Nobody is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone misreads or misjudges others at some point or another. People take others for granted all the time. Suffice it to say we all get it wrong from time to time. What makes a person a person of character in my books is when they can admit to a mistake or a misjudgment, atone for it, learn from it and move on.

And the same can be said for companies as well.

And today Toronto FC is, credit where due, atoning for a mistake from previous seasons. The mistake I refer to is to a great extent misreading a lot of their fans by including hockey tickets in packages offered to soccer fans.

Today the public sale for half season ticket packages began, where they are offered to those who have not had season ticket or half season packages before. In previous seasons the club included, whether the soccer fans wanted them or not, additional tickets to the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies, who play next door to BMO Field at the Ricoh Coliseum.

This became a major irritant to a lot of fans that I have spoken to over the years.  I know of many people who owned these packages previously who never ever used a Marlies ticket they owned even once. They were soccer fans and TFC fans, not fans of minor league hockey for the most part. And it was a topic of discussion at the Town Hall sessions last fall as well. In one session I remember one fan pointedly asking Tom Anselmi rhetorically if he would ever consider disrespecting Toronto Maple Leaf fans in the same fashion by forcing them to purchase TFC tickets to have any chance at seeing the Leafs at the Air Canada Centre. In reply Ansemli politely stated that they would review the policy.

And review it they did. The two half season packages on sale to the general public starting January 20th, that when purchased give the owner the chance down he road to get a full season ticket package, do not include Toronto Marlies hockey. And credit where credit is due, this is a move that I congratulate the club on taking. They listened to fans, they learned from previous mistakes and thy moved on from it.

If Toronto FC were ever to include any additional tickets in its packages going forward I think they should include the Academy games that the club plays in the Canadian Soccer League. The CSL is a league that is much better than many TFC fans realize. The games are inexpensive. The TFC Academy plays its home games at Lamport Stadium, a stones throw from BMO Field and it would give TFC fans the chance to see up and coming youngsters that may one day make the first team.

Toronto FC often gets a lot of stick from fans when it makes mistakes. I think today they deserve a lot of credit for addressing an issue in a positive fashion. Perhaps more than anything else this speaks to TFC’s growing clout and perceived importance within the hierarchy of MLSE as well, when the club has the ability now to maybe tell the Marlies to sell their own bloody tickets and for the rest of MLSE to listen when they say so.

What do you think? Your comments are always welcome and appreciated.