Maple Leaf Gardens' Days Numbered -- The Clock Is Running Out On Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, Last Of The `Original Six' Buildings Still In Use In The Nhl. Many Are Sad To See Them Go. `The Old Barns, There's A Mystique About Them That These New Arenas Will Never Have,' Said One Player.

TORONTO - Perhaps one of these days, franchise owners will realize that luxury boxes, Jumbotron scoreboards and extra seats are no substitute for tradition.

If that time comes, though, it will be too late for Maple Leaf Gardens, last of the old-time hockey arenas, as charming as it is ancient.

The Gardens, home to the Toronto Maple Leafs since birth in 1931, will lose its principal tenants in February.

The Maple Leafs will move into the new Air Canada Centre, on the site of an old post office two blocks from Toronto Harbour and a 15-minute walk from the Gardens.

The Gardens is the last "Original Six" building still in use.

Arenas with equally vibrant histories, such as the Montreal Forum, Chicago Stadium, Boston Garden and the Olympia Stadium in Detroit, were driven to extinction by the clamor for state-of-the-art facilities boasting the aura of nuclear waste plants. Only Madison Square Garden remains. But it doesn't qualify as an Original Six arena, since the original one was torn down, too.

The New York Rangers opened the current facility in 1968.

"The old barns, there's a mystique about them that these new arenas will never have," Nashville captain Tom Fitzgerald said in the visitors' locker room - located near the boiler room in the bowels of the Gardens - before a game against the Maple Leafs.

It won't suffer the fate that befell Chicago Stadium and Boston Garden, razed to make room for new facilities. Concerts and youth-hockey games will continue there. There won't be wrecking balls or demolition crews. But the Gardens will be gutted.

Conn Smythe's brainchild

Maple Leaf Gardens was the brainchild of Conn Smythe, who wanted an impressive home for his team.

Some 1,200 workers began the project on May 1, 1931. By the time the Gardens was completed - a mere five months later - 750,000 bricks, 77,500 bags of cement and 70 bags of sand had been used. It cost approximately $1.5 million Canadian to build. That amount is slightly above the average salary of today's NHL player, and $263.5 million Canadian less than the Air Canada Centre.

The Gardens opened Nov. 12, 1931, with the Leafs falling 2-1 to Chicago before a then-capacity crowd of 13,233. Ticket prices ranged from 95 cents to $2.75 Canadian.

The Maple Leafs went on to win the Stanley Cup that season.

Their last game at the Gardens is Feb. 13 fittingly, against the Blackhawks.

In between, there has been much that is memorable.

The Gardens has been home to 11 Stanley Cup champions, although none since 1966-67.

Forty-five players who have donned the Leafs' blue and white sweaters have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, a few blocks away.

It was the rink where Darryl Sittler notched six goals and four assists in a game against Boston in 1976.

And it was the site for likely the only game played on brown ice, when the Leafs and Detroit Red Wings faced off the night after a rodeo left town. The maintenance crew worked mightily to remove the animal droppings from the ice, but met with little success.

67 years of sweat and beer

The Gardens has evolved into a shrine. It is a treat for the senses - the dankness, the mustiness, largely the product of sweat and beer accumulated over 67 years.

Many of the oldtimers in attendance might admit to smelling the sweetness of victory and the bitterness of defeat, too, with the latter far more prevalent the last 30 years.

See the black and white portraits of heroes past adorning the lobby and the white and gray walls of the concourse.

Walk through the portholes and gaze skyward at the 26 steel light fixtures, the faded, bronze-colored beams, the oversized flags of the United States and Canada hanging at both ends.

Pay homage to the royal blue and white banners surrounding the archaic-looking sound-system speakers in a square above the center-ice scoreboard. The pennants bear names such as Apps, Armstrong, Bailey, Bower, Broda, Clancy and Conacher.

Walk through the stands toward the boards. Glance at the wooden players' benches painted a dull yellow and covered with white plastic scratched beyond repair.

Feel your shoes stick to the yellow, industrial-tiled floor at ice level, the adhesive a product of night upon night of spilled suds and soda that no amount of scrubbing can remove.

Hear the tinny roar of the crowd, sonorous enough to startle the eardrums, when play is going the Maple Leafs' way.

Listen for the "pong" of frozen, vulcanized rubber rattling Plexiglas.

If you really want a piece of the action, plunk down $121 Canadian and grab Seat 66, in the gold section directly in front of Box 25. You can share your popcorn, or strategy, with members of the visiting team, since the only thing separating Seat 66 from the players' bench is an aisle about two feet wide.

Feeling adventurous?

Try the blue seats, which sell for $53 Canadian, at either end of the rink. Take a deep breath in preparation for the steep climb to your row.

"The rafters, the banners hanging from the rafters everything," Fitzgerald said. "It's walking in the lobby and looking at the pictures, and you see the walls, and how old the walls are. These buildings have so much character."

New building to hold 18,800

Toronto's new building, to be shared by the National Basketball Association's Raptors, will hold 18,800 for hockey, about 3,000 more than the Gardens.

There will be lots of luxury boxes and a Jumbotron featuring four video screens.

The new arena sure does look spiffy in the color simulation on Page 13 of the Maple Leafs' 1998-99 media guide. And yes, the new building will bring in more revenue than the Gardens does.

But it's not the amenities that spawn tradition. Players do. Coaches do. Fans do.

And they do it by congregating together game after game under one roof, creating and sharing memories. That's what gives a building a life of its own.

Maple Leaf Gardens. Such a melodic ring, like Boston Garden and the Montreal Forum.

At least the Canadiens' new digs - the Molson Centre - has a neat nickname: "The Keg." What'll they call the Air Canada Centre - The Runway?

It's hard to imagine, and accept, this whole enterprise taking flight.

Milt Dunnell, in a tribute story for the Leafs' media guide, best summed up the Gardens' impending demise.

"You just feel sorry for the Air Canada Centre," he wrote. "The only alumni it has are guys wearing hard hats. You won't find any of them in the Hockey Hall of Fame."

Amen.