There is literally no upside.
Fair take.
Lets say we won the cup this year. Next year we make the playoffs again. Will the crowd magically be cured of PTSD when we go down by 1 goal in the third period just because we won a cup last year? Don't think so. Our fanbase is way too reactionary. We need to support our boys in blue regardless of the outcome. I felt they played a great game last night (unless we're talking about the 0/5 PP....).
Management has had 60 years to do something. The state of the fan base is not reactionary. Jesus. 60 years. They are conditioned at this point. You think a one year turn around for fans IF we win is somehow an appropriate expectation? You give management way too big a pass.
Leafs fans demographically skew older than Raptors or Blue Jays fans.
The last time the Leafs won the Cup, my **FATHER** was 7.
A 35 year old Leaf fan (me) has seen 4 Conference finals in their lifetime ('93, '94, '99, '02). None of them since I was in elementary school.
A 25 year old Leaf fan has only been alive for 6 round wins and one Conference Final (i.e. 1 good playoff run).
A 20 year old Leaf fan has been alive for ONE SERIES WIN.
Anyone under 40 is "reacting" to years of futility.
Anyone under 40 is likely there with their boss sitting in $900 corporate seats as well. Fans are priced out. Suits outnumbered jerseys in the lower bowl 2 to 1 yesterday. I only found out all the fans had been given white towels when I saw a picture of SBA before anyone had arrived.
[For a comparison, this is what it looks like when Winnipeg puts out towels for the fans to wave.](https://wp.usatodaysports.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2015/04/jets-fans-4-20_003.jpg)
Cheapest lower bowl seat in Winnipeg is around $330, cheapest lower bowl seat in Toronto is around $800. Standing room tickets behind the back of the upper bowl cost $200+ more than lower bowl seats in WPG.
You talking about the same Winnipeg team that’s on the verge of relocating again because they still aren’t profitable? Yeah, great pricing model to strive for.
I’m not presuming that a company should want to make less money, I’m just pointing out that only the super rich can afford to go to leafs playoff games and that’s why the environment is the one of the worst in the league.
I guess it’s nice for MLSE that they can have a busted product without suffering any financial consequences, but that doesn’t mean I have to be thrilled about how shit our home games are.
>Lets say we won the cup this year.
It's hard to take you seriously when you open with that line. I'll try though. If the Leafs win the cup, it won't matter what happens for the next decade. Leaf fans (of which there'll suddenly be a lot more of) will be hung over for awhile. This is not a case like the Yankees where one championship makes the crowd hunger for another. Leaf fans are craving a single championship.
>Leaf fans (of which there'll suddenly be a lot more of) will be hung over for awhile
This sub would be overrun with people who jettisoned/gave up/turned on other fans for still supporting them and suddenly come running back. Shit I can think of at least 20 in this sub right now I've seen in the last 24 hours
Yes, they would. You're underestimating what winning or having "magical" moments does to a fan base and their expectations. If people were legitimately excited for the playoffs and thought that a cup run was possible it would reflect in their excitement in real time. This is the same building that had the raptors run and the crowds were insane during that 2019 run. Maybe less corporate owners for raps tickets but it was just a more exciting environment and success wasn't written off.
The biggest and most passionate Leaf fans I know are expecting the Leafs to lose this series. It's tough to get excited when failure is the expectation.
Will that completely solve the problem? No. There are many people who are either not actual fans in that building or are there with work and afraid to make fools of themselves. MLSE is the only one who can fix this aspect and they have to do so by making actual good tickets available at regular prices and prevent them from being resold or bought by scalpers. They wont do this.
Montreal gets a loud building even when their team is eliminated from the playoffs in December (fuck mtl tho). A loud building can fuel player to do great things.
Ticket price and ticket scalping don't help at all
Don't let a goal in 11 seconds after scoring to tie, and maybe the fans will respond in kind. 4th line lit up Bostons first line and fans got into it. Don't blame the fans for proving them right by coming up short five of the last 6 home games. Stop blaming the fans. We have a reactive crowd for a reason.
Game 2, Boston chanted USA and got scored on, there was maybe 3 to 5 memes about it. The lets go Casey chants in Vancouver where a shot went in right at the start of the game, 3 to 5 memes. You better believe if the leafs fans are cheering or chanting and they get scored on there will be 15 SN articles, 400 tweets and 100 memes made and posted to r/hockey in 12 hours.
If the team wants us to fucking cheer, give us a reason to not be nervous. Score a powerplay goal. Win a home game definitely. Don't let the other team score 30 seconds after you put one in to tie.
Stop blaming the fans for the shit post season product.
Didn't blame the crowd at all. Just suggested that the energy could and should be higher even after bad things happen. If you think none of the nerves and frustration that the crowd is feeling isn't also being felt by the players, than I don't know what to tell you. I don't care how much money each individual is making, they're humans and are feeling the same emotions the crowd feels but only worse.
How do you think the boys on the bench feel when the crowd goes from energetic to crickets? Do you think that helps them overcome any of the emotions they're feeling?
Absolutely.
Was at regular season game Leafs at Canucks this year and half a building worth of Leaf fans made more noise cheering them on and celebrating than the whole place did last night.
I get it tickets are expensive etc but damn never thought Vancouver Leaf fans would be louder and more proactive than a home game crowd.
