[Craic] Reflections on past and future of spectator sports and the proposal to build a new baseball stadium in Toronto

[Greg Gillis]

Thank you Bob, what a history lesson in the evolution, decline, and perhaps
complete change to the way in which  we will watch sports in the future in
a corporatized and digital world.

Greg


On Sun, Nov 29, 2020 at 1:48 AM Bruce Budd via craic <
craic at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:

> What a wonderful, thoughtful commentary. Thanks Rob.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Nov 28, 2020, at 11:52 PM, Rob Anderson via craic <
> craic at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:
> >
> > I thought the Craicers might enjoy this.
> >
> >
> > Paul,
> >
> > No doubt all of us who attended Basilian high schools remember the
> emphasis on sports whether that was hockey in Canada or football in the
> States.  When I attended Aquinas Institute in Rochester, we had all the
> sports, including Mission bouts with boxing and a big program in football.
> The proposal to build a new stadium in Toronto brought me to reflect on the
> past and future of spectator sports.  I am thinking my reflections will
> resonate with many of the community who receive your emails.
> >
> >
> > Some thoughts with respect to building a brand new baseball stadium in
> Toronto or anywhere else for that matter.
> >
> > 1.  Professional Sports Venues
> >
> > Cathal Kelly, sports columnist for The Globe & Mail, predicted a few
> years ago that professional sports in the future might not even need a live
> fan base in the stadia.  High resolution in the comfort of a favourite
> armchair would be the ticket.  Covid may have hustled along that forecast.
> As well, it is not certain where spectator sports will find its place after
> this upending pandemic.
> >
> > Before Covid when my wife and I still lived in Toronto, I passed our
> local sports bar and noticed at least 30 guys all huddled together.
> Pitchers of beer on the table along with mountains of fries.  Were they
> watching hockey or baseball? No...they were divided into 2 large teams
> playing some kind of a competitive digital game.
> >
> > Not that long ago, my grandfather was on a committee in 1950 that
> approved the building of an 8,000 seating capacity stadium for Aquinas,
> home to the Little Irish football team that represented our Basilian high
> school.  Through the 1950’s and even into the early 60’s, Aquinas played
> high school teams from Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo.  TV, of course took
> its toll on attendance by 1955, and by 1965 Aquinas’ Don Hollander stadium
> was demolished.  Horse tracks, bowling alleys, rodeos, and prize fights
> were also popular in my youth.  Mostly all gone with changing times and
> other interests.
> >
> > A few other thoughts.  Pro sports reliance on corporate season tickets
> and outrageously expensive box seats may not be so popular with the public
> in the future.  Citizens too may balk at financing these venues with what
> will inevitably be diminished municipal funds.  And will media advances
> create more thrilling experiences than can be had with in person attendance?
> >
> > 2.  The Future Fan Base for Spectator Sports
> >
> > As for spectator sports fans, lukewarm interest from our son’s
> generation followed by zero interest from our 4 grandsons of the next
> generation.  It’s all computer gaming.  One guy has a modest interest in
> weight lifting.  Two other grandsons played water polo and also took up
> competitive biking for a while. Neither of their fathers watch any sports
> at all preferring to go kayaking or golfing in one case. The other
> son-in-law lifts weights but mostly heads up to build his cottage whenever
> he has time.
> >
> > The father-son bond with Hockey Night in Canada and the long tradition
> that I enjoyed of generational male bonding over baseball have both
> weakened.  In my case, I was fascinated at any early age by my
> grandfather’s stories about his going off to the Polo Grounds in NYC to see
> Christy Mathewson pitch.  He took me several times to Cooperstown to pay
> homage to the legends of baseball. When I took our son there, he was
> creeped out by all the American Boy Scouts who swarmed the place.  I tried
> our son on baseball cards too, but that never took either.  Come to think
> of it, I still have his cards. Maybe a Don Mattingly rookie card in mint
> condition is hiding somewhere in the basement.
> >
> > My grandfather and I also went to countless Rochester Red Wing ball
> games. We walked several miles to and from the stadium.  One time we even
> saw Satchel Paige.  He must have been in his 50’s.  Gramp and I played
> “pitch” in front of the house on many summer evenings.  My pals and I were
> always rounding up guys for a ball game at the local diamond.  On an almost
> daily basis in the cooler weather my pals and were playing street football
> or street hockey or shooting hoops.  Don’t see much of that anymore.
> >
> > Basketball was my favourite.  In those days, the Catholic grade schools
