Throughout the year, some team in all major sports wins the championship. Within days of the final victory, the city of the winning team hosts a victory parade usually in the downtown core. Why?
The obvious answer, of course, is that it allows fans the opportunity to cheer on their victorious heroes and share in a celebration. Really?
Recently, the Toronto Raptors, won the NBA championship and Toronto hosted the traditional victory parade. It was estimated almost a million fans descended on downtown Toronto to view the parade and a reception for the team. From a personal point of view, there is no way I would try to fight my way to the event and have to contend with the traffic and congestion that would be caused by shutting down most of the roads in the city core for at least half a day. Subways and buses would be jammed and it would be a dogfight to get anywhere near the stage, where the event was held. Would you want to do that?
If you were just willing to find a location on the parade route, it might be a little less crowded but there would still be hoards of people. Just as in Calgary for the Stampede Parade, you would find yourself, for what could be hours, waiting for the parade to pass your vantage point. The players in the Raptor parade rode on the top of buses or trucks waving at the thousands of spectators. Within five to ten minutes the parade would have passed and you would then be required to try to escape downtown along with thousands of others. Sound like fun?
Those “blessed” with a standing location in front of the stage would then witness a rather boring couple of hours of introductions of players, team staff, owners, and league officials. Be still my beating heart! My observation is that nothing really meaningful happens as most professional athletes are not known for their eloquence or carefully articulated speeches. Is this rather mindless exhibition worth attending?
As hoards of readers prepare to chastise my perspective as being curmudgeonly and lacking team and city spirit, I defend myself by asking what is the cost of this non event. When a major city shuts down its core, all businesses and schools generally close as well. Can we afford to let the 80% of children who don’t attend the parade miss school for this rather lame reason? I don’t think so! What are the clean up costs of sanitizing the downtown area after hours of intentional and unintentional litter? Thousands of taxpayer dollars!
Let’s face it - a championship celebration is an unnecessary event. The victory has been won, the parade is a boring drag, and the whole thing could have just been a televised event from a TV studio! For the millions who watch pathetic reality TV shows already, a televised studio based Victory Party would fit right in. Bah! Humbug!
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