Los Angeles Galaxy star striker Landon Donovan. (AP Photo/Ric Francis).

Though all of Toronto's pro sports franchises enjoy varying degrees of success, it can safely be said the NHL, NBA and CFL, on top of having a history of success in the city, deliver first-class sports entertainment.

Sadly, Major League Soccer cannot make a similar claim, and that's the main reason why a soccer franchise in Toronto is doomed to fail.

If Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd., the operators of Canada's future MLS franchise, is so confident soccer can succeed in Toronto, then surely it would finance the construction of its new stadium itself, as it did with the Air Canada Centre.

Instead, MLSE is hedging its bets and relying on the City of Toronto, Ottawa and Queen's Park to pick up the majority of the tab. It's one thing to put your money where your mouth is on a sure thing. Quite another on a long shot.

And make no mistake about it: we're talking long odds here because the record of pro soccer teams in Toronto is a poor one.

In the last 25 years, no less than four incarnations of the Toronto Blizzard have failed, a few indoor soccer clubs have folded, and the Toronto Lynx of the North American United Soccer League have consistently played to anaemic crowds since its first season in 1997.

What makes MLSE think it can do any better?

The public funding of the stadium should anger taxpayers, but MLSE is not the bad guy here. That label belongs to Toronto's city council and both the federal and provincial governments, which agreed to cover more than two-thirds of the estimated $62.8-million in construction costs.

The fact MLSE isn't backing up its words with its own money, however, speaks volumes and should tell you all you need to know about MLS's chances in Toronto.

That's not to say soccer can't succeed in Toronto.

Every two years during the World Cup and Euro, Toronto comes alive as thousands of members of the city's diverse ethnic communities fill bars and restaurants to watch soccer on TV and then pour out onto the streets, flags and drums in hand, to celebrate their country's victory.

Italians from all over southern Ontario converged on St. Clair Avenue in numbers that surpassed even the Blue Jays' World Series celebrations when the Azzurri won the 1982 World Cup. Danforth Avenue was awash in a sea of blue and white and the souvlaki spits turned all night when Greece shocked the world and won Euro 2004.

So there is massive interest in soccer in Toronto, but this enthusiasm for the game should not be misinterpreted, nor should MLS count on the legions of soccer fans in Toronto for support.

Consider the following:

Last summer, fans packed the Skydome (now Rogers Centre) for a pair of exhibition matches involving top European clubs. The 50,168 that saw Italian side AS Roma defeat Scottish giants Glasgow Celtic was the largest audience to witness a sporting event last year in the building that Major League Baseball's Blue Jays and the CFL's Argonauts call home.

And yet, where were these same soccer fans two days later when the Lynx played in a virtually empty Centennial Stadium? Where, in fact, have they been for the last nine years as the club has struggled to draw respectable crowds?

The point is clear: soccer fans in Toronto will support a quality product.

No matter how much MLS has improved since its first season in 1996 – and there's no question its on-field product has improved drastically over the last decade – MLS will always be a second-rate product in the hearts and minds of Toronto soccer fans who grew up watching Juventus, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich in their native homelands.

Those are the clubs that are needed, even if it's in the occasional exhibition match, to satisfy Toronto's voracious appetite for soccer. Not the Columbus Crews, Chicago Fires or the San Jose Earthquakes.

That's a fact that not even the fine folks at MLSE, the masters of slick promotion they clearly are, will be able to change.

And when Toronto's MLS team does struggle and eventually goes under – like two expansion franchises already have – you can bet Bob McCown and every other media pundit who loathes the beautiful game will be waiting to stick it to soccer fans with an obnoxious, "I told you so."

John F. Molinaro is a reporter/editor for CBC Sports Online whose chief love is international soccer. John covered the 2002 World Cup, 2003 Champions League and Euro 2004 for Sports Online. He won a CBC.ca Award of Excellence for his work on Sports Online's Euro 2004 web site.