For all the financial success, though, M.L.S.E.’s teams have slipped on the ice, the court and the field. The Leafs have 13 Stanley Cup banners hanging from the rafters, but their last one is from 1967, the longest title drought in the N.H.L. The team has not made the playoffs since 2004 despite having one of the highest payrolls, although this season’s team has a winning record at the All-Star break and is in ninth place — one spot away from the playoffs — in the Eastern Conference.

The Raptors, who entered the N.B.A. in 1996, lack the history of the Leafs, and their success on the court has been mixed. They draw well in part because the team has a roster full of international players, a good fit for an ethnically diverse city like Toronto. But in their first 16 years, the Raptors have only five winning seasons and one division title. Since joining Major League Soccer in 2007, Toronto has sold out 74 of 77 games at its lakefront stadium near downtown, so the team has added 2,000 extra seats. But the team has never played a postseason game.

Next door at Ricoh Coliseum, the Marlies of the American Hockey League draw more than 5,000 fans a game, including many who want to see future Maple Leafs for a fraction of the cost.

But all the losing has again proved that money alone cannot buy championships, something that fans understand at Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks and the Rangers have won few titles despite ample resources.

The streaks of futility in Toronto have led to finger pointing by frustrated fans. This is particularly true of the Leafs, who have their own television network and a general manager, Brian Burke, who is perhaps more closely followed than the mayor.

Many skeptics say that M.L.S.E. and its parent company are too corporate to run successful teams. Although Ontario Teachers has stakes in dozens of large companies, the Leafs made the playoffs regularly during the first 10 years after Ontario Teachers bought the team.