Fan Base
Maple Leafs home games have long been one of the toughest tickets to acquire even during losing seasons. Maple Leaf Gardens sold out every game from 1946 until the building closed in 1999. At ACC, the Leafs sold out every game since October 2002. As of 2008, there was a waiting list of about 2,500 names for season tickets. With an average of US$1.9 million per game, the Leafs had the highest average ticket revenue per game in the 2007–08 season; the previous season they earned about $1.5 million per game. Support for the Maple Leafs extends outside Canada. In the United States, several cities in the Sun Belt have sizable numbers of Leaf fans, since many Snowbirds visit warmer locales such as Phoenix, Tampa Bay, and Miami during the winter, boosting ticket sales when their franchises play the Leafs.
Maple Leaf fans are loyal despite poor rewards—in a 2008 survey by ESPN The Magazine, the Leafs were ranked 121st out of the 122 professional teams in the Big Four leagues. Teams were graded by stadium experience, ownership, player quality, ticket affordability, championships won and "bang for the buck"; in particular, the Leafs came last in ticket affordability.
Conversely, fans of other teams harbour an equally passionate dislike of the team. In November 2002, the Leafs were named by Sports Illustrated hockey writer Michael Farber as the "Most Hated Team in Hockey".
A large number of Leaf fans live in the Ottawa valley and in the Niagara region. As a result, Leafs-Senators games at the Scotiabank Place in Ottawa and Leafs-Sabres games at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo are more neutral (50–50) due to the large influx of Leaf fans, due in part to those cities' proximity to Toronto and the relatively greater ease in getting tickets to those teams' games (particularly in Buffalo, where fan-friendly ownership kept ticket prices relatively low).
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