Swapping blades for cleats in Scarborough

[Richard]

Swapping blades for cleats in Scarborough

Soccer has rapidly displaced minor-league hockey as the community's sport of choice. Gone are the glory days of shinny, wrist shots, power lessons - and dreams of making the NHL, reports Peter Cheney.

[FutureStarCSL]

haaha, thats good to hear!

[TFC07]

Old news really. Hockey is dying in Toronto/GTA while basketball, soccer and even cricket is taking over Toronto. Hockey probably has about 10 years left in Toronto before it becomes a small time sport that only rich white kids play. It would be interesting to see how Toronto media adjust to this change. They have been too pro-hockey for a long time now that has pissed off a lot of other sports fans (especially basketball/raptor fans).

[Bertuzzi44]

quote:Originally posted by TFC07

Old news really. Hockey is dying in Toronto/GTA while basketball, soccer and even cricket is taking over Toronto. Hockey probably has about 10 years left in Toronto before it becomes a small time sport that only rich white kids play. It would be interesting to see how Toronto media adjust to this change. They have been too pro-hockey for a long time now that has pissed off a lot of other sports fans (especially basketball/raptor fans).

Wow seriously? Small time sport?! Here in Metro Vancouver I'd say hockey is alive and well. My last year playing Juvenile hockey there was maybe 8 teams in tier 1 'A', but today it is like 14 or something, with many more teams in other tiers as well.

I also couldn't join the 8-rinks rec league because it SOLD OUT!

The Canucks have been sold out for 6 years. The WHL Giants are also doing well.

I guess TFC & the Raptors, plus the Laffs sucking is having quite an effect!

[SouthAfricaOrBust]

quote:Originally posted by TFC07

Old news really. Hockey is dying in Toronto/GTA while basketball, soccer and even cricket is taking over Toronto. Hockey probably has about 10 years left in Toronto before it becomes a small time sport that only rich white kids play. It would be interesting to see how Toronto media adjust to this change. They have been too pro-hockey for a long time now that has pissed off a lot of other sports fans (especially basketball/raptor fans).

hahaha.. that's a little exaggerated.

[SouthAfricaOrBust]

Try to find ice time in T.O. these days...

[Toronto MB]

Was I the only one that thought this thread was going to be something like you hear about programs with NBA teams in the states? Trade in your guns for 76ers tickets or something?

I thought this was going to be the Scarborough-based police offering free cleats to people turning in their knives.

Oops.

(And before you attack my insensitivty to Scarborough, I played my youth soccer out there for most of my teens, so I'm half joking)

[theaub]

I thought the exact same thing

[Keano]

quote:Originally posted by TFC07

Old news really. Hockey is dying in Toronto/GTA while basketball, soccer and even cricket is taking over Toronto. Hockey probably has about 10 years left in Toronto before it becomes a small time sport that only rich white kids play. It would be interesting to see how Toronto media adjust to this change. They have been too pro-hockey for a long time now that has pissed off a lot of other sports fans (especially basketball/raptor fans).

While you're exaggerating, it is happening. As for your musing about the media, well, they are rich white kids, so there's your answer...

[TFC07]

quote:Originally posted by Bertuzzi44

Wow seriously? Small time sport?! Here in Metro Vancouver I'd say hockey is alive and well. My last year playing Juvenile hockey there was maybe 8 teams in tier 1 'A', but today it is like 14 or something, with many more teams in other tiers as well.

I also couldn't join the 8-rinks rec league because it SOLD OUT!

The Canucks have been sold out for 6 years. The WHL Giants are also doing well.

I guess TFC & the Raptors, plus the Laffs sucking is having quite an effect!

No offence, but don't compare Toronto to Vancouver. Funny you mention junior hockey because all OHL teams in GTA can't even sell a ticket. In fact, some Toronto FC fans are force to buy Toronto Marlies tickets if they want to buy TFC tickets.

A lot of Toronto Maple Leaf fans aren't even real hockey fans. A lot of them just support Leafs due to their history.

No, I am not exaggerated. I remember reading a stat that states that non-whites (blacks, asians and east indians) will make up majority of Toronto's population by 2018. A lot of non-whites (blacks, asians and east indians) don't even like hockey and rather play basketball and/or cricket instead.

[TFC07]

quote:Originally posted by Keano

While you're exaggerating, it is happening. As for your musing about the media, well, they are rich white kids, so there's your answer...

Believe it or not, but some people in media are noticing this change including Mike Tool (Toth)

Catching up: http://www2.sportsnet.ca/blogs/mike_toth/2008/04/02/catching_up/#more

[ag futbol]

quote:Originally posted by Bertuzzi44

Wow seriously? Small time sport?! Here in Metro Vancouver I'd say hockey is alive and well. My last year playing Juvenile hockey there was maybe 8 teams in tier 1 'A', but today it is like 14 or something, with many more teams in other tiers as well.

