Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
You can correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think that exists in the GTA. Talking to friends in places like Hamilton, there’s no sense of “rivalry” with Toronto. They’re all Leafs fans and stoked to be Leafs fans even if they live an hour away. It’s like putting another Alberta team in Lethbridge… nobody really cares. They’re all Edmonton (or less so: Calgary) fans anyway and sure, they’d cheer for the most local team, but there’s no real advantage to going there.
You’ve also randomly listed a bunch of teams that are super far away from each other, so I might be missing your point. But Toronto/Hamilton is a poor comparison to almost every other two teams you mentioned there.
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Actually, it isn't. Hamilton fans just haven't been presented with a serious NHL alternative to the Leafs. In fact you'd be finding a relative amount of Buffalo and Detroit fans in Hamilton too.
Even with the Rangers/New Jersey/Pittsburgh/Philly examples, if only one of those teams existed (e.g. the Rangers) then fans of NHL hockey would more than likely align with a regional team. The fact those cities (and you can include NYI and Washington in that equation now) are now parsed into micro-regional NHL team means fans have choice.
I suspect if, for example, the Devils never existed, those fans would be divided between the Rangers and Philadelphia. Having their own team created a new option for them.
I suspect the same alignment would happen with the GTA. I don't know about Markham having the gravitas to separate Leafs fans out of that base (although I think there's still a big market for that), but you would most certainly have that if the team was placed outside the GTA in a place like Hamilton but still in the Golden Horseshoe. There's as many people in Hamilton as Winnipeg (and growing fast), there are already different pro sports teams from TO (Ti-Cats, Forge, Honey Badgers, and even the Toronto Rock (which is oddly named as TO but probably for marketing purposes)).
Regional fans do align. It's the same why you see many Saskatchewan folks fans of Edmonton and Calgary, Inner BC with the Canucks, and Atlantic folks with Montreal or Toronto.
IronMaiden said it - Hamilton fans would drop the Leafs at a moment's notice.