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Would Vancouverites and Torontonians reacted the same way? (Two situations)

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Interesting question.
 

Pretty hard to tell since, with all due respect to the Lions, C’s and Whitecaps, the Canucks are the only major team in town.  The Grizzlies were such a catastrophically bad team that isn’t much to go on.  Basketball is pretty popular with youth in particular so an NBA title would probably be pretty wild... and personally I still remember those Jays wins. Might be sacrilege on these boards but Alomar and Carter are right up there with Bure and Linden for me.
 

If another major sport won a title I think it would be at least on par with the “almost” Canuck teams... though a SC win would still trump all by a pretty big margin.

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3 hours ago, NewbieCanuckFan said:

Imagine if the Aquilini's owned the Whitecaps.  They wouldn't be 'selling' players for transfer fees & pocketing a good chunk of the money themselves.

 

People can get on the Aquilini's case all they want but you can never accuse them of not putting money back into the team (and then some).

Oh I can, we have the leanest front office in the nhl. So he is definitely cheaping out in getting quality people to give Jimbo a smack on the noggin. 

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8 hours ago, ilduce39 said:

Interesting question.
 

Pretty hard to tell since, with all due respect to the Lions, C’s and Whitecaps, the Canucks are the only major team in town.  The Grizzlies were such a catastrophically bad team that isn’t much to go on.  Basketball is pretty popular with youth in particular so an NBA title would probably be pretty wild... and personally I still remember those Jays wins. Might be sacrilege on these boards but Alomar and Carter are right up there with Bure and Linden for me.
 

If another major sport won a title I think it would be at least on par with the “almost” Canuck teams... though a SC win would still trump all by a pretty big margin.

Oh definitely!  (With regards to a Stanley Cup win).    Vancouver and Toronto would be absolutely similar in this regard if any one of these cities won a cup (ie the players and personnel of these cities becoming the biggest legends of the cities).  That’s not up for debate at all.  
 

What I think is debatable however, is the following:

 

Toronto = non champion hockey players > champion baseball and basketball players.

 

Vancouver = champion baseball and basketball players > non champion hockey players.

 

Vancouver would embrace their non hockey champions as the biggest legends of the city while Toronto has continued to embrace Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark as the biggest legends of their city despite the Raptors and Blue Jays having won championships.  I think Vancouver would have acted differently.

 

Most Vancouverites = Blue Jays > Mariners > other MLB baseball teams

 

whereas I think Toronto would have been.... Buffalo > other baseball teams
 

 

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17 hours ago, DarkIndianRises said:

He’s a god in TO but he’s not held in the same regard as Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark over there.  Atleast from I see/saw.   In Vancouver however, I think Carter would easily be our most revered hero if Carter had hit that homer for a Vancouver MLB team.

I think maybe for people who were around to see Joe hit the HR he is, but you could be right overall. I've been a Jays fan since day 1 so I might be biased. 

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8 minutes ago, Jimmy McGill said:

I think maybe for people who were around to see Joe hit the HR he is, but you could be right overall. I've been a Jays fan since day 1 so I might be biased. 

I was around to see Joe hit the homer as I was 12 years old at the time.    Maybe it was just my experience, but when I lived in Toronto from 2013-2015, the impression that I got over there was that Gilmour and Clark were the “gods” over there.   While people had fond memories of Carter, Alomar, White, etc., they just weren’t on Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark’s level......which I found really odd.  
 

Carter and Alomar would be bigger than Hank, Dan, and Bure had the Jays been a Vancouver based team in my opinion. 
 

I also believe that the Toronto Sports Network and Rogers would have had an equal number of Buffalo and Vancouver MLB games had Buffalo and Vancouver had MLB teams instead of Toronto and Seattle.

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Before COVID, I lived in Toronto and I can tell you that the Raptors were just as revered than the Leafs during the Raptors championship run. Ever since the Raptors became a competitive team their popularity has been surging. 

 

You'll also notice that the crowds for Raptors and Leafs game are almost polar opposites. So while the Leafs remain to be the big ticket in town, the crowds at Scotiabank Arena look like a large gathering of white suburbia while Raptors games look like a much younger, diverse crowd. I always wondered what would have happened if the Grizzlies were a more competent team and stayed longer in Vancouver. Like Toronto, we've got a pretty large minority population, and minority kids might have been more drawn to seeing fellow visible minorities (NBA players) on the television screen rather than a bunch of white hockey players. 

