The year 2017 will be the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the organization has huge plans to celebrate the teams centennial. The Leafs want to host the 2017 editions of the Winter Classic, NHL All-Star Game and NHL Draft.
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Sportsnet’s Luke Fox reports that Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment CEO Tim Leiweke wants the team to host all three events to celebrate the history of the Leafs and to show off the Toronto facilities all at the same time.
“It’s not a splash. I just think Toronto—it’s our 100th anniversary, and this is the greatest hockey city on Earth. I think we owe it to our fans. And we’re telling the league that they owe it to our fans,” Leiweke said. “They don’t disagree, but we’ve got to go through a process to win it. I think we’ll win it. I think we’ll get there. But we got to go bid on it.”
The idea of hosting multiple events in a year is not a farfetched plan as the the NHL awarded the All-Star Game and NHL Draft to the Montreal Canadians when they turned 100 in 2009. The problem with the Leafs plan is that there isn't a realistic stadium that could host the Winter Classic.
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The Rogers Center, home of the Toronto Blue Jays and Argonauts, would be an ideal location for the event, but it isn't available for the time frame of the classic. BMO Field, home of the MLS’ Toronto FC, is a backup plan but the stadium is no where near large enough to host an event of such scale.
Tornoto is also the favorite to host a potential World Cup of Hockey in 2016, but the event hasn't been confirmed to be returning as of yet. If the Maple Leafs can solve the Winter Classic dilemma, they will more than likely be hosting the trifecta of events to celebrate their 100th year as a franchise.
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