Weird Suggestion From An Old Hockey Writer

The Aug 25th column of Toronto Sun's hockey writer Al Strachan provided an interesting topic in an otherwise quiet Raptorland . In his column the man the Raptor Nation now called Weirder Al suggested that the Maple Leaf Sports And Entertainment (MLSE) , the owner of both the Maple Leaf hockey and Raptors franchises , kills the basketball franchise to boost the Leafs. ! He said ' to dump that money losing operation known as the Raptors to lower the hockey ticket price by 10% '. How Weirder Al arrived at that conclusion puzzles me in as much as MLSE is a private company and such no financial records are available . He further added that ' the building is half empty when the Raptors team play and no one outside Toronto cares about the Raptors . Again , Weirder Al ignores the fact that the only NBA team outside the US is no.11 in NBA attendance at 17,000 people per game .

Basketball fans in Canada always get this occasional ' basketball bashing ' . One time a popular Canadian writer put the number of Raptors fans at 20,000 or something as if they are minimal and they don't matter . This was at the height of the team's popularity when the Vince Carter led Raptors battled the 76ers to a 7 game playoff . These old hockey writers cannot accept anything besides their Maple Leafs . They seem to live in a time warp when there is nothing on TV , radio and sports talk show but hockey .Well , I've got news for these dinosaurs. Basketball is now as popular as hockey amongst the Canadian youth of today . That's the demographic that the advertisers cater to . Al 'Sipowich' Strachan should stick to hockey related topics in his writings .


Naismith : Al , it's now year 2006 .
NYPD Blues is off the air ! Wake up