Maple Leaf Gardens

• 1. The Carlton Street Cathedral

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  Maple Leaf Gardens nearly silenced Winston Churchill in March 1932. The arena's loudspeaker system failed mid-speech, and Churchill tossed the microphone to one side. "Now that we have exhausted the resources of science, we shall fall back upon Mother Nature and do our best." He continued speaking before thousands of people unaided. The building had been open barely four months. How does a hockey arena earn a reputation so outsized that world leaders, legendary musicians, and championship boxers all make it part of their story? How does a building beloved for decades also harbor one of Canadian sport's most disturbing scandals? And what does it mean when the same space that once held more than 14,000 roaring fans becomes home to a grocery store? Conn Smythe, the man who built the Gardens from scratch, began with a simpler complaint. The old arena on Mutual Street could seat only 7,500 people, and he wanted something worthy of the city.

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• 2. Five Months and Two Weeks

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  Smythe secured the Carlton and Church site in Toronto's Garden District from The T. Eaton Co. Ltd. for $350,000. The price was said to be $150,000 below market value. The architectural firm Ross and Macdonald designed a 12,473-seat arena with total capacity of 14,550 including standing room. To raise the construction money, Smythe launched Maple Leaf Gardens Limited and offered public shares at ten Canadian dollars each. Every five preferred shares came with a free common share. Labour unions accepted shares in lieu of cash wages, reducing costs further. The building contract went to Thomson Brothers Construction of Port Credit for just under $990,000. That was the lowest of ten tenders received, partly because Thomson Brothers controlled much of the sub-contract work in-house. Steelwork added roughly another $100,000. Construction began at midnight on the 1st of June 1931. The completed arena cost C$1.5 million and was finished in five months and two weeks, a pace still considered remarkable. W. A. Hewitt, sports editor of the Toronto Star, was hired as general manager to oversee all events beyond professional hockey. His son, Foster Hewitt, managed the radio broadcast facilities and would spend decades calling games from the gondola inside the building. The arena opened on the 12th of November 1931. The Maple Leafs lost 2-1 to the Chicago Black Hawks before a reported crowd of 13,542. Seven days later, professional wrestling world champion Jim Londos drew 15,800 people to the building on the 19th of November.

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• 3. Eleven Stanley Cups

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  The Toronto Maple Leafs won their first Stanley Cup under the Maple Leafs name in the 1931-32 season, the building's first full year of operation. They had claimed titles before under the names Toronto Arenas and Toronto St. Patricks, but this was the first under the Maple Leafs banner. Ten more titles followed through 1967, all of them earned on the ice at Carlton and Church. Among the milestones of those years was a 1934 game for Ace Bailey, a Leafs forward who had suffered a career-ending head injury. The NHL staged an unofficial All-Star game at the Gardens as a benefit for Bailey, and that event was the first of its kind in league history. The first official annual NHL All-Star Game also came to the Gardens, in 1947. The building was an early adopter of arena technology. In the 1946-47 season, it became the first NHL arena to insert Plexiglas in the end zones of the rink. On the 1st of November 1946, the Gardens hosted the opening game of the Basketball Association of America, the forerunner of the NBA. Toronto Huskies played the New York Knickerbockers in that contest. The franchise folded after one season, playing its last game at the Gardens on the 28th of March 1947. On the 8th of November 1963, the Gardens became the first NHL arena to install separate penalty boxes. The Leafs sold out every home game from 1946 through 1999, a streak that outlasted the era of championships. Between 1952 and 1960, the Metropolitan Opera staged several of its visiting productions at Maple Leaf Gardens.

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• 4. The Stage Beyond Hockey

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  Team Canada defeated the Soviet Union 4-1 in Game 2 of the 1972 Summit Series at Maple Leaf Gardens. That result placed the building at the center of one of Canada's most emotional sporting memories. Rock and roll had arrived at the Gardens years before, with Bill Haley and His Comets in 1956. Elvis Presley followed on the 2nd of April 1957, with two shows at 6 PM and 8 PM. They were his first concerts ever staged outside the United States. Billy Graham held his "Canadian Crusade" at the Gardens in 1955. The Beatles stopped at the Gardens on each of their three North American tours. Those dates were the 7th of September 1964, the 17th of August 1965, and the 17th of August 1966. It was the only venue to host the group on all three visits. Concert Promotions International, founded in 1973 by Bill Ballard with Michael Cohl and David Wolinksy, brought major acts to the Gardens across the following decades. Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue performed two consecutive shows on the 1st and the 2nd of December 1975. The Who's concert on the 21st of October 1976 was the final show drummer Keith Moon played before a paying audience. ABBA appeared on the 7th of October 1979, in what proved to be their last concert appearance in North America. Jimi Hendrix appeared on the 3rd of May 1969, despite being arrested for drug possession on arrival at Pearson Airport. On the 15th of September 1988, Amnesty International staged the Human Rights Now! benefit concert at the Gardens. Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band headlined, alongside Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, Youssou N'Dour, and k.d. lang. Oasis played the final concert at the Gardens on the 29th of April 2000, broadcasting the show live from the band's official website.