I also couldn't join the 8-rinks rec league because it SOLD OUT!

The Canucks have been sold out for 6 years. The WHL Giants are also doing well.

I guess TFC & the Raptors, plus the Laffs sucking is having quite an effect!

I'd take his statement with a grain of salt. Hockey is still extremely popular within Toronto and even more so in the surrounding areas.

The Leafs, while they do suck have more than enough loyal fans. Leafs games still draw 3x higher ratings than the average raptors game. However, the growth of their fanbase is stagnant. The crowds you see between the leafs/raptors could not be more different. Interest in Hockey as a spectator sport for the younger generation (and for more recent canadians) is not very high.

Combine that with minor hockey being expensive and you have an easy decision a lot of parents make to look to another sport.

[Vic]

Funny, I remember the Scarborough United teams 25 years ago as being a lot more dominant than the ones now.

[Vic]

I can't take any of those Sportsnet or TSN guy's seriously. They're the Mary Hart/Ben Mulroney people magazine version of sports journalism, and they do more to cheapen and degrade sport than reveal it's greatness and beauty.

[Bertuzzi44]

Which GTA OHL teams can't sell any tickets? (honastly I don't know)

Also, I thought the Marlies were minor pro, not Junior.

[L.T.]

Toronto's team (St. Mike's) played out of an old barn and barely drew flies, Melnyk (owner) moved them to Mississauga and the Ice Dogs moved to Niagara. Depending on what you consider GTA, we now have teams in Brampton & Mississauga - and from what I understand, neither draws very well...

[Bertuzzi44]

Toronto continues its transformation to an american city...[]

[squizz1402635577]

quote:Originally posted by TFC07

Hockey probably has about 10 years left in Toronto before it becomes a small time sport that only rich white kids play.

We're not there already?

[Soro17]

Here in Vancouver there are three notable trends, which somewhat parallel the trend in Scarborough, at least as far as minor hockey participation goes:

1. In the last 20 years the changing ethnic composition and the decreasing number of kids in the city of Vancouver has seen the amalgamation of South Van Minor, Kitsilano Minor and Kerrisdale Minor to form Vancouver Thunderbirds, while Brittania Minor, Grandview Minor, Hastings Minor and Killarney Minor have formed the Vancouver Spirit (a truly shameful name for a hockey association).

2. Elite private clubs in the suburbs (North Shore Winter Club, Burnaby Winter Club, Hollyburn (perennial whipping boys back in the day) and Seafair (same as Hollyburn) now dominate. Parents move from out of the province to play at these clubs (Drayson Bowman on Team USA at the World Juniors moved from Colorado to play at NSWC). Local, public minor hockey associations are not able to compete.

3. As stated above, there is a waiting list to join beer leagues - adult hockey is extremely popular. I am fortunate enough to be able to have the privilege of paying $10k a year to enter my team at 8 Rinks.

As far as trends in soccer participation in Vancouver, I will leave it to the experts on this forum to analyze.

[TFC07]

quote:Originally posted by Bertuzzi44

Toronto continues its transformation to an american city...[]

Since when Americans like soccer and cricket? []

[TFC07]

Here's another interesting article (even though it's couple months old) about this issue:

Hockey is dying in T.O.

quote: Imagine a time in this city when most kids don't start off their Saturday mornings by donning skates and taking to the ice.

A time when hockey pales beside soccer and cricket and basketball. A time when Canada's national game is dying a slow and painful death.

Now, imagine that time is now.

Not in Toronto, you say. Not here, in the home of the Maple Leafs, the centre of the hockey universe that has raised the likes of Syl Apps, Ken Dryden and Kevin Weekes.

But what used to be a Canadian rite of passage for most Toronto boys -- and, increasingly, girls as well -- is in grave danger because this city's demographics have changed and the old guard in the amateur hockey world have been too slow and set in their ways to reach out to new immigrants.

"Right now, it's seen as a white sport," says Ken Jeffers, manager of access and diversity for City of Toronto parks and recreation.

"When we look at kids born here from parents who come from warm countries, hockey is not part of their experience. It's not part of their world, the players are not seen as their heroes.

"But they need to be introduced because it is the Canadian sport and it's a great catalyst to bringing people together."

He was instrumental in launching "Hockey in the Neighbourhood" about eight years ago, a program that each year helps several hundred kids from diverse communities discover hockey for free.

But it's not enough.

According to John Gardner of the Greater Toronto Hockey League, only 40,000 kids are registered at some level of hockey out of the 950,000 children under the age of 14 in the GTA.

The situation is most dire in Scarborough where plummeting enrolment has seen the Wexford Hockey Association fold completely as well as the house leagues of the Scarborough Young Leafs, Agincourt Lions and Malvern Penguins.

