Bottom line is top priority for FC

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment make earning a profit look easy; winning, not so much.

The Argonauts were founded in 1873, the Leafs have been in the NHL's since its inception in 1917. Both the Blue Jays, 1977, and Raptors, 1995, provided brief boosts to a sports community that had remained relatively the same for over 50 years. Both new teams attracted fans, expanded the sports market, and helped the city make a name for itself in the North American sports industry.

At that point, pretty much every pro-sport on the continent had a team based in the city, but who would have thought that not only was there room for one more, but that there was a huge vacuum to be filled when it came to soccer.

Not only did the Toronto FC, the first non-American team to join Major League Soccer, sell-out their first season, but MLSE, the clubs owner and operator, have just announced that seasons tickets for 2008 have already sold out to their maximum 16,000 seats. For a club that had a dismal 6-17-7 inaugural season, it's incredible that they've already got such a dedicated following, and beyond that, averaged the leagues third highest attendance at 20,130.

But for the average fan, it's bad news. Tickets to a game during that first season averaged just over what you would pay for a seat in the ACC to watch the Raptors play, which while well below the Leafs, was higher than any other sport in the city. The team's popularity has given MLSE the confidence to do what they do best: Raise ticket prices, and by 13 per cent. The cheapest seat at BMO Field to watch TFC play in 2007 would put you back $15, so that's only an increase of just under $2 per seat. But for the more expensive seats, like the $195 red section, that amounts to a $25 increase, which isn't pocket change if you're taking the whole family.

Of course there's a second component, and that's availability, because once those season tickets are taken out of the mix you're left with a paltry 4,000 single game seats per game for a team that is expected to sell out within the first few weeks after sales start.

If, as happened to me last year, you wanted to buy seats to a game in June, you'd have to snap them up in late March. And if everyone who missed out last season has learned their lesson, it may well be that Toronto FC may become the second hardest ticket to get in Toronto.

What we're stuck with is another operation turned golden at the hands of MLSE, an organization that just can't seem to fail when it comes to making pro-sports profitable, but struggles when it comes to creating a competitive team.

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