Below is a ‘letter to the editor’ written to the Toronto Star newspaper. The reader calls out the paper for not providing adequate coverage of the MLL lacrosse finals, and the Toronto Nationals championship season.
We think his point is well justified, especially when you consider that lacrosse has been Canada’s official sport since its founding. Although, in 1994, Canada passed a bill that established hockey as Canada’s “official winter sport”, and made lacrosse the “official summer sport”.
Lacrosse deserves the spotlight
Aug 24, 2009 04:30 AMI realize that a couple of years ago the Star declared lacrosse a “niche” sport, but enough is enough. The Toronto Nationals were in the MLL finals yesterday, a day after defeating Long Island. Yet you give them a single paragraph while the Little League World Series and tennis (a niche sport in my books) get better coverage.
Come on guys. This is a Toronto team and you have done virtually nothing to support or help them this season. Better yet, unlike other Toronto teams that get all the coverage, they are winners.
The players are mostly Canadian, and some like the Nationals’ Brodie Merrill are considered the best in the world at their position. Lacrosse is an exciting game that deserves more support from “Toronto’s Newspaper.” And, who knows, perhaps with a little coverage it may develop into something other than a “niche” sport.
Richard Walters, Sutton
From Wikipedia: Canada is a nation with two official sports. Since its founding, and until 1994, the official sport was lacrosse, a sport invented by Aboriginal peoples. In 1994, First Nations groups objected to a government bill that proposed establishing ice hockey as Canada’s national sport, arguing that it neglected recognition of the game of lacrosse, a uniquely Native contribution. In response, the House of Commons amended the bill “to recognize hockey as Canada’s National Winter Sport and lacrosse as Canada’s National Summer Sport.” On May 12, 1994, in Bill C-212, ice hockey joined lacrosse as official sports of Canada.
