This season, Toronto FC have declared that this April should be known as "Supporter Appreciation Month" as a way to give thanks to the TFC fans that have stuck with the team through the small hills of positives, and the deep crevasses of negatives. On the surface, it looks like a goodwill gesture from the organization to the long-suffering supporters of the club, but if you peel back the onion, this "Supporter Appreciation Month" only reinforces the fact that there is a damaging disconnect between Toronto FC, the supporters, and the interaction between them. Despite the claim that Toronto FC appreciates their supporters, the actions they have taken this April are negatively affecting the already toxic relationship between them and their supporters. I have 3 specific examples that I hope can back up my argument.
Before I present these examples, I have a couple of remarks about TFC implementing this "Supporter Appreciation Month". First of all, why is this only for a month? For all the garbage TFC supporters have endured since their first season in 2007, TFC should be making a note to appreciate what's left of their support every single day of the year. Toronto FC should consider themselves lucky that they still have individuals who still have an interest in this team, so they should be thankful for what they still have. The second remark I have is that Toronto FC are stupid to have this "Supporter Appreciation Month" on a month where there are no TFC home games. They are trying to remedy this by hosting viewing parties at the home pubs of supporters groups across the city, but TFC should have attempted to make a meaningful contribution at the place where TFC supporters congregate together, and that is BMO Field. So now, here are my examples.
This April, as construction was nearing completion on the BMO Field expansion (which happened to be over-budget and behind schedule), talks were heating up between MLSE and the Toronto Argonauts to have the Argos play at BMO Field for their CFL season in the near future. Obviously, TFC supporters are irate that a football team should be allowed to play in a soccer-specific stadium (as evidenced by the #NoArgosToBMO hashtag on Twitter), and what better way to appreciate TFC supporters than to basically guarantee that the Argos will play at BMO Field at some point. It's clear that the Argos playing at BMO Field will devalue Toronto FC as a property and as a destination for players, whether it is damage to the pitch, or the chance that there will be remaining football lines by the time Toronto FC plays. Many supporters have stated that they will stop supporting Toronto FC if the Argos move in, and it will be interesting if these supporters will hold true to their words.
As part of "Supporter Appreciation Month", Toronto FC have "rewarded" their supporters with a completely meaningless friendly on May 27 against Manchester City. Now, it is widely known that Toronto FC's mid-season friendlies are nothing more than a blatant cash grab for MLSE, but what makes this specific friendly particularly useless is the fact that this friendly will come after Manchester City's season. Does MLSE really think that Man City players will relish coming to play in Toronto after an exhausting regular season? No, they won't. What makes this friendly even worse is that tickets for the match are (in true MLSE fashion) ridiculously expensive. The cheapest tickets for this match are around $50-$60, and they aren't even included in the season ticket package. The timing for this friendly is not good, either. This match comes in between two crucial regular season matches for TFC, which will limit their rest time and preparation for those matches. This friendly further reinforces the belief that MLSE cares more about blatantly lining their pockets, as well as exploiting the team and their supporters, than building a team that can compete in the MLS playoffs, with minimal distractions.
Also this April, Toronto FC have launched a "Banner Contest" in which people can draw up an idea of a banner to be displayed at a TFC home match. People can submit their digitally-created banner to the Toronto FC website where others can vote on it. The person whose banner gets the most votes gets to actually create their banner idea with a supporters group and have it displayed at the TFC home match against Portland.
Toronto FC hosting this "Banner Contest" is a bad idea and there is something disingenuous about the entire thing. The club should not have any involvement with the operations of the supporters groups, and frankly, this banner contest reaffirms the fact that the entire TFC experience is becoming more sanitized. Of course TFC are going to reject the banner ideas that are more realistic of the club as a whole, and instead, choose a banner that will be family-friendly and unrealistically positive. The fact that a supporters group is involved with this "official" contest is incredibly disappointing. Support for this club needs to be organic and natural, and contests like these create the impression that the club is manufactured and fake.
Another thing with contests like these is that they open themselves up to trolls who can submit their banners with hidden messages about the club. That exactly happened when Columbus Crew submitted this entry to the contest. Read the first letters of each line of text.
In case you didn't notice, it reads "WE SUCK" vertically on the first letters of each line. Toronto FC initially didn't catch the hidden message, and they even promoted that specific banner on all of their social media accounts! It was incredibly embarrassing for TFC and its supporters, and the fact that they didn't see the hidden message at the beginning made them look very bad. Apparently, Crew fans have another banner submission in the contest with another hidden message in it.
So, lets recap. How are Toronto FC "appreciating" supporters this month? By prolonging the Argos to BMO Field discussion (making it closer to a confirmation), announcing a pointless friendly, and hosting a bogus, manufactured contest. These actions taken by the club are only alienating and embarrassing the fans who follow and live vicariously through them. If Toronto FC are not careful, their support will dwindle further.
"Supporters Appreciation Month" can be chalked up as a TFC failure. As much as the club wants to spin this as a success, this initiative has backfired on them, big time.