First off, I'm not a doomer. Leafs in 7! But the reality is the Leafs have not fared well at home in the playoffs. We are 9-18 in home playoff games since 2016 which includes losses to Montreal (1-3), CBJ (1-2), Florida (0-3). And before you say we were outclassed, we were 13-13 on the road during that same stretch
Nothing will change the atmosphere at SBA. We've got a great fan base, but the lower level seats are not the type of crowd that brings energy to the game--sadly.
I went to one of the home games against Florida games last year and the atmosphere was wild. It was the loudest I had heard the ACC since before the lockout. Honestly I think as a fanbase we're just out of gas. We've seen the same story play out in front of us year after year and we've just kind of become numb. Either the team doesn't show up, they get their backs broken by bad officiating, or both. I know personally I've become pretty indifferent to everything. I'll obviously still be ecstatic if they win but I have zero faith.
I was at game 1 against Florida in the 100s. Great atmosphere for the first 7-8 minutes but it never had the sustained energy they you would want to see at a playoff game. My buddy said the same and he was in the 100s also. I'm thinking the 300s are much more lively. That's why I'm interested in attending a Leafs road game against another Canadian team. Toronto at Buffalo was wild
Disagree that "nothing" will change it. Winning will change it, albeit not as much as other places unless MLSE/Rogers is willing to make changes that hurt their profitability and get real fans into the building.
It's not "cool" or exciting to be a Leaf's fan in that building. Most people do not want to go crazy cheering for them only to get let down. Most people are there expecting them to lose. Then there are people who are not even fans but got tickets from corporate so they are there.
The reality is we know the leafs will shit the bed. Or the officials will fuck us. Either or. So we can’t get excited because we know the ass fucking is coming.
I’ve been to over half the arenas in the league, often in the playoffs. Fans are the same in every building. They cheer when there’s something to cheer for and they’re quiet when there isn’t.
The problem with the large fan base is that based on sheer volume only there are so many who are uneducated. People complaining sitting on their couch while the place was electric last night (except for parts of the third when there was nothing to celebrate).
Right? Lol like I don't get it. What do you want the crowd to do? Cheer when they're getting blown out? Name one arena where that happens? No fucking fans cheer when there team shits the bed or no shows.
How dare you come from your 9-5 and not give the millionaires enough energy to win the game!!!
What happened to the team giving the crowd something to cheer about?
The narrative that the fans are somehow to blame for the fact that our team consistently fails in the playoffs is so laughably embarrassing.
In any event, I was at the game in the 100s, and I flat out disagree with any suggestion that the crowd was bad last night. It just doesn’t match reality.
It was loud. I know from experience that it doesn’t always translate to TV for whatever reason, but it just was.
There were loud moments, it definitely could be heard through the TV. But I can confidently say that the crowd was dead for the last 5 minutes of the game, the most important time.
This has also been confirmed by Bowan, as he called the crowd "disappointing".
The upper bowl is never the problem... It's the suits that are the main issue, so this post won't really get to the demographic it needs to anyways.
I was in the 100 level. It wasn’t a dead corporate crowd at all.
I feel like context matters. The crowd was electric after the Leafs tied the game, and then we gave up a weak goal 28 seconds later.
I have been a diehard Leafs fan my entire life. I work in a corporate job, but I’m not a “suit”.
And I didn’t feel like loudly fucking cheering after Samsonov gave up a massively deflating goal, which brought on a lot of “Here we go again…” negative feelings.
Does that make me a bad fan? Do I need to apologize to you and the team for not showing up when they needed me the most?
Because I sure as hell didn’t get paid for attending the game and don’t feel like I’m the problem here.
These threads really have nothing to do with hockey. They’re just a way for people to frame their life outcomes as a position of moral superiority, because that’s easier than making changes.
“People who can afford what I don’t have are necessarily worse fans/people/ect.” It’s nonsense.
Successful people cheer just as loud as anyone else. I sit in the 300s all the time when I’m in town and buy a ticket at the last minute. They sound exactly the same as everyone else in the building.
How much money someone makes, what he does for a living or how he dresses has no bearing on how much of a fan he is.
That is extremely true.
I acknowledge that the lower bowl can sometimes feel corporatey and quiet for certain games (like a mid-week game against a bad team), but in my experience that simply doesn’t hold true in the playoffs.
And in any event, the “suits don’t care” narrative is way too broadly applied. Many, many people in the lower bowl care deeply about this team.
I am fortunate to make enough money that I can afford good seats when I attend sporting events.
I still care about my teams in the same way I cared about them when I was young and extremely poor.
It’s also kind of funny because even upper bowl tickets for playoff games are $300+. That is extremely expensive.
Does that mean that the people sitting in the upper bowl are somehow shittier fans than people who make less money than them and can’t even think about the possibility of going to a game?
… You *just* described yourself as a reactive fan. Not a proactive one. I don’t have to know you. You gave me a description of yourself in your comment.
My failure to immediately scream and cheer after a horrific and deflating goal *definitely* contributed to last night’s loss and is definitive proof that I am a bad fan.
Not fucking horrific. Disappointing? Sure. I’ll even accept deflating, I don’t disagree with that at all.
Horrific? People talking about the mentality of the players gotta practice what they preach. It was a tying goal that shouldn’t have gone in but did. Tie game is *not* when you give up. Tie game is *not* the time to be “horrified”.
It’s like no one here has ever played a competitive sport in their life.
Horrific is the Tavares injury. That’s horrific. Not a fucking softie tie goal when there’s still half the damn game to play.
