Last spring, not long after the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that Brendan Shanahan would not be returning as team president, Keith Pelley famously said that his only goal as the leader of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment was to win and win big.

“The fans here not only deserve but demand a championship,” Pelley said. “We are not here to sell jerseys.”

It seems increasingly clear, however, that they are here to sell jerseys and everything else.

Pelley reiterated his willingness to do “anything that gives the Toronto Maple Leafs the best chance to win the Stanley Cup” in an extraordinary press conference on Tuesday afternoon. But clearly, he has other unstated aims too. It isn’t just the hockey side of the operation that’s evolved under his leadership, that is. Things have changed on the business side, too.

How far will the Leafs go to make a buck? Try a price tag of $956.83 for a young fan (ages 8-12) to stand on the ice and wave a flag before a Leafs home game. That doesn’t include a ticket to the game, which is required.

Want to hit the Leafs goal horn? You can do so for $63.79. Snapping a photo on the ice after the game will run you $95.68 per person.

A $96 selfie, in other words, plus the cost of the ticket.

It costs $956.83 for a young fan to stand on the ice and wave a flag before a Leafs home game. (Jonas Siegel for The Athletic)

Those “Game Day Plus Ups” are part of the “Fan Access” program that launched under Pelley’s leadership last spring and allow “fans of all of our teams and entertainment properties to enjoy the many benefits and experiences it has to offer.”

It’s not cheap.

While one tier of “Fan Access” is free (dubbed “Fan”), the “Superfan” tier ran for $135 this season. The “MVP” tier is a whopping $1,500 and includes, among other things, two tickets to “Fan Day” (“with the ability to purchase 2 additional tickets”), a four-pack of tickets to the Toronto Marlies, a $25 gift card for concessions, two lower bowl Leafs tickets, one of those “Plus Ups” for pre and post game, and a dedicated line to enter Scotiabank Arena.

Want to sit down for dinner in the Leafs dressing room? The Leafs are selling that “experience” for $1,000 a person (up to a maximum of 10 people). In other words, access to the Leafs dressing room is literally for sale.

An “ultra-premium dining experience” in the ownership lounge can also be had at $1,000 a head.

The Leafs are selling a sit-down dinner in the Leafs dressing room for $1,000 a person. (Jonas Siegel for The Athletic)

During Pelley’s tenure as president and CEO of MLSE, which began in the spring of 2024, the team has appeared intent on monetizing as much as it possibly can. What can be sold will be sold.

The Leafs even began advertising recently the opportunity for fans to stage surprise wedding proposals at Scotiabank Arena.

Last month, the team hosted its inaugural “Fan Day” (presented by Rogers). Attending a day that would offer “fans unique access to the teams they love” during March break was a pay-for-play event. Tickets went for as much as $65 apiece, not including fees. This, at a time when the Leafs, the most valuable team in the NHL, were in the throes of their worst season in a decade, with the franchise’s Stanley Cup drought about to hit 59 long years.

Fan Day might have been priced accordingly in light of all that, free even, a teeny tiny thank you to a fan base that’s been through a lot. A chance for families unable to afford some of the highest ticket prices in the league to come down and watch the Leafs up close.

But that’s just not the way things are working these days.

Leafs fans have been through a lot this season. (John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)

The Leafs were recently valued at $4.4 billion by Forbes, tops in the NHL. And while on the one hand they are a business and have always charged a lot for, well, everything, do they really need to go to these lengths — squeezing every last dollar out of their loyal and increasingly frustrated fans?

The flag-bearer “Plus Up” works out to about $39K for 41 home games. A drop in the bucket, in other words, for an NHL powerhouse.

For that $65 ticket to Fan Day, fans had the opportunity to “meet and greet” alumni such as Curtis Joseph and Darcy Tucker, purchase merchandise at Real Sports Apparel for 20 percent off, purchase “select concession items” at reduced prices, and watch “the Blue vs. White player showcase with the Toronto Sceptres and Maple Leafs.”

Had the Leafs been in a playoff race, as was expected, Fan Day would have come at an inopportune time, a rare off-day in a hectic schedule. Instead, it fell smack in the thick of the worst stretch of Leafs hockey since the 2014-15 season.

Not ideal either way.

Winning, of course, would be the best way for the Leafs to make even more money than usual. But in part because of his failed leadership, the Leafs aren’t winning either and will soon miss the playoffs entirely for the first time since 2016 — which has led to softening ticket sales. And despite Pelley’s pledges this week about incredible, nearly unmatched “resources,” the team appears to be cutting costs while also scrounging for every last dollar elsewhere.

It turns out the Leafs, under Pelley, actually are here to sell jerseys. Jerseys and everything else.