As the Toronto Maple Leafs take to the ice for their 110th season this week, a landmark of one of the most controversial — and never dull — owners in their storied history has just been razed in Etobicoke.
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landmark → take → Etobicoke
Heavy machinery, which came on the heels of workers in haz-mat suits, has demolished the longtime home of former Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard, who died in 1990.
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who → come → 1990
The house at Montgomery Road and Bloor Street in The Kingsway played a key role in sending Ballard to prison for fraud and theft more than 50 years ago, not long after the Leafs last won the Stanley Cup.
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Leafs → play → Cup
“Boy, the stories those walls could tell,” said one neighbour, watching as a bright yellow excavator machine squared off against the sprawling, two-storey Tudor-style home.
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machine → tell → home
Ballard had lived there since the 1940s, and reporters looking for a quote sometimes showed up in throngs on the front lawn.
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reporters → live → lawn
Woodycrest — as Ballard named it — and surrounding lands are slated to become a Tridel residential and retail development.
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Ballard → name → it
Superstitious Toronto hockey fans may well wonder if the destruction of the home signals the end of what actor and documentarian Jason Priestley recently called “the Ballard Curse.”
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Priestley → wonder → what
Priestley directed ”Offside: The Harold Ballard Story.”
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Priestley → direct → Offside
Ballard’s house, like the old man himself, did not give up easily.
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house → give → man
“We are doing our best to recycle all materials on the site so not everything goes into landfill,” said Michael Mestyan, Tridel’s vice-president of development and planning.
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Mestyan → do → development
Due to “terrible market conditions,” construction on the condo project has been delayed.
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construction → delay → project
“Squatters were coming and going,” Mestyan said, and Tridel was struggling to secure the site.
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Tridel → come → site
Because of its proximity to the Bloor subway line, extra care had to be taken not to disturb the ground during demolition.
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care → have → demolition
The saga of Harold Ballard
As any sports fan from Toronto to Montreal (especially Montreal) and beyond knows, the Leafs last won the Stanley Cup in 1967.
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Leafs → know → 1967
It was a heady time for Ballard, who aggressively booked big acts into the Gardens, including the Beatles, and watched the money roll in.
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money → book → Beatles
The Gardens was a public company, with Ballard and others having significant ownership chunks.
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Ballard → have → chunks
A lot of money flowed through its coffers.
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lot → flow → coffers
That meant it was possible to hide hefty personal expenses.
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it → mean → expenses
The RCMP and crusading Crown attorney Clay Powell suspected that Ballard, by then the Leafs president, and fellow executive, Stafford Smythe, had been using Gardens’ money for personal use.
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Ballard → crusade → use
In Ballard’s case, he was accused of fraudulently diverting $205,000 of Gardens money into home renovations and lawn sprinklers at Woodycrest, and plumbing at his Georgian Bay cottage near Midland.
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he → accuse → Midland
Other allegations included using $60 of Gardens money for three limousines that picked people up at Woodycrest and drove them to a church on the day of Ballard’s daughter’s wedding.
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that → include → wedding
Though Ballard had an apartment in a corner of the Gardens, Woodycrest was where he and his wife (she died in 1969) raised their family.
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she → have → family
Whenever Ballard had something to say, the media would camp outside.
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media → have → something
In 1969, Ballard and Smythe were charged with fraud and theft from the Gardens.
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Ballard → charge → Gardens
A star witness, the Gardens assistant building superintendent, was given immunity from prosecution.
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witness → give → prosecution
He said fake invoices for Gardens work were created — in reality, they were for work done on the men’s personal properties.
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they → say → properties
Gardens accounting staff then paid the contractors.
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staff → pay → contractors
The superintendent said he did this for Ballard as “a courtesy.”
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he → say → courtesy
Smythe died of a bleeding ulcer before his trial began.
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trial → die → ulcer
Ballard was tried and convicted, and sentenced to three years in prison for fraud and theft.
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Ballard → try → fraud
In passing sentence, the judge said Ballard, then 69, “was in a position of trust and you violated that trust.”
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you → pass → trust
He ultimately served a year.
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He → serve → year
Ballard began his sentence in Millhaven minimum-security penitentiary near Kingston, which he described as being like a “motel” but was transferred to a Toronto halfway house, where he was allowed to attend Maple Leaf games, sitting in his private box.
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he → begin → box
Soon after release, Ballard, who had kept his shares and bought Smythe’s, took control of the Gardens and the Leafs, becoming the majority shareholder of both.
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who → keep → both
The years that followed were anything but dull — one Ballard controversy followed another as he was accused by the media and fans of casting out star players and operating the team on a shoestring budget while he lived high on the hog.
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he → follow → hog
Woodycrest was sold to the neighbouring business, Humberview Auto Centre, in 1990, the year Ballard died at age 86.
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Ballard → sell → age
Tridel’s development area includes Ballard’s home, two other former housing sites, and the auto centre lands.
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area → include → home
Tridel vice-president Michael Mestyan said contamination from the auto centre is being cleaned, and he said his company and the provincial environment ministry are in close consultation on the project.
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company → say → project
The plans call for 410,000 square feet of development, which Tridel says will result in 350 to 400 housing units.
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Tridel → call → units
Two weeks ago, the last sentimental artifact was removed from Ballard’s home of 50 years.
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artifact → remove → years
…and 2 more, not listed.
The Aporia
