Losing formula

Inside Toronto's ugly sports scene as fan frustration mounts, ticket prices rise and executive successes seem linked to profits more than team performance

- BRUCE ARTHUR, DAVE FESCHUK

You can say it's been worse. The Blue Jays once went 20 years between playoffs, which overlapped with a 13-year Maple Leafs drought that was only interrupted to blow a three-goal lead in the third period of a Game 7, which nobody had done before. The Raptors, meanwhile, made the playoffs twice in a decade, and there were many years where none of Toronto's big teams made the post-season at all. You could say it's been worse.

But it's bad right now. The Leafs have one playoff series win since 2004, after which their general manager lit a match in his office and left. The Jays are a top-10 payroll with a bottom-10 run differential and an unhappy vibe. And even the Raptors the gold standard for sports in this city - have gone from champs five years ago to an almost comically depressing season.

Stretch back further, and this is its own low point. Of the 12 cities with pro teams in the NHL, NBA and Major League Baseball, Toronto sits at the bottom with one championship in those sports in the past 20 years, tied with the James Dolanpoisoned pool of New York, and the generously booed teams of Philadelphia. Sure, Los Angeles is a different animal - six teams, L.A. weather and glitz, seven titles in that span - but more comparable markets like Boston and the Bay Area each have seven, Chicago has five, and Miami three, including the Florida Panthers' recent run to the Stanley Cup. Even sad-sack Washington and Dallas, little ol' Denver, and poor old Detroit - with no playoff series wins by the Red Wings, Pistons or Tigers in the past decade-have two apiece.

Then there's Toronto, where, to paraphrase Tolstoy, every franchise is unhappy in its own way, at a time of widespread organizational continuity. Brendan Shanahan has been running the Leafs since 2014; Mark Shapiro has been in charge of the Jays since 2015, Masai Ujiri, who brought a championship to Toronto five years ago, has run the Raptors since 2014.