Mediocre and Lethargic Sports Entertainment (MLSE)

[beautifulgamer]

I find it very difficult to get excited about a new team run by Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment given how they've run the Leafs and Raptors. Football fans like all sports fans base much of thier love of their team on their dreams of championships. It will be difficult for new Toronto fans to have that dream given how insipidly MLSE has pursued glory in hockey and basketball. And that's a shame given how many other long-standing barriers there are to soccer succeeding in the "international" city...:eek:

[toronto_soccer]

i agree. and there is very little interaction with fans. the raptors interact with fans due to the nba rules. i would be more optimistic if toronto mls was owned by rogers.

[Captain Canuck]

i agree. and there is very little interaction with fans.

This statement isn't accurate at all with respect to the MLS team. I can personally attest to that.

As for the thread starter, perhaps he prefers things as they were before with the last-place Lynx and the Hartrell ownership?

[Toronto Red]

Gees guys,

Give it some time to get up and running.

The momentum is going to pick up over the next year so lets just slowly build our excitement. We have this far determined that it is moving ahead slowly and we have a had a new development today to help bring it on. vote for your team name and wait with baited breath!

Once we see the stadium starting to rise the anticipation will grow and all the commuters in Toronto will have a visible commercial that something interesting is happening. Think of all the publicity around the CNE in August!! The toronto Indy, all the folks going to Ontario Place, the team will advertise itself!!

Let it breathe. We, the fans, will make this exciting.

[Breakwood]

I also disagree with the fan interaction. So far I have had more personal interaction with MLSE about the MLS team, then I have from any other professional sports teams, be it the Raptors, Leafs, or Jays. Now of course MLSE is going to try and make money, but in order to do that, they will have to please the soccer community, what is wrong with that?

[beautifulgamer]

Gees guys,

Give it some time to get up and running.

The momentum is going to pick up over the next year so lets just slowly build our excitement. We have this far determined that it is moving ahead slowly and we have a had a new development today to help bring it on. vote for your team name and wait with baited breath!

Once we see the stadium starting to rise the anticipation will grow and all the commuters in Toronto will have a visible commercial that something interesting is happening. Think of all the publicity around the CNE in August!! The toronto Indy, all the folks going to Ontario Place, the team will advertise itself!!

Let it breathe. We, the fans, will make this exciting.

Seriously guys, are we really interested in "fan interaction"?

Are we really interested in "publicity"?

The interaction and the best kind of publicity comes from passion and a real bond with a team.

I grew up a Leafs fan but will not have anything to do with them or MLSE until they get real...

I have to repeat my self: fans dream :) of championships.

And the big problem with MLSE is that they use the fans' own dreams to string them along--but they never deliver...

I'd like to see them do differently with the Toronto MLS franchise but that will only happen if they have a parallel philosophy shift with the Raptors and Leafs.

By the way, today's firing of Pat Quinn was a good start. They should fire Ferguson too for the numerous mistakes he made (though perhaps the Board that runs the team realizes that they themselves had a hand in those decisions).

[zacRWE]

They made me happy when they brought Douggie Gilmour back!!! :cool:

[beautifulgamer]

They made me happy when they brought Douggie Gilmour back!!! :cool:

Dougie was awesome.:) A real champion...

Did you guys read Perkins Lunatics (http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1145569813079&call_pageid=968867503640&col=970081593064&t=TS_Home) article in The Star?
:D

I am not alone...

[Captain Canuck]

I grew up a Leafs fan but will not have anything to do with them or MLSE until they get real...



You must be quite young then & have grown up after the Ballard era ended. Anyone who lived through the Ballard era would recognize how much more real MLSE is compared to those days when Ballard would deliberately cost us great chances at the Cup through being cheap.

Not that any of this has much to do to Canada's MLS team of course, but then neither does the original post.

[warthogfutbal]

I'm not a fan of MLSE


Reason 1 = the Maple Leafs - old, slow, fragile and inconsistent;
Reason 2 = the Raptors - no heart, little talent, no fight in them;
Reason 3 = profits before pride.

Reasons 1, 2 & 3 are all management based; coaches not unlike chef's can't make chicken salad out of chicken sh!T. Management (includes coaches and scouts) put the players in the respective uniforms. Few, if any Leaf/Raptor players really earned/deserved their pay this past season and they should be thankful that MLSE can only see and assess on past glory rather than learn from hindsight and rely on foresight.

So now MLSE says soccer is their next venture.

So what, it's MLSE and I'm guessing - anticipating that they'll appoint local soapdodgers to run the operation - CSA/OSA has-beens and never could-bee’s in their homeland - to lead the charge off the field. Favours owed/due and petty politics will greatly influence who plays and who doesn't. Regardless, MLSE will offer peanuts and the que from Bay Street to Vaughan gets longer.

Now if MLSE appoints someone of Brian Colangelo's pedigree (new Raptors President & GM) specifically someone with a proven track record of building a successful team, i.e. the Phoenix Suns, but with MLS experience that can step up and direct the soccer operation, then I would get excited.

That first technical hire by MLSE will tell so much of how they intend to administer and promote soccer. That decision is what I'm really looking forward to. I'll still be at that first game in 2007 and maybe a handful of others but ultimately I think my MLS experience is going to remain attending games in other MLS cities in which I have opportunity to visit.

Unfortunately, I remain skeptical as Peddie, Ferguson and Mitchell still have their jobs with MLSE.......

I could care less of the team name, team colours, team logo.....it's typical MLSE crap - sell the sizzle not the steak.

