We live in a strange era where the Leafs have been in a new building for over a decade-and-a-half and Maple Leaf Gardens has a new life as a grocery store. The Buds have made a few memories inside Toronto's current pro sports shrine, but expectations are high for Shanahan, Babcock and the entire Maple Leafs brass to end the franchise's Cup drought while still a tenant of the Air Canada Centre.
Toronto Maple Leafs Stadium
Toronto made the big shift from Maple Leaf Gardens to the Air Canada Centre in 1999 and they've been planted there ever since. Despite the club's miserable run of late, fans continue to pay top dollar to see Maple Leafs home games. Empty seats were spotted in 2014-15, but the official attendance for the season was pegged at 101.3% capacity according to the numbers released to the public. How did Toronto do at home last year? The ACC was actually very good to the Buds during an unremarkable year. 22 of the team's 30 wins came while on home ice.
The Leafs have notoriously never won a Cup since 1967, so Toronto hockey fans have had to be a bit flexible in their memorable moments at the ACC. To be fair, there have been some cherished memories created inside the ACC. Take the smiting of the Ottawa Senators in the 2001 Eastern Conference Semifinals, for example. The Game 2 OT winner from Gary Roberts and Curtis Joseph skating away with a clean sheet in Game 7 are both worthy of recollection. Now it's up to the modern Leafs to create valuable memories of their own at the Air Canada Centre.
Arena Vitals
Date Opened: 1999
Construction Cost: $265 Million
Architect: Brisbin Brook Beynon Architects
Capacity Attendance: 18,819 - 20,270
Has A Stanley Cup Final Been Played There: No
Previous Toronto Maple Leafs Arenas
Maple Leaf Gardens
Arena Gardens
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