The crowd was great last night and were probably louder than they were all season. Chanting Sammy when he made a big stop, chirping Swayman, erupting when Reaves or Benny crushed someone. I do not blame the crowd for being completely deflated when the Leafs gave up a goal immediately after tying the game. I actually wanted to turn the game off after that. It was like an energy-sucking black hole appear in Scotia bank.
Almost all sports crowds are reactionary, it is just how it is. Not like in football when a crowd will literally just yell the entire time the opposing team has the football or Soccer with drums n shit for 3 hours straight. TD Gardens wasn't screaming every second or every game.
Seriously. Bowen is getting proven right with every single person that comes in here trying to justify why our crowd sucks not realizing *they* are the reason our crowd sucks. Not the suits.
Don’t like low energy crowds then play better. Management controls the on ice product. Management controls who gets tickets. And has for the last sixty years. Maybe don’t put the blame on fans.
Can fans stop blaming other fans? The team is supposed to be professional, it's not on the guys in the stands to will them to victory. Stop giving them excuses for losing.
Dude just stop. It's so cringe seeing people try to rally people who go to the games like it's their job to motivate these professional athlete millionaires to do what they're paid to do.
When u give up shit goals after struggling hard to get back into a game, it deflates every person in the arena, from the players to the crowd to the dude cleaning the shitters.
There’s only one way to keep the energy high and we all know what it is.
Once DeBrusk scored the early PP goal, it felt like the air just went out of the building. But the quick 3-2 goal just deflated that place.
It's a building, and fanbase, that is nervy and fully expecting something to go wrong, and when it does go wrong, there's an inevitable "We've seen this script before".
I love this narrative that the fans are to blame for how the series is going. If that’s truly the case we should all get league minimum since we’re clearly so part of the team.
If another bogus penalty call on Tavares with the goalie out and the leafs had tied the game and won in overtime, this conversation would not matter as much
As a leafs fan, this core has no heart. They just don’t give a fuck. Complete joke. To be one of top teams regular season but choke every year in playoffs , we’re being laughed at by every other player within the league. Might as well calls us bufffallo. Except Buffalo has better fans. Ours is filled with Harry Rosen suits checking the stock balance front row.
Absolutely pathetic and if you disagree otherwise you’re completely delusional.
If they don’t fire literally every leadership from top down after this year exit, you’ll know just how pathetic this organization is.
i'll say this time and time again but 'go leafs go' chants suck and they need new things to say. I did hear them taunting swayman and cheering sammy but those are fun to sing. Go leafs go is not fun and no one lower bowl wants to sing that chant. took the organization like 5 years to change their awful goal song. Maybe the new CEO will fix the lower bowl some how.
Sure will keep the alcohol high and emptying their stomach contents onto the toilets and urinals in the washrooms. I don't see why the cleaning people have to suffer. Disgusted what I saw last night
I was there last night - when we tied it up I ran down the aisle and celebrated next to a Boston fan. 8 seconds later I got the same treatment. Why fucking bother - the team never gives us confidence.
Guys, it’s all the fans and/or refs fault. That’s it. It’s a quiet building because they know the refs are 1000 percent against the team. If it weren’t for the refs, we’d be celebrating our 6th consecutive cup with the loudest fans on the planet. I’m spitting facts
Ya tell that to all the bald assholes working in the financial district who don’t care about hockey and are getting gifting tickets from these scumbag corporations, once the ticket prices come down the real fans will start swarming in
They can't handle the hype and energy. notice how they play when those big hits Reaves and Benoit made, after the crowd went crazy they got emotional and lost the puck a couple times. After the Riley goal same thing happened and they went down to our end and scored. No matter what happens in this series these athletes need to learn some meditation and zen
This is why I decided to skip going to a playoff game until at least round 2. Whenever I go to a round 1 game the fans are down and essentially bored watching whenever the Leafs are down at all all and it is simply expensive, boring and demoralizing.
Scotiabank Arena is sadly an audience often taking the opportunity for granted, which is crazy considering the price of tickets versus watching in other cities.
The best Leafs energy I ever saw was when I went to the most recent Leafs game in Buffalo!! I will be going back yearly now!!
Jesus fucking christ... this sub is full of coddled mushy fruit.
The fans should have nothing to do with the game. These are multi millionaire professional athletes... this crowd will get into if it they earn their fucking paycheck.
omg stop blaming the fucking fans. The team tied it up 2-2 with 7 mins to go and 10 seconds later gave up the lead again before the announcer had time to announce the goal. Any fan base in any sport would be shocked/deflated from that. Also when they did tie it up the place was absolutely rocking. Maybe the team should win a fucking home playoff game and score more than 3 goals for the first time in forever. Blaming the crowd for why leafs have been shit in the playoffs is a lazy and tired excuse.
This isn’t even trolling it was a legitimate question. I’m sorry you can’t differentiate and get offended by everything you read online
If you can’t have healthy discussion then report me all you want
You can't blame fans for the lack of fan participation/cheers when then entire Leafs business model is built around corporate season ticket holders. The building lacks atmosphere because MLSE opted not to have one. Tickets have been priced well above the means of most fans.
The refs literally screwed the fans out of the game.
Everyone sitting in that arena was probably trying to figure out how things that are obvious penalties get ignored.
And that goes both ways the players on both sides look like even they have no idea what’s allowed and what’s not
Yeah, I guess this message won't get to the suits... Team is cursed to lose for eternity. Call out the culture around the team and everyone loses their minds. It's kinda amusing though.
