Quote:
Originally Posted by JHikka
The most interesting thing about Montreal's consistent support of these two events is that they're annual international events where there is very limited, if any, Canadian representation in the field. People give Toronto a hard time for not backing Canadian events but Montreal will support international events when they won't come out in similar numbers for Canadian events. I'd almost say that Montreal has more of a fetish for globalized events than Toronto.
I don't know...the women's friendly in Winnipeg in June had double the people turn out than the men's friendly in Montreal the same week. Toronto had triple Montreal. 
Montreal has routinely drawn lower than expectations for a number of FIFA events in Canada. Outside of the 2007 U20s where attendance was quite good they were later outdrawn by Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Vancouver (and nearly Ottawa) in the 2014 U20s and 2015 Women's World Cup. It's become pretty obvious that the hierarchy for hosting in Canada, at least in the eyes of CSA, is something like Toronto = Vancouver > Edmonton. If it's a sole friendly event featuring a Canadian National Team Montreal is likely further down the list below a few others. |
There are other things you fail to consider but that enter into it. There is a long-standing malaise in Quebec with respect to the Canadian sports system (worse in some sports than others, but often it touches the national team sports) with a perception that there is an ingrained hostility to athletes from Quebec and francophones. Rightly or wrongly (and true or not) this affects interest in and support for these teams here. There may be a few more now but historically there were hardly any members from Quebec (sometimes none) on the national teams in rugby, soccer, and some other sports.