Toronto, Canada is one of North America’s worst locations when it comes to the performances of its professional sports franchises. The NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1967 and haven’t even made it to a final series since then. The NBA’s Raptors have won a total of one playoff series in their history and the Blue Jays of MLB haven’t made the post season since 1993. Still all of these clubs are more successful than soccer team Toronto F.C of MLS. They haven’t made the playoffs since they joined the league.

It can easily be said all of these teams are pretty bad, but there’s also another common thread now since the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto F.C, and Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League (AHL) were all recently sold. Canada’s top two telecom companies, Bell and Rogers, joined forces and bought 75 per cent ownership for a total of $1.32 billion from previous owners MLSE (Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment). Rogers already owned the Blue Jays and now the telecom giants have a monopoly on Toronto sports teams as well as the telecommunications market.

MLSE was funded by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and they confirmed sales of the sports franchises as well as the Air Canada Centre, where the Leafs and Raptors call home. Rogers already owns the Rogers Centre, home of the Blue Jays and Bell has an 18 per cent stake in the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens, who play out of the Bell Centre. The other 25 per cent of the former MLSE stocks are owned by Larry Tanenbaum, who had first refusal on the shares that were sold.

The sale still has to be approved by the various leagues, such as the NHL, NBA, and MLS and the Canadian government’s Competition Bureau also has to approve it to make sure the sale doesn’t result in a substantial prevention or lessening of competition. Bell also owns TSN, which is one of Canada’s biggest sports networks while Rogers owns the Sportsnet channels which is it fiercest rival. The two companies now have to sort out some type of deal to see which network shows which games. The 66 Raptors contests this season will all be shown on one network or the other.

However, when it comes to the Maple Leafs, which is the NHL’s most valuable franchise, the broadcast deal might not be so easy to split up since both networks view the team as their golden egg. Bell and Rogers also own competing radio stations, but all of the current contracts involving the teams have to be honoured until they expire.

The announcement of the sale had been rumoured for a few weeks, but most fans and journalists wondered aloud how two of the nation’s top rival companies to come to an agreement. Both Rogers and Bell reportedly paid $533 million each while Tanenbaum’s previous stake of about 21 per cent was raised to 25 per cent in a separate deal.  The sale will allow the new owners to broadcast its franchises’ games on a variety of media devices, such as mobile phones and Xboxes.

The sale doesn’t mean the teams will necessarily improve and as one journalist put it, “It just means I can now watch their lousy teams on more electronic devices.”

The Toronto Raptors can’t win at home and they can’t win on the road, but there’s nowhere else for them to play. Maybe that’s why they jumped at the chance to cross the Atlantic Ocean to play a pair of games against the New Jersey Nets in London, England, on March 5 and 6. It came as no surprise to Raptors fans that they lost both games. However, losing the second game 137-136 might have been cause for some sort of celebration after losing the opener 116-103.

The Raptors might want to consider moving over to England permanently as they may draw bigger crowds than they do in Toronto. The Raptors and Nets pulled in close to 19,000 for each contest at the 02 Arena in London, while Toronto sits 17^th in total attendance in the NBA. In fact, the Raptors have suffered at the gate at their home arena, the Air Canada Centre, quite a bit lately.

The club is only selling about 83 per cent of available tickets and this has forced it owners to drastically reduce ticket prices and to start a series of special nights and promotions to draw fans. This is almost unthinkable and unheard of in Toronto, since the Raptors are owned by Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment Limited (MLSE), which is one of the biggest money-grabbing organizations in all of sports.

MLSE is actually owned by the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Fund and is known the world over for gouging as much money as possible from its team’s fans. Not only do they own the woeful National Basketball Association’s Raptors, the group also owns the Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL and Toronto FC of Major League Soccer (MLS). All three teams have the same thing in common. They’re awful, don’t make the playoffs, and charge some of the highest ticket prices in their respective leagues.

The worst of the bunch is the Maple Leafs, who haven’t won a championship since 1967. They haven’t made the playoffs for the last five years, yet their average ticket prices are the highest in the National Hockey League. Toronto FC hasn’t made the playoffs at all since joining MLS in 2007 and they also charge among the highest prices, higher than most English Premier League clubs.

The average price for a Raptors ticket is $64, but MLSE has been offering them for as low as $12.50 in some instances and this can’t sit well with them. The lack of fans though, is in relation to the team’s performance on the court. Frankly, they’re horrible. But Toronto isn’t known as a basketball city. Most fans attend games to see the visiting teams play, not the home club.

The Raptors weren’t always a lousy team. They made the playoffs in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2007 and won their division in 2006-07. That’s a total of five times since joining the league in 1996-96 and they were knocked out in the first round on four of those occasions. They’ve had a winning record in just four out of 15 season and sit 13^th in the Eastern Conference this season with a 17 and 46 record as of March 7.

MLSE is having a hard time shifting Raptors tickets. And if there’s one thing MLSE hates it’s actually having to make an effort at putting fans in seats, especially at discounted prices. If the team doesn’t improve drastically next season, expect the Raptors to volunteer playing games in London every season.