I would appreciate quality off-the-field and on-the-field. A competitive team that wins a couple, losses a few close ones but has the capacity and character to show up and compete in every game.

[Toronto Red]

I'm not a fan of MLSE

Reason 1 = the Maple Leafs - old, slow, fragile and inconsistent;
Reason 2 = the Raptors - no heart, little talent, no fight in them;
Reason 3 = profits before pride.Reasons 1, 2 & 3 are all management based; coaches not unlike chef's can't make chicken salad out of chicken sh!T. Management (includes coaches and scouts) put the players in the respective uniforms. Few, if any Leaf/Raptor players really earned/deserved their pay this past season and they should be thankful that MLSE can only see and assess on past glory rather than learn from hindsight and rely on foresight.

So now MLSE says soccer is their next venture.

So what, it's MLSE and I'm guessing - anticipating that they'll appoint local soapdodgers to run the operation - CSA/OSA has-beens and never could-bee’s in their homeland - to lead the charge off the field. Favours owed/due and petty politics will greatly influence who plays and who doesn't. Regardless, MLSE will offer peanuts and the que from Bay Street to Vaughan gets longer.

Now if MLSE appoints someone of Brian Colangelo's pedigree (new Raptors President & GM) specifically someone with a proven track record of building a successful team, i.e. the Phoenix Suns, but with MLS experience that can step up and direct the soccer operation, then I would get excited.

That first technical hire by MLSE will tell so much of how they intend to administer and promote soccer. That decision is what I'm really looking forward to. I'll still be at that first game in 2007 and maybe a handful of others but ultimately I think my MLS experience is going to remain attending games in other MLS cities in which I have opportunity to visit.

Unfortunately, I remain skeptical as Peddie, Ferguson and Mitchell still have their jobs with MLSE.......

I could care less of the team name, team colours, team logo.....it's typical MLSE crap - sell the sizzle not the steak.

I would appreciate quality off-the-field and on-the-field. A competitive team that wins a couple, losses a few close ones but has the capacity and character to show up and compete in every game.

Wow! don't set any high expectations or anything.

Give MLSE a chance before you tag them. The Leafs aint so bad. this is first year I can remember that we didn't have a competitive team and even this year we are victims of the new cap system in many ways.

I hear what you are saying but if it wasn't for MLSE, there would be no soccer and no stadium!! What do you want, to be Man U, Liverpool, Barcelona, AC Milan right off the bat?

Reputation and reward are earned over time, not necessarily in the first year. If it happens early, great, but you shouldn't expect too much. The team will have never played together; players, the team and the fans won't be truly in sync for a few years.

All we can ask for is 100% every game from the players and if they lose trying, then that's fine by me. Hopefully we can build the team steadily over the first few seasons. There are a few very good teams in MLS that will be difficult to overcome. namely DC, Houston and LA. At the moment.

Every franchise is striving for what you desire.

[TorontoFC_Fanatic redded]

Maple Leafs sports and entertainment do a great job runing the Leafs (SENS fan here folks) although they should make a better effort with the Raptors.
MLSE can't take soccer fans for granted they way they do with the sad sack followers of the hockey time, soccer fans are smater then that, but then
again a stick is smarter then you average Leaf fan. IF MLSE run the soccer team proper the fans will support it , otherwise>>>?

[TorontoFC_Fanatic redded]

Dougie was awesome.:) A real champion...

Did you guys read Perkins Lunatics (http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1145569813079&call_pageid=968867503640&col=970081593064&t=TS_Home) article in The Star?
:D

I am not alone...


Perkins is a assh**e

[beautifulgamer]

Maple Leafs sports and entertainment do a great job runing the Leafs

If you define "running" as marketing and revenues then you are absolutely correct.

However, when you consider how much money their marketing of their teams brings in and if you believe that "running" a team should be measured in championships or atleast genuine attempts at championships, then it must be said that they do a poor job of running a team that so many Torontonians hang their hopes on.

One only has to look at the mess they got themselves into with Owen Nolan. They should never have acquired him in the first place.

I think that the Leafs and Toronto FC can only benefit from strong criticism from the press and fans. Maple Leaf "fanatics" are actually part of the problem: they pay good cash and devote inordinate mental energy to something that is devoid of soul. MLSE (and its teams) is a shell of shells, with no life inside...

...yet

Who knows? Perhaps they'll change their ways.

But they'll have to show me something first before I'll become a fanatic. And I wont be looking at Toronto FC for my first indicator. They've set up shop in what is still a managed league. It's hard to imagine the American MLS giving free lisence to a swash-buckling MLSE.

So I'll be looking to the Leafs and Raptors to see if the MLSE has evolved into something more than a well run business. There may already be indications of that with the Raptors hiring of Colangelo and the Leafs hiring of Paul Maurice.

Let's see who Toronto FC hires and acquires and if they dare to win championships in a closed-shop league...

[CanadianRef]

I agree with Captain Canuck, the Leafs were always basement dwellers when it came to the standings pre MLSE (Ballard era).

MLSE is not the devil people make it out to be. I liked the Leafs during the Quinn era (pre lockout) as they were one of the few teams that played entertaining hockey and didn't try to play the trap (I yawn just typing that word in...).
The Raptors are experiencing growing pains. Every franchise goes through a stage like this. The Raptors were competitive a lot sooner than their Canadian cousins, the Grizzlies. I know they've had a rough past couple of seasons but remember when the Bulls and the Lakers seemed invisible?

I really think Toronto FC should be given the benefit of the doubt. I worry about the effect of naysayers in the pro soccer camp who instead of doing good for the community will turn people away (whether anti MLSE or anti MLS).