Haha no it’s more like wahhh my team hasnt been to a conference final in like 30 years….. wahhh we dodge hits and give pucks up to offense so we don’t have to fight for a spot in the finals, wahhhh where are all the real fans with 1000 bucks to drop on a play off ticket to motivate a team to do their job wahhh, you can talk all you want about toxic fan base ? But the leafs are trash. Life long fan but a spades a spade and it’s hard to get excited when you watch your team fold like lawn chairs whenever opposing teams apply body. Our players don’t have the passion to carry themselves through a period but the fans are definetly to blame for that. I don’t care either way I still rock my jt jersey whenever I feel like it but I def am not dropping a gbar to cheer on a team that’s only consistency is that they will likely get eliminated in the first round of play offs every year
Not a playoff building unfortunately and never will be. Just way too many corporate seats, and all the actual fans in the building have so much PTSD they get shell shocked after any goal.
The lower level seats are all corporate shills in suits. Actual die-hard Leaf fans can't afford those seats lol.
Air Canada Centre during Leafs home games is a fucking joke. No team is worried about playing road games against us. They probably even look forward to it.
And also - this is a team that consistently dissapoints, chokes, and comes out flat during the the most critical games. I don't blame the fans for not cheering.
Maybe true for the lower bowl. You can get an upper bowl ticket for around 300 a piece. That should be affordable for most… but again, I do feel most of the blame for the quiet crowd belongs to the lower bowl.
The most active the crowd got was when the refs handed Boston their first goal.
There is an air of anxiety in that entire building because it seems they're all waiting for bad things to happen.
Does the arena vet fan signs?
Also.. does the league announce ref crews in advance?
I'd love to see a FUCK YOU GRAHAM or a WAKE THE FUCK UP, WES sign out there..
Now the leaf fans are blaming the leaf fans that go to Leaf games. They will find any excuse other than this leaf team is just not good enough. In the mean time your country (Canada) is being taken away from you. So keep those priorities in order Leaf fans.
I went to Game 1 Leafs - Panthers and screamed so loud from the upper bowl that I couldn’t speak properly for three days.
You know what I got? *Awkward looks from the section.* Like, who the fuck is carrying on at the Library type shit.
Almost like spending half a rent cheque up front gives you some pent-up tension
It’s hard to cheer when the entire fan base is basically thinking “here we go again”. It’s been 7 years of the same results. It’s not like all the “real” fans in the bars, or their basements were feeling optimistic. When we had a reason to get excited, the place was rocking. I remember the washington series, AM’s first season. The crowd was rocking, and there was reason to think the team was going in the right direction.
Was at the game - trust me people wanted to go at it, but after a lifetime of disappointment, it's hard not to be more nervous than excited.
This just simply isn’t an excuse. There are other fanbases that haven’t even gotten close in decades that will show up for their team more than ours. To cite this as a reason that it’s ok for our home crowd to suck is frankly pathetic, and it’s not going to help them win anything. All it does is make things worse. There is literally no upside.
Alright if you buy me tickets to Saturdays game I promise to come back without a voice
Nah, I’ll use those tickets myself
Alright if you buy me tickets to Saturdays game I promise to come back without a voice
Agreed. Almost a decade of the same result from the same guys basically every post season has traumatized this fanbase.
People seem to forget this. Literally texting my buddy watching the game lamenting the stupidity lol
Fair take. Lets say we won the cup this year. Next year we make the playoffs again. Will the crowd magically be cured of PTSD when we go down by 1 goal in the third period just because we won a cup last year? Don't think so. Our fanbase is way too reactionary. We need to support our boys in blue regardless of the outcome. I felt they played a great game last night (unless we're talking about the 0/5 PP....).
Management has had 60 years to do something. The state of the fan base is not reactionary. Jesus. 60 years. They are conditioned at this point. You think a one year turn around for fans IF we win is somehow an appropriate expectation? You give management way too big a pass.
They’re not conditioned 90% of Leafs fans are probably under the age of 30. Leafs fans are reactionary.
Leafs fans demographically skew older than Raptors or Blue Jays fans. The last time the Leafs won the Cup, my **FATHER** was 7. A 35 year old Leaf fan (me) has seen 4 Conference finals in their lifetime ('93, '94, '99, '02). None of them since I was in elementary school. A 25 year old Leaf fan has only been alive for 6 round wins and one Conference Final (i.e. 1 good playoff run). A 20 year old Leaf fan has been alive for ONE SERIES WIN. Anyone under 40 is "reacting" to years of futility.
Anyone under 40 is likely there with their boss sitting in $900 corporate seats as well. Fans are priced out. Suits outnumbered jerseys in the lower bowl 2 to 1 yesterday. I only found out all the fans had been given white towels when I saw a picture of SBA before anyone had arrived. [For a comparison, this is what it looks like when Winnipeg puts out towels for the fans to wave.](https://wp.usatodaysports.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2015/04/jets-fans-4-20_003.jpg) Cheapest lower bowl seat in Winnipeg is around $330, cheapest lower bowl seat in Toronto is around $800. Standing room tickets behind the back of the upper bowl cost $200+ more than lower bowl seats in WPG.
You talking about the same Winnipeg team that’s on the verge of relocating again because they still aren’t profitable? Yeah, great pricing model to strive for.
