Can Toronto Handle the Next-Generation Real Estate Tycoon?

Today’s players of the board game Monopoly probably believe those properties and railroads are made-up names from some fictitious land, but they were all prominent in the then nicknamed “World’s Playground” — Atlantic City, New Jersey.

As you can tell from playing the game, it is not a recent invention — c’mon ... weekly salary of $200? Land purchase for $60? House construction of $150? The game was invented in the early 1900s and climbed to prominence in the 1930s.

Since then it has spawned various special and limited editions (hundreds of them, actually, all around the world), including Star Wars and James Bond versions, an edition for each of the major U.S. sports leagues, and even Disney princesses and Family Guy versions. Canada got its own licensed edition back at the turn of the century.

Each, of course, has its own special traits for buying “properties” and paying penalties, erecting housing and hotels, and charging other players rent in order to bankrupt them and gain a real-estate investor monopoly in the city.

So, in order to broaden its audience, game distributors (originally Parker Brothers and then Hasbro) licensed the concept of Monopoly to other markets in order to create games relevant to specific cities. The first such occurrence came in 1994, when San Diego got its own version of Monopoly.

Since then, there have been versions of large cities such as London, Hong Kong (though it did have an unlicensed edition back in the ’60s) and Las Vegas, and there have also been some minor city editions for places such as Menomonie (Wisconsin), Teaneck (New Jersey) and Cedar Rapids (Iowa). There were also unlicensed editions prior to 1994 in various places around the world, including Cape Town, South Africa, and Brussels, Belgium.

But all of this history leads us to the fact that there has never been a Monopoly edition centric to one of our great Canadian cities, most notably Toronto, which is regarded as the business capital of Canada and which features one of the fastest-growing city cores for development in North America.

Well, all of that may change with the news that Hasbro will make several new editions as part of the game’s 80th Anniversary celebrations. Right now, the call seems to be to make property spaces for great world cities in the grand World board game, with fans of the game (and the city, I suppose) registering votes on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #VoteMonopoly. There is even a special vote in for lesser known places (Dildo, Newfoundland, perhaps?) for the two final property spaces (presumably to replace Mediterranean and Baltic Avenues). The final list of properties is due to be announced mid-March.

But why doesn’t Toronto have its own Monopoly board? We certainly have the districts and locations to fill the board. The four railroad stations could be large transportation hubs, such as Union Station, Toronto Downtown Airport, Downsview and Pearson International.

And upscale locations such as Lawrence Park, Rosedale, Forest Hill, Yorkdale and The Bridle Path would form a formidable avenue leading up to the week-ending payday of $200 (OK, maybe that has to change substantially) that would bankrupt any wannabee real-estate tycoon in short order.

Toronto is regarded as a world class city and it deserves to be recognized as such by people of all ages. Generations from now, and if the world continues to change as quickly as it is prone to, grandparents could be playing the game with their grandchildren and explaining to them about the value of properties in the great metropolis of Toronto.

Besides, wouldn’t it sound good to turn over a Chance card and read “Take a walk on The Bridle Path...?”

To have Toronto included on the global Monopoly board, click here and vote today!