Can confirm: Amateur sports in Canada just aren’t what they could be.

Down the road a ways, the Belleville Bulls lost their OHL team 10 years ago. Pretty storied franchise, but it only had 60 hard-core fans who went there every game by the end. Belleville got the Senators farm team a few years later and unless they are playing the Toronto Marlies, or a lesser extent the Laval Rocket: It always feels like a ghost town. A few families but mostly local realtors and insurance salesmen trying to think they’re a big deal. This is occasionally NHL-adjacent-quality hockey for goodness sake.

I can schlep up to the Queen’s Gaels baseball games and watch them for free at a public park. Even their football team’s games at Richardson Stadium are only like $25 for the golds, and rarely sold out (8,500 cap).