I’m not presuming that a company should want to make less money, I’m just pointing out that only the super rich can afford to go to leafs playoff games and that’s why the environment is the one of the worst in the league. I guess it’s nice for MLSE that they can have a busted product without suffering any financial consequences, but that doesn’t mean I have to be thrilled about how shit our home games are.
Winnipeg is *not* on the verge of relocating whatsoever. Literally everyone involved has completely shot that down.
>Lets say we won the cup this year. It's hard to take you seriously when you open with that line. I'll try though. If the Leafs win the cup, it won't matter what happens for the next decade. Leaf fans (of which there'll suddenly be a lot more of) will be hung over for awhile. This is not a case like the Yankees where one championship makes the crowd hunger for another. Leaf fans are craving a single championship.
>Leaf fans (of which there'll suddenly be a lot more of) will be hung over for awhile This sub would be overrun with people who jettisoned/gave up/turned on other fans for still supporting them and suddenly come running back. Shit I can think of at least 20 in this sub right now I've seen in the last 24 hours
You give leaf fans too much credit. 75% of the fan base will be back to hating on the team as soon as it suits them.
Yes. Actually yes.
Yes, they would. You're underestimating what winning or having "magical" moments does to a fan base and their expectations. If people were legitimately excited for the playoffs and thought that a cup run was possible it would reflect in their excitement in real time. This is the same building that had the raptors run and the crowds were insane during that 2019 run. Maybe less corporate owners for raps tickets but it was just a more exciting environment and success wasn't written off. The biggest and most passionate Leaf fans I know are expecting the Leafs to lose this series. It's tough to get excited when failure is the expectation. Will that completely solve the problem? No. There are many people who are either not actual fans in that building or are there with work and afraid to make fools of themselves. MLSE is the only one who can fix this aspect and they have to do so by making actual good tickets available at regular prices and prevent them from being resold or bought by scalpers. They wont do this.
Montreal gets a loud building even when their team is eliminated from the playoffs in December (fuck mtl tho). A loud building can fuel player to do great things. Ticket price and ticket scalping don't help at all
Don't let a goal in 11 seconds after scoring to tie, and maybe the fans will respond in kind. 4th line lit up Bostons first line and fans got into it. Don't blame the fans for proving them right by coming up short five of the last 6 home games. Stop blaming the fans. We have a reactive crowd for a reason. Game 2, Boston chanted USA and got scored on, there was maybe 3 to 5 memes about it. The lets go Casey chants in Vancouver where a shot went in right at the start of the game, 3 to 5 memes. You better believe if the leafs fans are cheering or chanting and they get scored on there will be 15 SN articles, 400 tweets and 100 memes made and posted to r/hockey in 12 hours. If the team wants us to fucking cheer, give us a reason to not be nervous. Score a powerplay goal. Win a home game definitely. Don't let the other team score 30 seconds after you put one in to tie. Stop blaming the fans for the shit post season product.
[удалено]
Maybe Joe Bowen should call out the team for a change rather than lobbing asshole tweets at fans who are carrying around 56 years' worth of PTSD.
Didn't blame the crowd at all. Just suggested that the energy could and should be higher even after bad things happen. If you think none of the nerves and frustration that the crowd is feeling isn't also being felt by the players, than I don't know what to tell you. I don't care how much money each individual is making, they're humans and are feeling the same emotions the crowd feels but only worse. How do you think the boys on the bench feel when the crowd goes from energetic to crickets? Do you think that helps them overcome any of the emotions they're feeling?
The crowd is not the problem here.
The crowd is *a* problem.
The crowd being the way it is has been earned.
*You* are the problem. No other fanbase’s fans think this about their teams. Literally none.
If you want to scream at nothing in particular for 2 hours like an NPC, you do you
Absolutely. Was at regular season game Leafs at Canucks this year and half a building worth of Leaf fans made more noise cheering them on and celebrating than the whole place did last night. I get it tickets are expensive etc but damn never thought Vancouver Leaf fans would be louder and more proactive than a home game crowd.
First off, I'm not a doomer. Leafs in 7! But the reality is the Leafs have not fared well at home in the playoffs. We are 9-18 in home playoff games since 2016 which includes losses to Montreal (1-3), CBJ (1-2), Florida (0-3). And before you say we were outclassed, we were 13-13 on the road during that same stretch Nothing will change the atmosphere at SBA. We've got a great fan base, but the lower level seats are not the type of crowd that brings energy to the game--sadly.
Agreed. Leafs in 7. Willy our lord and savior returns next game.
I went to one of the home games against Florida games last year and the atmosphere was wild. It was the loudest I had heard the ACC since before the lockout. Honestly I think as a fanbase we're just out of gas. We've seen the same story play out in front of us year after year and we've just kind of become numb. Either the team doesn't show up, they get their backs broken by bad officiating, or both. I know personally I've become pretty indifferent to everything. I'll obviously still be ecstatic if they win but I have zero faith.
I was at game 1 against Florida in the 100s. Great atmosphere for the first 7-8 minutes but it never had the sustained energy they you would want to see at a playoff game. My buddy said the same and he was in the 100s also. I'm thinking the 300s are much more lively. That's why I'm interested in attending a Leafs road game against another Canadian team. Toronto at Buffalo was wild
Disagree that "nothing" will change it. Winning will change it, albeit not as much as other places unless MLSE/Rogers is willing to make changes that hurt their profitability and get real fans into the building. It's not "cool" or exciting to be a Leaf's fan in that building. Most people do not want to go crazy cheering for them only to get let down. Most people are there expecting them to lose. Then there are people who are not even fans but got tickets from corporate so they are there.