> even had teams.  In high school, I would go to the Aquinas football games
> in that aforementioned high school stadium built for 8,000 fans.  Rochester
> had an NBA franchise with the Rochester Royals and an AHL team with the
> Rochester Americans...NHL calibre hockey.  I went to many of those Amerk
> games and followed their fortunes with avid interest. Add to that my
> devotion to the Cleveland Browns, the Boston Celtics, the Brooklyn Dodgers,
> the Chicago White Sox and, of course, Notre Dame football.  The Irish ended
> Oklahoma’s 49 game winning streak with a squeaker.  Sweet!  And I was over
> the moon when the Dodgers with Johnny Padres finally beat the Yanks in 1956
> for the World Series title.
> >
> > When it came time to go to university, I wanted to go to Villanova or
> St. Bonaventure because I was a college BB fan, and these were my favourite
> teams.  At Bonaventure, I attended many college BB games, but I left the
> school before the arrival of Bob Lanier who took the team deep into the
> March Madness.  No memories of sporting events in 1964-65 when I was in the
> Basilian novitiate at Pontiac.  Wouldn’t you know, that blank year was the
> year when Jimmy Brown finally led Cleveland to the championship.
> >
> > How about collecting baseball and football cards in my pre-teens and
> graduating to betting on games starting with the NFL and baseball parley
> bets when still quite young.  My buddies and I would make private bets as
> well.  My wager that Willie Mays would hit more homers than Mickey Mantle
> netted me $45 which Mr. Effinger, who drove us to many a ballgame, invested
> in a stock called Canadian Marconi.  Years later I found the certificate
> for 10 shares and sold it for $450.  That bet took my wife and I and the
> kids to Cape Cod for a week’s vacation!  Ah, the thrill of a sports bet!
> >
> > So, playing sports and watching sports and betting on sports games were
> warp and woof of childhood through the teenage years.  As an adult, on to
> the Habs and the much beloved Expos not to mention the Jays, NFL, Match
> Madness and the NBA.
> >
> > 3. The Waning of Spectator Sports Magic
> >
> > But the magic started to wane with too many games, too many expansion
> teams, loss of loyalty, too late in the year and too long playoff seasons,
> catastrophic athletic injuries, commercial saturation, Luke’s Troops for
> hockey, Don Cherry’s nasty commentary, military fly-byes and the
> entanglement of uber-patriotism.
> >
> > Covid has taken even more stuffing out of the bird.  Options such as
> Netflix and YouTube emerged to serve up a daily distraction and are now an
> evening staple in many households. As for the gambling fix, I confess that
> I prefer following the market fortunes of Blackberry rather than
> considering a Giants-Packers wager.
> >
> > On to new immigrants.  I go over to the fields at our local
> universities, Wilfred Laurier and U of W, and I see the students playing
> cricket or soccer.  Others are playing unique handball games. As I watched
> my grandsons’ water polo matches from the spectators’ gallery at Wilfred
> Laurier, I notice that the air is loud with the sounds of people speaking
> Russian as so many of the parents are from Eastern Europe.  Who knew water
> polo was their game?
> >
> > Hockey has now become a sport for well off kids from Toronto rather than
> from Northern Ontario.  Costs a fortune to enrol and the schedules for
> practices and games cripple parents’ weekends.  Ask our friend with 3 avid
> young hockey players about that one.  A few years back, Nora and I went to
> a McDonald’s and overheard a personal coach “interviewing” a parent to
> determine whether or not he would work with the 12 year old kid.  I bet
> that deal cost many, many thousands.  Forget minor hockey if you don’t have
> the bucks.
> >
> > All said and done, spectator sports has been such a great part of my
> life.  How sad I was to see that Whitey Ford, Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson had
> recently died.  I saw all three of them pitch brilliant games.  But what is
> it with our world? Too much of everything, too bloated, too hyped!  And
> that “too much” syndrome has certainly infected pro sports.
> >
> > Still, I sense a big loss with the 2 generations that are following the
> footsteps of those of us who grew up in the 40’s and 50’s.  Exciting sports
> moments crystallized in venerated memory.  Relationships forged over shared
> thrills, esp at a live event with the winning runs on base, the launch of
> the Hail Mary pass or an overtime goal.
> >
> > Thousand and thousands of villainous foes killed in video games played
> in solitary isolation of parents’ basements pales in comparison!
> >
> > Even so, yet another corporate sports venue suggests some careful
> thinking about where our culture is headed in the 2020’s.  If, despite the
> risks, big money and civic calculus deem it must be so, a scaled down
> “baseball park” might well suit the temper of the times.
> >
> > Bob
> >
> >
> >
> >
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