Cathal Kelly: The Raptors will never rule Toronto

[right between the eyes]

Nielson ratings are so outdated. As we've all mentioned countless times, if they looked at other ways of watching the games(Streaming...) other than just TV we would have stronger #s. Also in the 1st round of the playoffs last year we did better than American NHL games on TV in terms of ratings so they're has been progress of late. At the end of the day the fact that the Raps are on so many different networks hurts us. We also play at the same time as this country's main sport. The growth in TV #s will take time as our fanbase is so young so to say it will never surpass hockey is a little ridiculous.

[EFF3KT]

I think he/she is underestimating our growing multicultural population who have clearly been the prime supporters of Raptor Nation. I mean, just look at Jurassic Park.

[power works]

What he really means is that the Raptors will never be as popular as the Leafs when it comes to middle-aged white men above 40....you know the demography that never heard of Drake.

[timdunkit]

Nielson ratings are so outdated. As we've all mentioned countless times, if they looked at other ways of watching the games(Streaming...) other than just TV we would have stronger #s. Also in the 1st round of the playoffs last year we did better than American NHL games on TV in terms of ratings so they're has been progress of late. At the end of the day the fact that the Raps are on so many different networks hurts us. We also play at the same time as this country's main sport. The growth in TV #s will take time as our fanbase is so young so to say it will never surpass hockey is a little ridiculous.

Or league pass for that matter.

Also, Canadian sports media has always preferred Hockey over Basketball and at times gone down to treat basketball like trash.

With Rogers getting the NHL contract andif Bell decides to step up it's Raptors coverage, it would be interesting to see how those numbers pan out after 5-8 years.

[HangTime]

Most Raptors fans are very young and can't afford as much as a leaf fan.

Also, Rogers (and Bell, I think) allow you to legally stream the game for free, I would think those help rating.


A lot of Raptor fans have to resort to other ways of watching the game.

The Raptors could very well take over the city, it may take 30-50 years, but it's still possible.

When the older leafs fan pass on, the raptor fans will show up.

[HeartBreaking]

Is Cathal a female or male name?

why do people watch hockey when they can't see the puck? f*** hockey

people who watch hockey can track the puck pretty damn well

[Narjee]

[ATLTimekeeper]

I think he/she is underestimating our growing multicultural population who have clearly been the prime supporters of Raptor Nation. I mean, just look at Jurassic Park.

I won't say anything about racial demographics, but Jurassic Park was just a symptom of a winning team in Toronto. When the Leafs made the playoffs they filled Dundas Square to watch games. When the Jays were doing well, the dome was breaking MLB attendance records. There's a lot of money in this city and the downtown is safe and easily accessed by transit.

Kelly is right that the Raptors will never rule Toronto. The Leafs have been around for 100 years, their tickets are unreasonably expensive and their season's tickets are unobtainable. They've already proven that fan interest doesn't dwindle with horrid play. Can't say the same for the Raptors.

[CoachJReturns]

Play some Raptors games on basic cable channels and not TSN 2 etc... and ratings will improve. Put them on CBC and ratings will skyrocket. Finding what channel a Raps game on is annoying as hell.

[Chriscross]

He is right, the Raptors will never outdraw the Leafs

Imagine if the Leafs ever received a competent team...

[ATLTimekeeper]

If Canada Basketball started competing for medals, the tide might turn. If the Raptors won multiple championships, the tide might turn. The Raptors being relevant isn't going to do anything but allow MLSE to gouge fans.

[OvertimeNO]

Did any of you ripping on Kelly actually read the article? He's not celebrating the hegemonic nature of hockey in Toronto or Canada. If anything, he's mourning it.

The NBA is the most friendly of the big four sports to immigrants. Aside from soccer, it’s the world’s most cosmopolitan sport. It’s simpler to follow, expects less cultish adherence from its followers.

Basketball is the sport of the Toronto we imagine we live in now, or certainly will in 10 years. We want to believe in that city.

But a city does not adapt to its citizens; citizens adapt to their city. In our imaginative public spaces, we need to agree on a common rallying point. The Leafs have been providing that for nearly a century. That’s too much history to overcome.

It sucks and it's true.

[I hate pod 6]

What was the point of the article?

I don't think anyone thought the Raptors would be more popular than the leafs. Hockey is the most popular sport in Canada and the Maple Leafs are the most valuable for a reason, despite how **** they are.

Raptors popularity is growing across Canada which is all that matters.

[Rhettmatic]

It sucks and it's true.

I find people often underestimate the speed of change.

I'm not saying it will happen but look at what Toronto was 50 years ago. We have no idea how things are going to shift over the next generation or two.

[Shantu]

The fact that the city is having this convo is an amazing thing....this was unthinkable 10-15 years ago...let's see what happens in 10 years as per TL's prediction.

[Troubadour]

This thread is funny. If he said the Raptors are on track to take over Toronto, you'd all be up in arms about how he's the greatest sports writer in Canadian history.

He's written that, too. The guy is habitually hyperbolic.

His worst article is the ego and id of Andrew Wiggins. He wrote a bad poem and called it a newspaper article.

[Korr]

Odd time to bring this up considering the Leafs are winning right now...

All things equal, Leafs will be bigger than the Raptors, we know that. But if Leafs get shut out of the playoffs for a few years straight while the Raps make it in, I think the sentiments will shift.

[OvertimeNO]

It sucks and it's true.

I find people often underestimate the speed of change.

I'm not saying it will happen but look at what Toronto was 50 years ago. We have no idea how things are going to shift over the next generation or two.

I'm not arguing that things won't change. Some things do. But there's also the nagging concern that the sort of things we think are transformative still end up co-opted. At the risk of reducing things to super-simplistic terms: that this city is still very much run by an old rich white guy sport is a pretty good analogy for the fact that this city is still run, by and large, by old rich white guys. Hell, the last mayor who was voted in to finally represent the interests of the heretofore unrepresented, was still an old rich white guy. Maybe he drank Tims instead of cocktails at a golf club, but contextualized in the entire history of the city, he is, more than anything, more of the same.

[Hoopstarr]

This gif is going to rule r/NBA this year

[Meursault]

lol at this article as i lol in hindsight at the lack of foresight from the following individuals (all of whom accomplished more in life than Cathal Kelly has or ever will):

"What, sir? You would make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks? I pray you excuse me. I have no time to listen to such nonsense."
- Napoleon Bonaparte to Robert Fulton, upon hearing of the latter's plans for a steam-powered engine.

"I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning."
-Lord Kelvin, engineer and physicist (c. 1890)

"Atomic energy might be as good as our present-day explosives, but it is unlikely to produce anything very much more dangerous."
-Winston Churchill (1939)

"I watched his countenance closely, to see if he was not deranged ... and I was assured by other senators after he left the room that they had no confidence in it."
- U.S. Senator Smith of Indiana, after witnessing a demonstration of Samuel Morses's telegraph (1842)}

I have nothing against Cathal Kelly personally - what annoys me is that there is not one ounce of humility in his writing, and if anything, the arrogance in which he tries to state "facts" and predict future phenomena as inevitable or guaranteed warrants the effort in this post to call him out as an idiot.