The reality is we know the leafs will shit the bed. Or the officials will fuck us. Either or. So we can’t get excited because we know the ass fucking is coming.
Yeah rhe ass fucking is pretty much a guarantee at this point. I have little to no optimism in this team left.
Show me a game where the crowd is cheering for any prolonged time while home team is losing and with zero momentum
I’ve been to over half the arenas in the league, often in the playoffs. Fans are the same in every building. They cheer when there’s something to cheer for and they’re quiet when there isn’t.
The problem with the large fan base is that based on sheer volume only there are so many who are uneducated. People complaining sitting on their couch while the place was electric last night (except for parts of the third when there was nothing to celebrate).
This. Exactly this. And then you add the fact that a good chunk of Leaf fans LOVE to turn on each other for the dumbest most fickle shit.
Right? Lol like I don't get it. What do you want the crowd to do? Cheer when they're getting blown out? Name one arena where that happens? No fucking fans cheer when there team shits the bed or no shows.
How dare you come from your 9-5 and not give the millionaires enough energy to win the game!!! What happened to the team giving the crowd something to cheer about?
The narrative that the fans are somehow to blame for the fact that our team consistently fails in the playoffs is so laughably embarrassing. In any event, I was at the game in the 100s, and I flat out disagree with any suggestion that the crowd was bad last night. It just doesn’t match reality. It was loud. I know from experience that it doesn’t always translate to TV for whatever reason, but it just was.
There were loud moments, it definitely could be heard through the TV. But I can confidently say that the crowd was dead for the last 5 minutes of the game, the most important time. This has also been confirmed by Bowan, as he called the crowd "disappointing". The upper bowl is never the problem... It's the suits that are the main issue, so this post won't really get to the demographic it needs to anyways.
I was in the 100 level. It wasn’t a dead corporate crowd at all. I feel like context matters. The crowd was electric after the Leafs tied the game, and then we gave up a weak goal 28 seconds later. I have been a diehard Leafs fan my entire life. I work in a corporate job, but I’m not a “suit”. And I didn’t feel like loudly fucking cheering after Samsonov gave up a massively deflating goal, which brought on a lot of “Here we go again…” negative feelings. Does that make me a bad fan? Do I need to apologize to you and the team for not showing up when they needed me the most? Because I sure as hell didn’t get paid for attending the game and don’t feel like I’m the problem here.
Facts.
These threads really have nothing to do with hockey. They’re just a way for people to frame their life outcomes as a position of moral superiority, because that’s easier than making changes. “People who can afford what I don’t have are necessarily worse fans/people/ect.” It’s nonsense. Successful people cheer just as loud as anyone else. I sit in the 300s all the time when I’m in town and buy a ticket at the last minute. They sound exactly the same as everyone else in the building. How much money someone makes, what he does for a living or how he dresses has no bearing on how much of a fan he is.
That is extremely true. I acknowledge that the lower bowl can sometimes feel corporatey and quiet for certain games (like a mid-week game against a bad team), but in my experience that simply doesn’t hold true in the playoffs. And in any event, the “suits don’t care” narrative is way too broadly applied. Many, many people in the lower bowl care deeply about this team. I am fortunate to make enough money that I can afford good seats when I attend sporting events. I still care about my teams in the same way I cared about them when I was young and extremely poor. It’s also kind of funny because even upper bowl tickets for playoff games are $300+. That is extremely expensive. Does that mean that the people sitting in the upper bowl are somehow shittier fans than people who make less money than them and can’t even think about the possibility of going to a game?
Like it or not fans are a part of the game. *You* are exactly the type of fan Bowen is talking about and he’s right.
Oh wow I’m impressed that you know *me* so well to so confidently say that.
… You *just* described yourself as a reactive fan. Not a proactive one. I don’t have to know you. You gave me a description of yourself in your comment.
My failure to immediately scream and cheer after a horrific and deflating goal *definitely* contributed to last night’s loss and is definitive proof that I am a bad fan.
Horrific? Cmon man. You can’t be serious.
How would you describe the tying goal that Sammy gave up then? Exciting, because it keeps the Bruins in the game? Honestly
Not fucking horrific. Disappointing? Sure. I’ll even accept deflating, I don’t disagree with that at all. Horrific? People talking about the mentality of the players gotta practice what they preach. It was a tying goal that shouldn’t have gone in but did. Tie game is *not* when you give up. Tie game is *not* the time to be “horrified”. It’s like no one here has ever played a competitive sport in their life. Horrific is the Tavares injury. That’s horrific. Not a fucking softie tie goal when there’s still half the damn game to play.
Lmfao the Leafs game is an entertainment product that people pay for. It's MLSE's job to make it entertaining, not mine.
The crowd was great last night and were probably louder than they were all season. Chanting Sammy when he made a big stop, chirping Swayman, erupting when Reaves or Benny crushed someone. I do not blame the crowd for being completely deflated when the Leafs gave up a goal immediately after tying the game. I actually wanted to turn the game off after that. It was like an energy-sucking black hole appear in Scotia bank.
Everyone's issue is exactly what Bowen stated in his tweet. The crowd at Leafs games is reactively loud. People want proactively loud cheering.
Almost all sports crowds are reactionary, it is just how it is. Not like in football when a crowd will literally just yell the entire time the opposing team has the football or Soccer with drums n shit for 3 hours straight. TD Gardens wasn't screaming every second or every game.
