If the plethora of cranes and shiny new high-rises in Manchester has got you teary eyed and nostalgic for the good old days then Canada’s largest city is not for you.
Toronto feels like a city that was made for the 21st century and it is flourishing – if Manchester is to achieve the global recognition it wholly craves then it has at least 10 years catching up to do.
The city’s waterfront, which was once home to the iconic CN Tower and not a lot else, has developed exponentially over the last several years. It is now densely populated with borderline skyscraper condos and office blocks that reflect the water back at you which stop the area feeling claustrophobic and condensed, while Roundhouse Park lies at ground level and demonstrates how effective a central green space can be (a million miles away from our very own Piccadilly Gardens).
In this central area – aptly named the Entertainment District you will find both the Scotiabank Arena and the Rogers Centre, lying at either end of Bremner Boulevard. This is essentially the main artery for everything sport in this city, and they do the fan experience so much better than us.
As a football fan, I love our national sport but thanks to Sky and BT’s continued efforts, there are fewer and fewer benefits to not be an armchair fan.
It might be an unpopular opinion, but it’s one that’s supported by the cold hard facts - football stadium attendances are continuing to fall.
The answer it seems - at least if the sporting life of Toronto is to be believed - is t-shirt cannons. Or if that’s too commercial for you, how about a man at the hockey who runs up the aisles delivering ice cold cans of beer to you (at a price of course.)
These are two things that occur fairly regularly at the home games for two of the city’s biggest teams – the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NHL and the Toronto Raptors in the NBA. Both housed in the Scotiabank Arena and playing on alternate days, these are teams you cannot afford to miss.
Ice hockey is simply Canada’s national sport and attending a Leafs game (why aren’t they called Maple Leaves?!) is like witnessing cult religion where punching a man in the face is raucously applauded.
As for the Raptors, the Drake effect has cast them into the centre of pop culture over the past few years but this season they have one of the best records of any team in the NBA.
If the experience of watching a top tier basketball game were likened to a film it would be like any full throttle Marvel movie, or the Keanu Reeves film John Wick which is just two hours of him murdering dudes because they killed his dog.
If you're planning to get to a game - Raptors games have a noticeably younger crowd and tickets are generally much easier to get hold of than for the Leafs. Those who wish to attend any event should try to book before they leave the UK.
If you don’t want that stress than the MLS could be for you as tickets for Toronto FC are very rarely sold out, but they don’t come cheap.
Tickets for the last home game of the season after Toronto had already failed to make the play offs were a hefty $130. And while they were pitchside (except an exclusive section just ahead of us) it feels like an unfair sum for a dead rubber of a fixture.
A standard ticket can be bought for around $50 but tickets have gone up again for next season but like all American sports you can take a 24 oz beer to your seat.
If all the sports and beer tire you out and have you feeling bloated – and they will, then a long walk around a pristine city centre could sort you out, whatever time of year you visit.
Don’t want to head outside during Ontario’s famed grizzly winters? No need – PATH is ostensibly an underground city under the actual city. The underground pedestrian tunnels, elevated walkways, and at-grade walkways stretch for over 30 km linking all of downtown’s office blocks together.
The Guinness World Records lists PATH as the largest underground shopping complex in the world with 371,600 square metres of retail space. It can be a nightmare to navigate but there are worse places and much worse cities to get lost in…
