With the Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs about to be embroiled in another first-round matchup in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs, I thought it was the perfect time to examine these two cities.
While this isn’t a travel guide, we’ll uncover some background on each city, including the history of their sports teams and what makes them unique.
Professional Sports in Both Cities
When I was growing up in Tampa, the city didn’t have a hockey team. It wasn’t even on the radar for most people. Soccer became the first professional sport to arrive when the Tampa Bay Rowdies launched in 1975, predating the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ first game by one year. Several years later, Phil Esposito’s dream of locating an NHL franchise in Tampa was germinating, and the Lightning joined the league at the beginning of the 1992-93 season. Soon, city officials began campaigning for an MLB team, which they were finally awarded in 1998 when the Devil Rays joined the American League.
In the early to mid-1990s, I lived in Buffalo, New York, where I discovered Hockey Night in Canada on CBC and my love of hockey. It was less than a two-hour drive to Toronto, and we visted as often as we could. One of my fondest memories is attending an MLB’s Toronto Blue Jays game at the Hard Rock Cafe restaurant that overlooked the field. It’s now Rogers Centre but still a great stadium – Toronto fans, you have Tropicana Field beat! The Blue Jays, who began playing in 1977, was the first and only team from outside the U.S. to win the World Series—and they won it in consecutive years, in 1992 and 1993.
Although baseball may have preoccupied Torontians during the early 90s, hockey is the most beloved sport in the city by far. Toronto is the permanent home of Lord Stanley’s Cup at the Hockey Hall of Fame. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting the Hockey Hall of Fame twice, standing among the 300,000 annual visitors to the 65,000-square-foot museum dedicated to all facets of the sport.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the NBA’s Raptors, which has brought professional basketball to the city since the 1995-96 season and won a championship in 2019. The city is also home to the CFL Toronto Argonauts.
Differences and Similarities Between Tampa and Toronto
Tampa, located on the Gulf Coast of central Florida, has a humid, subtropic climate with frequent rain and, yes, lightning. Toronto enjoys warm, humid summers and cold winters that average around 45-50 inches of snow annually.
Related: Lightning Are Holding Their Own With Brady and the Buccaneers
Tampa has less than half the residents (2,945,000) of Toronto (6,313,000), the capital of Ontario. The past few decades saw tremendous population growth for both cities. From 2010-2020, Tampa experienced a 27% increase, while Toronto, the largest city in Canada and the fourth largest in North America, grew by 12%.
The main industry in Tampa has always been tourism. Southern hospitality welcomes fans from across the country and the world, including their neighbors to the north. The Port of Tampa is the largest in Florida, and the maritime industry is critical to the city’s economy. MacDill Air Force Base, a few miles south of the city, employs nearly 6,500 military and civilian personnel. It’s a common sight to see uniformed officers frequenting local restaurants and shops.
Toronto’s economy is as diversified as its citizens, with manufacturing, transportation, and technology all important industries. It is Canada’s financial center, housing five of the six national banks and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE). Employment within the tourism industry is also a large part of the economy, representing 4.6% of all jobs.
Places to Visit
The Tampa Bay Area comprises 35 miles of the white sandy beaches of St. Pete and Clearwater, which make it a popular destination. Residents don’t need to make the one-and-a-half-hour drive to Disney World – they can enjoy a top-notch amusement park, Busch Gardens, which is just six miles from downtown Tampa.
The Florida State Fair is held in February just east of downtown Tampa. Long-time Lightning fans will know its historical significance, as the Fairgrounds’ 10,000-seat Expo Hall was the site of the first game in franchise history. The fair attracts almost 300,000 people annually. Tampa is also the Cigar Capital of the World and once held the distinction of being the lightning capital of North America (Four Corners, Florida, near Disney World, now holds the title).
With a much bigger city comes bigger events, such as Toronto’s CNE (Canadian National Exhibition), which kicks off annually in late August. The event attracted 1,566,268 in 2022 and is considered one of the best fairs in North America. Toronto’s skyline was changed forever when the 1,815-foot CN Tower was completed in 1976. It is the city’s landmark attraction and is located about a half-mile from the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Known as the Queen City, Toronto is the most multicultural city in the world. Walk along Yonge Street, and you will encounter residents representing over 250 ethnicities who speak more than 170 languages (and you thought the NHL was a melting pot).
Speaking of the NHL, 29 current players were born in Toronto, and 191 hail from Ontario. Surprisingly, there are 12 current players from the Sunshine State, including the New Jersey Devils’ emerging superstar Jack Hughes and his brother Quinn (from Orlando), the Carolina Hurricanes’ Shayne Gostisbehere, and the Ottawa Senators’ new defenseman Jakob Chychrun, both are from South Florida.
Although Tampa is my hometown, I am grateful to have had the privilege of visiting Toronto on many occasions. These are two of the fastest-growing and most energizing cities in North America, and they are both great hockey towns.
While this is just a cursory examination of these two fabulous cities, the real comparison will undoubtedly come from the competition on the ice. May the best city—and team—win.