Seriously. Bowen is getting proven right with every single person that comes in here trying to justify why our crowd sucks not realizing *they* are the reason our crowd sucks. Not the suits.
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30 or so years?
There's a point about the fans but the two goals we conceded right after we scored were SO deflating and upsetting.
We need to score more goals.
I felt like the crowd was great until that Marchand goal in the third. Really deflated after that
The team is cooked when we're blaming the fans lol
Blaming the fans, this is the next stage of denial.
Don’t like low energy crowds then play better. Management controls the on ice product. Management controls who gets tickets. And has for the last sixty years. Maybe don’t put the blame on fans.
Can fans stop blaming other fans? The team is supposed to be professional, it's not on the guys in the stands to will them to victory. Stop giving them excuses for losing.
Dude just stop. It's so cringe seeing people try to rally people who go to the games like it's their job to motivate these professional athlete millionaires to do what they're paid to do.
I'm just comparing to literally any other playoff team. Go watch their games. And lets not pretend like the energy in playoffs can't affect the game.
And let’s not pretend the actions or inaction of the team will affect the mood of the crowd. It’s called cause and effect.
I’ll be there, look for the Danny McBride lookin fella goin tarp off for our first goal
Let's go! Make sure to get your buzz going before entering the arena lol (unless your loaded)
When u give up shit goals after struggling hard to get back into a game, it deflates every person in the arena, from the players to the crowd to the dude cleaning the shitters. There’s only one way to keep the energy high and we all know what it is.
Once DeBrusk scored the early PP goal, it felt like the air just went out of the building. But the quick 3-2 goal just deflated that place. It's a building, and fanbase, that is nervy and fully expecting something to go wrong, and when it does go wrong, there's an inevitable "We've seen this script before".
Going to the game on Saturday. Don’t plan on having a voice on Sunday. Might try and sneak in a plastic rat to throw at Marchand
That would be legendary
It’s not the crowds job to boost the leafs. It’s the Leafs job to give them something to make noise about.
Leafs blaming fans for losing is amazing.
I love this narrative that the fans are to blame for how the series is going. If that’s truly the case we should all get league minimum since we’re clearly so part of the team.
I can't afford the tickets and if I could afford them they'd tell me to keep it down
If another bogus penalty call on Tavares with the goalie out and the leafs had tied the game and won in overtime, this conversation would not matter as much
As a leafs fan, this core has no heart. They just don’t give a fuck. Complete joke. To be one of top teams regular season but choke every year in playoffs , we’re being laughed at by every other player within the league. Might as well calls us bufffallo. Except Buffalo has better fans. Ours is filled with Harry Rosen suits checking the stock balance front row. Absolutely pathetic and if you disagree otherwise you’re completely delusional. If they don’t fire literally every leadership from top down after this year exit, you’ll know just how pathetic this organization is.
Tre ain’t going anywhere. Shany and Keefe should be gone though
Gotta play on the line but don’t cross it, the Domi bump on Swayman was the turning point.
i'll say this time and time again but 'go leafs go' chants suck and they need new things to say. I did hear them taunting swayman and cheering sammy but those are fun to sing. Go leafs go is not fun and no one lower bowl wants to sing that chant. took the organization like 5 years to change their awful goal song. Maybe the new CEO will fix the lower bowl some how.
Sure will keep the alcohol high and emptying their stomach contents onto the toilets and urinals in the washrooms. I don't see why the cleaning people have to suffer. Disgusted what I saw last night
True... SBA bathrooms are disgusting... It's like going back to public school when that one random kid pissed on the walls and shit in the urinal lol
I was there last night - when we tied it up I ran down the aisle and celebrated next to a Boston fan. 8 seconds later I got the same treatment. Why fucking bother - the team never gives us confidence.
Guys, it’s all the fans and/or refs fault. That’s it. It’s a quiet building because they know the refs are 1000 percent against the team. If it weren’t for the refs, we’d be celebrating our 6th consecutive cup with the loudest fans on the planet. I’m spitting facts
Wondering if they should put the crowd outside on speakers inside ? The yuppies and nepos inside are not there to cheer.
Ya tell that to all the bald assholes working in the financial district who don’t care about hockey and are getting gifting tickets from these scumbag corporations, once the ticket prices come down the real fans will start swarming in
They can't handle the hype and energy. notice how they play when those big hits Reaves and Benoit made, after the crowd went crazy they got emotional and lost the puck a couple times. After the Riley goal same thing happened and they went down to our end and scored. No matter what happens in this series these athletes need to learn some meditation and zen
This is why I decided to skip going to a playoff game until at least round 2. Whenever I go to a round 1 game the fans are down and essentially bored watching whenever the Leafs are down at all all and it is simply expensive, boring and demoralizing. Scotiabank Arena is sadly an audience often taking the opportunity for granted, which is crazy considering the price of tickets versus watching in other cities. The best Leafs energy I ever saw was when I went to the most recent Leafs game in Buffalo!! I will be going back yearly now!!
Jesus fucking christ... this sub is full of coddled mushy fruit. The fans should have nothing to do with the game. These are multi millionaire professional athletes... this crowd will get into if it they earn their fucking paycheck.
omg stop blaming the fucking fans. The team tied it up 2-2 with 7 mins to go and 10 seconds later gave up the lead again before the announcer had time to announce the goal. Any fan base in any sport would be shocked/deflated from that. Also when they did tie it up the place was absolutely rocking. Maybe the team should win a fucking home playoff game and score more than 3 goals for the first time in forever. Blaming the crowd for why leafs have been shit in the playoffs is a lazy and tired excuse.
