Why I gave up my Raptors seasons tickets
In 2019, hours after the Raps won their first title.
I stood there, with almost 20,000 other fans, clapping as the clock ticked down on the Raptors most successful season to date. I had never before seen a standing ovation for a loss.
And no wonder, it was 2016 and we were just finishing what was unequivocally our best season ever. 20 years and we’d finally made it to the Eastern Conference Finals only to lose to King James and the Cavs in 6 games.
It was also just a month before I decided to cancel my seasons tickets.
Before digging into why, we need to dig into hockey.
Pulling the Goalie
It turns out that there’s an error that every NHL coach makes. If their team is down by 1 goal, they’ll only pull their goalie for the extra attacker in the final two minutes.
So why don’t coaches do it? As the study authors note, professional coaches aren’t always rewarded for winning, but rather for being perceived as good coaches.
I actually prefer how Dr. Kelly Flanagan (an author and blogger) describes the coach’s decision:
The bigger problem, though, is that even in the face of this empirical data, no coach will ever pull their goalie with almost six minutes to go in a game and down by one. Because if their team was scored upon at that point, the fans would be calling for their firing and the front office would probably do it. It is not socially acceptable to pull the goalie that early in the game, so no one does it.
A 7 year blog habit ends
On the heels of this information, Flanagan’s friend asked him an important question:
“Where do you need to pull the goalie in your life right now—even if it feels risky, even if it upsets people—before it is too late?”
Flanagan realized that his kids were growing up and that he was going to miss out on their youth unless he started to prioritize them.
So - even though he really liked his weekly blog, and even though he was getting a ton of value from it, the cost of not pursing other opportunities outweighed the value he was getting from his blog.
Why I gave up my Raptors seasons tickets
I’m pretty sure you see where I’m heading right now.
I really liked going to Raptors games. I loved the spectacle. I loved the sport. I didn’t mind spending the money. I loved that we had an amazing team that was starting to challenge the league’s heavyweights.
But there were other things in life I was missing out on.
Time to focus on my partner, time to focus on my hobbies, and (maybe most importantly?) time to not be running around, and to instead just be.
FOMO much?
So this is nice, and bravo for me for giving up the tickets.
It’s interesting, because if I stuck it out for 3 more years, I would’ve seen them win a championship - their first. The ultimate goal for any team.
And so, notwithstanding FOMO (fear of missing out), I don’t actually regret giving up the tickets. For two reasons:
I made the best decision I could at the time, and
Although I would’ve seen a championship if I’d stayed for three more years, what else would I have missed? I probably wouldn’t have had the energy to start my coaching business and make a life-altering impact in peoples’ lives.
So I ask you:
Where do you need to pull the goalie in your life right now—even if it feels risky, even if it upsets people—before it is too late?