A fellow journalist — not a scribe, but one of those pretty-boy types who wears fancy shirts and funky running shoes — started ragging on Toronto sports fans during Sunday’s TFC-Chivas USA match at BMO Field.

The dude (who is actually a nice kid) argued how the empty seats sprinkled throughout BMO Field offered proof, yet again, that Toronto is a terrible sports town that “doesn’t deserve” professional sports teams.

A bit of a stretch, and normally I let my colleagues rant when they jump on soapbox, though in this case I felt obligated to defend the TFC fan base, in my mind the most loyal and passionate of all Toronto sports fans. Sure, there were a lot of empty seats at BMO Field - on a beautiful late summer afternoon no less. But it was still a pretty decent crowd and to my mind there were a number of good excuses for the stadium not being full — starting with the indisputable fact that TFC has been a horrible franchise since its inaugural season in 2007. Perhaps the fans are finally reaching the breaking point. Add that to the fact that in a season that was supposed to be The Great Rebirth or The Great Rebuild or whatever Leiweke the Emancipator called it, the Reds, with six games remaining in the regular season, are again sitting outside a playoff spot, despite a convincing 3-0 victory over a truly terrible Chivas USA side on Sunday.

This is a fan base that has had to endure nine different head coaches in eight seasons, including yet another change a couple of weeks ago when Ryan Nelsen was fired and Greg Vanney promoted. A revolving door of head coaches isn’t the sign of a well-run franchise.

My press box pal argued that great fans turn out no matter how the team is doing in standings. I agreed, but added that most fan bases don’t have to endure the transportation nightmares Toronto fans have to. Consider what it takes to get to BMO Field: If you drive, it’s Gardiner Expressway chaos, with a lane closed in each direction. And it’s no picnic getting into the Exhibition Place grounds either. If you take public transit, there’s no subway service to BMO. You have to pile into streetcars or clunky buses and then walk. Not exactly a hardship, but a definite inconvenience to get to a game featuring a team that has never made the playoffs and may not again this year. By the way, next weekend, the City of Toronto is closing the Gardiner Expressway from 427 to the Don Valley for fall maintenance, just in time for the final Blue Jays home stand. If that isn’t stupidity, I don’t know what is.

This is the crap Toronto sports routinely have to endure.

Back to the TFC: Sunday’s match also featured the worst team in Major League Soccer, and Chivas certainly proved that again with a dispirited effort against TFC, who had their captain and defensive stalwart, Steven Caldwell, back in the lineup. Who wants to watch Chivas USA blunder through 90 minutes of football? Furthermore, the Reds were without their most explosive and exciting player, Jermain Defoe, who just returned from getting his groin injury treated in England. (Apparently groin therapy is not up to snuff in Canada). Caldwell was asked if the crowd on Sunday gave the home side a lift and he answered in the affirmative, though he wasn’t impressed — as neither was my colleague — with the fact that a large portion of the TFC supporters arrived during the game.

“I don’t know if that’s traffic or (they’re) in the pub or something like that, but we need to them here a little bit earlier and get them a little bit louder if we can,” said Caldwell. “But they’re passionate supporters. We have areas that are absolutely superb in the stadium, the Red Patch Boys and other areas (in the south end stands). We have to try to get the whole stadium like that because the lift that they give us is huge.”

Caldwell said he understands that being a sports fan is a “two-fold thing”, and wasn’t about to dump on the TFC fan base for not completely filling the stadium on Sunday.

“We have to put in the performance to bring the crowd forward,” he said. “But the crowd was excellent and we were obviously playing very well. So we need them there next Saturday. It’s going to be a tough game against Portland and we need them behind us and pushing us forward.”

I’ve always maintained that the TFC crowd is the best crowd in Toronto sports and kudos to those fans who bought tickets for Sunday’s game. The match was announced as a sell-out, with 22,591 seats sold, but obviously many didn’t bother to show up, and more power to them for that. Some of us remember those years when the Canadiens weren’t very good and many a game at the old Montreal Forum were less than full. That was the Montreal fan base’s way of saying, ‘Hey, pull up your socks or we’ll turn our backs on you for a while.” And it worked. To me, that’s the message MLSE should take from all those empty seats on Sunday. Don’t take us for granted anymore.

CALDWELL PROUD OF SCOTTISH VOTERS

Toronto FC captain Steven Caldwell, a native of Stirling, Scotland, was unable to vote in last week’s Scottish independence referendum, but he expressed how proud he was that 84.6% of eligible voters exercised their democratic right to vote. The referendum, based on the question ‘Should Scotland be an Independent Country?’, was won by the No, or anti-separation side by a 55.3% to 44.7% margin for the Yes side.

“It was fantastic to see so many people turn out to vote,” said Caldwell, a proud Scot. “It was such an exciting time for the country and hopefully the decision will be the right decision. It’s the majority. We accept the democratic decision and hopefully we get the changes that we want and we need and we can push forward as a country.”

Caldwell wouldn’t bite as to what way he would have voted.

“But it was exciting,” he said. “Loads of family voted. It was an exciting time and I was just proud of my country and the turn-out to vote was outstanding and the debate that it caused in Scotland was unbelievable to see, and hopefully we can keep that passion for politics and for the forward movement of our country.”