"House league enrolment is dropping 10% a year," says a worried John Kelloway, president of the troubled Scarborough Hockey Association. "Back in the mid-80s, we had 10,000 kids. Now we have 3,000."

The situation is dire, he says, because it took so long for the old establishment to recognize that outreach was critical to new Canadians, especially with so many traditionally hockey-playing families moving out of the GTA. "The Scarborough Hockey Association has done a lousy job of appealing to those communities and getting them involved," Kelloway admits. "The old farts like myself have been so set in our ways. But if we don't change, the competitive side of the Scarborough league will die."

Tonight, he says, they are meeting to discuss the drastic action they should have taken long ago. They plan to completely restructure so that there is just one house league, greatly reduce registration fees by as much as 30% from the current $420 and seek professionals to help them reach out to ethnic families.

"We have a selling job ahead of us," Kelloway says.

And Scarborough is not alone. Some house leagues in North York have also collapsed and others are in trouble.

Gardner of the GTHL acknowledges the problem, but the league's sole solution at this point is a plan to print and distribute brochures in four different languages.

The problem is that even if these kids do want to play, registration and equipment can easily top $700 -- out of reach for many new immigrants struggling to establish themselves, not to mention most working class Torontonians. And beyond house league, the costs soar well over $1,500.

"I'd love to let everyone come for free," says the GTHL president, who complains Toronto hiked ice rates by 10% this year. "Unfortunately, the city does nothing to help us in that regard."

The danger, they all agree, is that hockey is becoming only a sport that rich, white kids can afford to play.

That concerns New Jersey Devils' goalie Kevin Weekes, who grew up near Christie Pits with parents originally from Barbados who both worked long overtime hours to afford his hockey dream.

"Costs have risen so dramatically that there's a bunch of us who have said there's no way any of us would be playing in the league now," he says. "We came from working class backgrounds and it was a stretch for our parents then. Now, it's just too cost-prohibitive and for new Canadians, it's even more of a challenge."

He tries to do his part -- for years he ran and funded Skillz, the hockey program he attended as a teen which coaches players from diverse backgrounds. And, just this past summer, he was at the Wellesley Community Centre with Philadelphia Flyer and Regent Park-native Glenn Metropolit to donate 110 sets of kids' hockey equipment from the NHL Players' Association.

He doesn't think the GTHL or Hockey Canada is doing enough to keep costs down and reach out to visible minorities. "I am definitely worried a lot of kids will say, 'I'll play basketball. Hockey is just a rich man's game.' That's the perception," Weekes says, "and to some degree, that's the reality."

With hockey days in some parts of Toronto soon to be just a memory.

Source: http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/michele_mandel/2008/10/27/7216281-sun.html

[snake]

quote:Originally posted by Soro17

Here in Vancouver there are three notable trends, which somewhat parallel the trend in Scarborough, at least as far as minor hockey participation goes:

1. In the last 20 years the changing ethnic composition and the decreasing number of kids in the city of Vancouver has seen the amalgamation of South Van Minor, Kitsilano Minor and Kerrisdale Minor to form Vancouver Thunderbirds, while Brittania Minor, Grandview Minor, Hastings Minor and Killarney Minor have formed the Vancouver Spirit (a truly shameful name for a hockey association).

2. Elite private clubs in the suburbs (North Shore Winter Club,

Burnaby Winter Club, Hollyburn (perennial whipping boys back in the day) and Seafair (same as Hollyburn) now dominate. Parents move from out of the province to play at these clubs (Drayson Bowman on Team USA at the World Juniors moved from Colorado to play at NSWC). Local, public minor hockey associations are not able to compete.

3. As stated above, there is a waiting list to join beer leagues - adult hockey is extremely popular. I am fortunate enough to be able to have the privilege of paying $10k a year to enter my team at 8 Rinks.

As far as trends in soccer participation in Vancouver, I will leave it to the experts on this forum to analyze.

wow i had no idea that minor hockey in vancouver is in such dire straights.i played minor hockey at grandview for 12 years including 2 years(off and on )with the junior b steelers.

so im guessing that riley,killarny,grandview,and the forum are no longer in use as hockey rinks?

[Soro17]

quote:wow i had no idea that minor hockey in vancouver is in such dire straights.i played minor hockey at grandview for 12 years including 2 years(off and on )with the junior b steelers.

so im guessing that riley,killarny,grandview,and the forum are no longer in use as hockey rinks?

Trout Lake is still in use, not sure about Killarney. Riley Park has been torn down and replaced by a new rink for the Olympics. The Forum is out, but the Agridome is in use. Of the old jungle B teams, the Grandview Steelers are still around, as are the Richmond Sockeyes. The North Shore Flames moved to Maple Ridge. I have no idea what happened to the Poco Buckeroos (my old Jr. B team) or the team from Seattle.

[snake]

there used to be a team in bellingham as well

[snake]

there used to be a team in bellingham as well