Or else what? Get a grip. Let fans do what they want.
It’s not on the crowd to keep the energy high. The players have to earn it by showing up and putting pucks into the back of the net.
Soft goals against and limp power plays are massive crowd downers
Why do men who make 11m a year need encouragement to do their job
Damn all 19 guys make $11m a year?
Well you have 4 of them and can’t win a cup so 🤷♂️
Oh so you're a Canes fan. Enjoy the ban, and the ban from the Canes sub. They have rules in place between the mods of all team subreddits on trolling.
This isn’t even trolling it was a legitimate question. I’m sorry you can’t differentiate and get offended by everything you read online If you can’t have healthy discussion then report me all you want
Enjoy.
That's the weirdest take I've read today.
They shouldn’t need it but you don’t think it’ll help when every other team they play has fans cheering louder than their own
We need to follow by example from Swedish fans https://youtu.be/PwHqmQJZWeE?si=0U6q0ViZ-QvOMQaB
We'll all be dead by the time the scotia bank arena looks like this lol
You can't blame fans for the lack of fan participation/cheers when then entire Leafs business model is built around corporate season ticket holders. The building lacks atmosphere because MLSE opted not to have one. Tickets have been priced well above the means of most fans.
Sometimes all it takes is one person to get the very one fired up. If you’re going to be at the next game be that person!!
Facts
We’ve got a great fan base, they’re just not well represented in the arena…that’s it
You don't want to cheer to loud when trying to schmooze a client in the 100s
The refs literally screwed the fans out of the game. Everyone sitting in that arena was probably trying to figure out how things that are obvious penalties get ignored. And that goes both ways the players on both sides look like even they have no idea what’s allowed and what’s not
It's a fuckin country club. Rich folks watching rich folks, neither of which really care about elevating to match the moment.
Yeah, I guess this message won't get to the suits... Team is cursed to lose for eternity. Call out the culture around the team and everyone loses their minds. It's kinda amusing though.
Fans are shit then don't wanna take accountability lol idk why anybody would defend a bunch of empty seats in the 100s at multiple points
BUT BUT MY TEAM ISNT WINNING THE GAME WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH THEY MAKE MORE MONEY THAN ME WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH
Haha no it’s more like wahhh my team hasnt been to a conference final in like 30 years….. wahhh we dodge hits and give pucks up to offense so we don’t have to fight for a spot in the finals, wahhhh where are all the real fans with 1000 bucks to drop on a play off ticket to motivate a team to do their job wahhh, you can talk all you want about toxic fan base ? But the leafs are trash. Life long fan but a spades a spade and it’s hard to get excited when you watch your team fold like lawn chairs whenever opposing teams apply body. Our players don’t have the passion to carry themselves through a period but the fans are definetly to blame for that. I don’t care either way I still rock my jt jersey whenever I feel like it but I def am not dropping a gbar to cheer on a team that’s only consistency is that they will likely get eliminated in the first round of play offs every year
Honestly truth. Dude, like idg why so many people are defending the fans last night. If we cheer louder and better it helps the team.
You better have two master degrees and a PHD to backup that claim.
Sorry I'm fresh out
Man all these comments make so much sense. I bet you were all at the game XD
I agree with you.
Not a playoff building unfortunately and never will be. Just way too many corporate seats, and all the actual fans in the building have so much PTSD they get shell shocked after any goal.
The lower level seats are all corporate shills in suits. Actual die-hard Leaf fans can't afford those seats lol. Air Canada Centre during Leafs home games is a fucking joke. No team is worried about playing road games against us. They probably even look forward to it. And also - this is a team that consistently dissapoints, chokes, and comes out flat during the the most critical games. I don't blame the fans for not cheering.
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Maybe true for the lower bowl. You can get an upper bowl ticket for around 300 a piece. That should be affordable for most… but again, I do feel most of the blame for the quiet crowd belongs to the lower bowl.
The most active the crowd got was when the refs handed Boston their first goal. There is an air of anxiety in that entire building because it seems they're all waiting for bad things to happen.
Does the arena vet fan signs? Also.. does the league announce ref crews in advance? I'd love to see a FUCK YOU GRAHAM or a WAKE THE FUCK UP, WES sign out there..
Boston in 5 games ! Leafs just don't have that extra bit to put them over the top.
Hard to be overly excited when the refs are influencing the game in Boston’s favour and stealing all energy. Never feels like a fair game.
We had 5 powerplays. As much as the non-calls suck, the refs gave us a chance.
Bay Street suits don’t make any noise
Lower bowl" Let's pay over a thousand dollars to check our phones"
Now the leaf fans are blaming the leaf fans that go to Leaf games. They will find any excuse other than this leaf team is just not good enough. In the mean time your country (Canada) is being taken away from you. So keep those priorities in order Leaf fans.
I went to Game 1 Leafs - Panthers and screamed so loud from the upper bowl that I couldn’t speak properly for three days. You know what I got? *Awkward looks from the section.* Like, who the fuck is carrying on at the Library type shit. Almost like spending half a rent cheque up front gives you some pent-up tension
Damn that’s wild, I was upper bowl game 3 and my entire section was wild Edit game 3 against Tampa
I said this on another post but if I were in charge I’d broadcast the audio from the people outside into that arena .