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• 5. The Carlton Street Cashbox

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  In 1961, Conn Smythe sold most of his shares to a three-person partnership: his son Stafford Smythe, Harold Ballard, and John W. H. Bassett. The new ownership immediately began expanding capacity. New seats were added in 1962, 1965, 1966, and 1967, pushing hockey seating to 16,485 by 1968. Smythe put it plainly: "only a young man could sit in them and only a fat old rich man could afford them." A large portrait of Queen Elizabeth II was removed to make room for still more seats. When asked why the picture was gone, Ballard replied: "She doesn't pay me; I pay her. Besides, what the hell position can a queen play?" Smythe resigned from the board of directors in March 1966 after a Muhammad Ali boxing match was booked at the building. He had said the owners "put cash ahead of class." In September 1971, Ballard and Stafford Smythe bought out Bassett. Smythe died six weeks later. In February 1972, Ballard purchased all of Smythe's shares from the estate and became majority owner of both the building and the Leafs. Ballard was fiercely hostile toward the World Hockey Association, blaming the rival league for weakening the Leafs' roster. When the Toronto Toros negotiated a lease at the Gardens in the mid-1970s, Ballard charged them $15,000 per game. He demanded a further $3,500 to turn on the arena lights for their opening night. He refused the Toros access to the Leafs' locker room, forcing them to build their own at a cost of $55,000. After two declining seasons, the Toros relocated to Birmingham, Alabama. In August 1979, Ballard ordered staff to tear down the 48-year-old gondola from which Foster Hewitt had broadcast across Canada. It was thrown into an incinerator. The Toronto Star called it "the barbaric destruction of one of Canada's great cultural monuments." The Leafs continued selling out despite years of declining on-ice performance. The name "Carlton Street Cashbox" moved from sports-page shorthand into something closer to accusation. Ballard died in April 1990. Steve Stavro, one of the executors of his will, eventually paid $34 a share, or $75 million in total, for the shares from the estate.

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• 6. The Abuse Cases

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  February 1997 was when the public first heard Martin Kruze's name. He had first approached the building's new owners in 1993 with accounts of abuse dating back to 1975. When he went public, dozens of other victims came forward in the weeks that followed. Gordon Stuckless, a Gardens employee, pleaded guilty in October 1997 to sexually abusing 24 boys, with offenses dating back to 1969. He was sentenced to two years less a day. Three days after the verdict, Kruze committed suicide. An appeals court later raised Stuckless' sentence to five years. He was paroled in 2001. Former usher John Paul Roby was convicted in 1999 of sexually molesting 26 boys and one girl. He was declared a dangerous offender and died in Kingston Penitentiary from an apparent heart attack in 2001. In 2002, former security guard Dennis Morin was found guilty of sexual assault, indecent assault, and gross indecency involving teenage boys. Several civil suits were settled out of court for undisclosed amounts. In January 2006, the Ontario government filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. The province sought repayment of its medical costs for treating victims. Stuckless died on the 9th of April 2020, after suffering a brain hemorrhage.

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• 7. After the Leafs

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  On the 13th of February 1999, the Toronto Maple Leafs played their final game at Maple Leaf Gardens. They lost 6-2 to the Chicago Blackhawks. Former Leaf Doug Gilmour scored a fluke goal in the game. Bob Probert scored the final NHL goal in the building during the third period. Canadian singer Anne Murray performed "The Maple Leaf Forever," wearing a Leafs jersey. Former players stretching back to the arena's 1931 opening gathered on the ice. A banner commemorating 13 Stanley Cup championships was brought onto the ice, since the building had never hung those banners during its hockey years. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment refused to sell the building to anyone who planned to use it as a competing arena. Eugene Melnyk, owner of the Ottawa Senators, was among those turned down. The building sat largely empty for nearly a decade. Loblaw Companies purchased the Gardens in 2004 for $12 million. The sale carried the condition that the building not be used as a sports facility. In 2009, the federal government contributed $20 million as part of a $60 million renovation project. The design brief was simple: "Create the best food store in the world." The contract went to Landini Associates, based in Sydney, Australia, chosen over mostly North American competitors. The renovation incorporated original stadium seats and a red dot on the ground floor marking centre ice. A 12-by-12-metre maple leaf sculpture made from old arena seats was also installed. The Loblaws store opened on the 30th of November 2011. Peter Gilgan, founder of Mattamy Homes Ltd., donated $15 million to Ryerson University. The athletic centre occupying the arena level was renamed Mattamy Athletic Centre at the Gardens in his honour. The first hockey game in the renovated rink was played on the 9th of September 2012. The Ryerson Rams defeated the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Ridgebacks 5-4. In 2007, the Government of Canada named Maple Leaf Gardens a National Historic Site. The designation recognized its place in hockey, sport, culture, politics, and public life. The Mattamy Athletic Centre hosted the inaugural Professional Women's Hockey League game on the 1st of January 2024. PWHL New York defeated Toronto 4-0 before a sold-out crowd.

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