I played cricket in the school house leagues back in the sixties, but haven't seen it since (also played house hockey and house soccer, but haven't either been on skates or kicked a ball since). In the early nineties I was a rabid baseball fan (when the Toronto Blue Jays were winners), but lost the taste for it once I realised the game was totally controlled by financial interests which couldn't give a damn whether the team won or lost... the Jays won the World Series twice in a row, then all the good players were traded off and that was that, despite management's posturing. Nothing has changed since.
The Toronto Maple Leaf hockey club is the same - fans will continue to fill every seat at every home game, so why bother to invest in good players? It's sickening. The old spirit - that which inspired me as a youth in the early sixties - is long gone.
As you can see, I'm somewhat cynical about professional sports. Oi vey. But we still have our army trucks!
