"Ah, the poor old Leafs."

Those were the first words emailed to Breakaway by Dr. James M. Connor (@DocConnor), one of the leading authorities on the sociology of the loyalty of the sports fan. He quite literally wrote the book on it: The Sociology of Loyalty.

He's a senior lecturer in the business school at the University of New South Wales Canberra. That's right. Australia. And he knew about the "poor old Leafs."

At Breakaway we are worried, not so much about the Leafs, but about Leafs fans. With all the empty seats and discount pricing -- simply not heard of in association with the Leafs -- we wondered if fans have had enough? Have they turned on the team? Will the fan-base shrink?

We wrote to Connor for his opinion. Here's what he wrote back in an email. Brace yourself.

"The thing about sport fan loyalty is the commitment through thick and thin, winning and losing - no matter what you stick with the team. Often fans make it a matter of pride that they do stick with a team irrespective of how poorly they are doing... up to a point. With the Leafs we may have just hit that collective tipping point where fans have had enough of always doing poorly. The feeling that there is no hope left, that it is pointless to continue following the team (and paying handsomely for the 'pleasure') can spread rapidly through a fan base and lead to mass exodus. If I was the Leafs management I'd be pulling out all the stops to try and address the collective feeling of failure and hopelessness and doing my best to push the 'next season we have it' feeling. So, yes, you can lose a fan base - it takes a lot of time (or some really bad behaviour from the team/managers)."

Yikes. But he goes on, and this paragraph struck me:

"For fans, the emotional toll of being the butt of all the jokes every morning after the game starts to wear over time - fans need some good news/wins/hope to put hope with that so that they can then earn the 'crowing' rights when the winning starts again."

And then this:

"Our sport loyalties give us a sense of belonging and identity - being a Leaf fan means being part of something special. Special because of the history of the team, special because every other team fan hates you, special because it is (used to be) so hard to get tickets - creating that feeling of exclusivity and connection. The point of loyalty is that there is an implied reciprocity - a fan is loyal because they expect at some point to feel the exhilaration of winning a Stanley Cup in overtime. They feel that the team should 'do right' by them as fans (play their best, not charge too much for the privilege, be accessible), when this bond starts to strain (as it clearly is now) then the team is in strife."

GOT A QUESTION? Email me at askkevinmcgran@thestar.ca and I'll answer it in my Friday mailbag.