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The largest minor hockey city in the country doesn't have a showcase facility to call its own.
And that's wrong and it's sad.
The more you travel outside Toronto, the more you realize just how rundown and outdated and unspectacular the majority of both private and public facilities are in this city.
Last weekend, the minor hockey team I coach travelled to Rochester, a city of barely a quarter-million, for an out of town tournament. All the games were played in one giant four-plex of an arena, equipped with restaurant, bar, pro shop, bright lighting and a food court.
And the question inevitably was asked: Why doesn't Toronto have anything like this?
The year before, our team travelled to London, Ont., a city of maybe 400,000, for another tournament. Those games were played at the Western Fair four-plex, and we were fortunate enough to play the championship finals on an Olympic sized sheet of ice.
The question again was raised: Why doesn't Toronto have anything like this?
The only real usable multi-rink arenas in Metro Toronto are the privately owned cookie-cutter facilities named Chesswood and Westwood and Ice Sports and Ice Gardens. These are fine for what they are, but they are nothing special. And they are hugely expensive.
And while taxpayer dollars at federal, provincial and municipal levels have pumped all kinds of money into projects of little or no value in this city there hasn't been a new municipal arena built here in more than 27 years.
The entire city has changed. The arenas, some of them refurbished slightly, remain the same. Dark. Dingy. Out of date. Singular.
If you wanted to hold a big-time minor hockey tournament in one showcase facility in this city, you'd have to cross the borders of Metro and head into Mississauga or Vaughan or Pickering or Richmond Hill.
They have spectacular facilities. Toronto has old.
"Politicians in this country seem adverse to doing anything about Toronto," said John Gardner, the president of the Greater Toronto Hockey League, who is hoarse from all his years of screaming about arena troubles in Toronto.
Gardner tried to get a facility built in Downsview but was pushed aside in the name of another project that never got off the ground. "I'm going to endeavor to start it up again," said Gardner. "I'm not sure what the politics are there but it's a natural place for a major facility."
In Sweden, for example, the federal government will commit 50% to a recreational facility when the local community will commit the other 50% and the operation of the building.
"The facilities are excellent in Sweden," said Gardner, who just returned from a trip to Europe with the Markham Islanders minor midget AA team. "We were knocked over by some of the buildings we saw."
The dreary rinks of Toronto knock no one over. Not when you see what else is out there. Not when you see a city this hockey rich being this arena poor.
"Look at what (Mayor) Hazel McCallion has done in Mississauga. She's made sure the facilities kept up with the growth in population and they have some of the best recreational centres around. She took a proactive position and it paid off for her community.
"Here, it's a pretty bleak situation. And when you talk to local politicians about it all you get is lip service. But when you look at the social benefits and health benefits of kids who participate in sport you can make a case for more facilities, for better facilities."
Frankly, Toronto should be embarrassed by what it has and morseo by what it doesn't have.