 

Whenever I went to Canucks games, it was nice to see a moderate level of diversity in the crowds, but its also made me wonder whether minority kids here were drawn to hockey because it was the only prominent professional sports team in the city. 

 

At the end of the day, I'm not bothered with the differing demographics of crowds for each sport, but its been an interesting observation. 

 

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On 4/11/2021 at 5:14 PM, DarkIndianRises said:

Would Vancouverites and Torontonians reacted the same way?  (Two situations)

 

1) Both the Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Raptors have won championships and yet the Leafs are the most revered team in Toronto.   Guys like Kahwi Leonard, Roberto Alomar, and Joe Carter aren’t as revered as Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark.    If the situation was reversed however (I.e. Vancouver had an MLB and NBA team that won a world championship), do you think those teams and those players would be held in higher regard than the Sedins, Bure, Linden, etc?   By virtue of having won a championship in a major sport, would basketball and baseball eclipse the popularity of hockey in Vancouver?

 

2) Toronto has an MLB team and most baseball fans in Vancouver list the Blue Jays as their favorite team due to the Jays being a Canadian-based MLB franchise.   Most fans in Vancouver cheer the Blue Jays over the Mariners.   National Pride in this instance, takes precedence over geographical proximity.    If the situation was reversed however, and Vancouver and Buffalo had MLB teams (and no Seattle or Toronto), do you think most Torontonians would cheer Vancouver’s baseball team over Buffalo’s?   Would National Pride take precedence over geographical proximity?

 

My answers to my own questions for #1 and #2 are as follows:

 

1) By virtue of winning championships, Baseball and basketball will have superseded hockey for a short amount of time in Vancouver, in terms of its popularity, but this popularity would once again be surpassed by hockey if the teams from these sports were unable to keep their winning ways.   So in other words, baseball and basketball will have superseded hockey (unlike in Toronto), but only for a short amount of time.  Having said that, guys like Alomar, Carter, and Kawhi Leonard would be considered bigger legends in Vancouver than Smyl, Linden, Bure, and the twins by virtue of having won (unlike in Toronto where Gilmour and Clark are still the two biggest sporting legends in TO).  
 

2) I think most Torontonians would support Buffalo over Vancouver If Vancouver and Buffalo had MLB teams while Toronto didn’t.   It wouldn’t even be close in my opinion.   I’d say 90-95% of baseball fans in Toronto would gravitate towards Buffalo over Vancouver.

I think when it comes to pro sports Canadians are primarily hockey fans. 

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Most sports fans in Canada are hockey fans from what I can tell.  Some of those like Baseball and some like basketball. I live in Ontario and most people here could care less about the Jay's. The Raptors are more popular but I'd still say they would be lucky to have 1/3 of the fans the Leafs do.

 

So to answer your question Hockey is still King in Canada.

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On 4/12/2021 at 11:29 AM, NewbieCanuckFan said:

I"m probably in the minority but MLB has been dead to me when the Expos owner pulled a Michael Heisley (though I was happy for the Blue Jays win).  In a similair vein, same with the Raptors (eg., the whole Grizzlies fiasco).

Baseball is just as boring as cricket brother.

Would rather watch grass grow or paint dry.

 

BASEketball on the other hand rules.

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On 4/12/2021 at 1:58 AM, AlwaysACanuckFan said:

When I was in school I knew many fans were Bulls fans

Same for the brief stint I did in a Vancouver school bulls were the main team even with the grizzlies being there. That said was good to get a lot of free tickets to see the grizzlies 

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On 4/20/2021 at 10:39 AM, Ilunga said:

Baseball is just as boring as cricket brother.

Would rather watch grass grow or paint dry.

 

BASEketball on the other hand rules.

Test cricket can be dry, but one day is pretty good to watch and whilst I am not a fan of T20 I get the appeal of it. 
 

tbh I’ve watched a similar amount of cricket to baseball live in person (handful of games (Fenway park & dodger stadium for baseball and Chester le street, Trent bridge & Edgbaston for cricket)

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23 minutes ago, UKNuck96 said:

Test cricket can be dry, but one day is pretty good to watch and whilst I am not a fan of T20 I get the appeal of it. 
 

tbh I’ve watched a similar amount of cricket to baseball live in person (handful of games (Fenway park & dodger stadium for baseball and Chester le street, Trent bridge & Edgbaston for cricket)

Sorry Brother I just can't handle the ennui those sports generate in me.

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