In Toronto, Bureaucracy is Everything

The Maple Leafs are currently a hapless joke, but their fans still love them. Well, most of them anyway. But the city could do without the many promotional stencils the team has left all over the sidewalks.

Some found them charming:

They appeared at the start of the season and, frankly, were a nice touch superimposed on an often grim landscape. Whenever I walk down Front St. with kids, they always take cheerful note of the blue icon and "Spirit Is Everything'' slogan. That club is part of this civic culture, no matter how brutal the on-ice product. Some view such slavish attachment as quasi-psychotic. I think it's endearing.

While others, specifically city officials, found them in violation of ordinances and had between 25 and 50 of them removed.

"There's no third-party advertising allowed on public sidewalks,'' explains Angie Antoniou, of the traffic services department. "You can't deface public property. We don't want sidewalks to become advertising space and this would have set a bad precedent.

"It's unfortunate that it's the Toronto Maple Leafs. We are supportive of our sports teams but the sidewalks are for public use.''

And that's fine. As popular as a sports franchise may be and however much civic pride it may generate, it's still a privately owned business that should adhere to the same rules as anyone else. Unless they want to start winning, then I'm sure city hall will be willing to bend a few rules for them. Just kidding. They'd actually prefer money.

(H/T to SportsBusiness Daily)

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.