Argonauts dropped from plans to Reno BMO field

Well that is the upside for me and the beauty of it, now I never have to spend a dime going to BMO and helping to support soccer and TFC or spending money at a city of Toronto facility, keeps me from having to spend money there, nice! :wink: For the time being, maybe Vaughan or York will work out.

Please TFC fans, keep getting giddier if you please. :wink: I still think though that I will end up spending money at BMO for gridiron and the Argos. :wink: :?

Well...my suggestion is to give a Lamport Stadium reno a hard look. Apart from that, I don't see where else you can put the Argos.

I agree, that’s what a league that believes in itself and its product would have done. Considering the revenues from the two GC anything would have been better than having one owner own two clubs. Would also have given Cohon ONE vote at the table and he would have been negotiating with the league on behalf of the owners…

It also causes a credibility problem for the league. If the Argos are not worth investing in for the league why should anyone else do. When the NHL had a problem in Phoenix, they put their money where their mouth is.

Between the labour strife and this the optics for the league are the worst they’ve been since the collapse of the US expansion. Its a “f%$#&^& disaster”.

What, where is Lamport stadium ?

No looking good…

The city is expected to sign off on the revised, soccer-only plan. MLSE has received assurances that the province will do likewise if the Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne survives a June 12th election. Wynne currently leads in the polls.
How could the CFL completely but completely miss the parade happening in front of their very eyes.

Braley is going to sell the Argos soon or the CFL will operate it for a while or they will shut the team down and put it into dormancy like Ottawa, still visible on the website ie. not dead. No credibility problem at all, the league has done fine with 8 teams anyways. Two teams is enough in Ontario really.

Although few here will agree with me, there is a method in the "madness" here. I think. The Argos are not as much of a deal as many would have you believe.

As an Ottawa fan, I can tell you from extensive experience that that’s not the case. :expressionless:

Lets face it , there is a lot more at play here then the 10 million from the Feds, Mlse do not want the CFL at BMO , never have....However it seemed necessary to accommodate the Argo's to advance their own agenda of "out door hockey games" and a stepping stone to a possible NFL franchise.
Right now the city holds the cards (again) , it is up to them to approve the revamped plans for BMO minus the Argo's..........I find it difficult to believe they will do this .

There is a solution for the CFL as Hfx has stated ,......... the CFL /owners can go and get a loan from one of their banking partners(and in return become a partner in the expansion and thus hopefully reap some rewards of the revenue of a expanded BMO ) in the appropriate amount and contribute it to a CFL friendly BMO . In other words make up the shortfall of monies from the gov't.

By doing this it defiinately puts the pressure on MLSE about whether they are serious about BMO accomodating the CFL. It also makes the CFL look pretty good in the eyes of the public and local politicans.

I see this whole thing/mess as being solvable by the CFL , if they have the will to do so.

Yes Pike and this is already solvable from the CFL's point of view and the Argos, the CFL knows exactly what it's going to do in whatever scenario transpires, and then there is the issue of MLSE and the NFL and the NFL may see something going on or not going on with the Argos as ammunition for what they want to do with the Bills.

The game is just now at the end of the first period, or maybe halfway through the second, in hockey speak. :wink:

Why don't the Argos, Varsity Blues and York all collaborate on a football-only specific stadium? Calgary, Winnipeg and Montreal (Percival stadium) all did it.

Agreed the Argos/CFL need to come up with the 10 Million now, so they can hold MLSE feet to the fire, because i can tell you right now whats going to happen. Just like when MLSE told the city they will run the building operation of BMO, then with no one looking over MLSE building plans, MLSE went out and poured concrete endzones, which of course made them permanent and a huge cost to blow them up. This will happen again. MLSE will do the upgrades to BMO, ensuring that a CFL team can never fit in this space without huge money to refit the staduim.The CFL/Argos had a huge chance to ensure long term stability for this team. This should have been priority#1, but again they blew it. I don’t understand this league, that i love sometimes. Also only in Toronto, would people be dancing and rejoyicing on the fact that a Canadian institution may now fold, so the 85th best soccer league in the world can keep their home stadium just for soccer. makes me sick

flutie, most of those soccer fans feel threatened by the CFL and that Argos might be more popular in BMO than their soccer team so it’s no wonder they rejoice, it’s out of fear IMHO. :wink:

I’d love to see the Argos partner with York and do it there. Isn’t training camp at York this year?

Would also convince the players union that they are REAL about investing in the franchises. Can’t see the union taking a position that would cost them 12 percent of their membership’s job.

Not in a good part of town.
No or very little room to renovate, no parking and overall the place is a dump.

I agree with you to a point. but there are two big issues you have to think about.

TSN did not pay 45 million for a TV contract with no presence in Toronto. How is that contract written I don’t know but one thing is for sure the contract is no longer worth the same to TSN. Would they tear it up ? Who knows one thing is for sure the CFL would not be in a great position after not even giving Rogers or CBC a crack at it last time.

Does it increase the chance of the NFL setting up shop in Toronto. I don’t think so but according to the CFL it might.

Why doesn’t the great leader and saviour to the Argos David Braley get his $10 million of free money from the government for holding the 100th grey cup and invest it into renovating bmo field? There is no way the city would reject the Argos playing at bmo field if that was to occur! Another thing why hasn’t anyone from the Argos organization ever come out and address the Argos fans in the city into what they are trying to do and what there future will be? They have remained silent for far to long? Is it the fact that Braley/rudge and the boyz have been sitting around doing nothing as usual with regards to this situation? Ml$e has no problem to set up and have weekly meetings and announcements with there fans of the tfc to what they plan on doing with there team.

Lamport stadium is in a good location but is in bad shape the whole place would be needed to be taken down if the Argos were to play there. Only guy I could possibly think that they could invest a few hundread dollars to the place and think it would be ok to play there would be cheapskate braley.

Lamport is actually in a very nice part of town (the trendy Liberty Village, with lots of restaurants and bars) and there are huge parking lots close by at the Ex grounds. However, it has been reported credibly that the stadium footprint could not accommodate the space needed for expansion so it’s almost certainly a non-starter.

It’s on a parcel that’s only marginally smaller then Ivor Wynne’s, but I think you’d be looking at a knockdown, rebuild from scratch.

[url=https://www.google.ca/maps/place/42+Pardee+Ave/@43.637694,-79.422778,3a,75y,352.41h,91.77t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sAo0Z8Aco2WFgVhh2OhoQvw!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x882b3506e29656cb:0xed0326f33024bf2d]https://www.google.ca/maps/place/42+Par ... f33024bf2d[/url]

It’s on the other side of the exhibition tracks, I believe there is a pedestrian tunnel that goes under the tracks to reach the place (see bellow).

[url=https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Allan+A.+Lamport+Stadium/@43.63613,-79.419696,3a,75y,122.28h,88.99t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1spSARFCjyGco12fPccydbXw!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x882b3500af0e00c3:0xab51dd3c2e72b7a9]https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Allan+ ... 3c2e72b7a9[/url]

The Argos don’t need temporary expansion for a Grey Cup. I’m sure Rogers isn’t going to object to once every 5-10 years the Argos renting the Dome for a Grey Cup and packing the place. As far as expansion If the Argos get bigger in TO, I’m sure some work could be done in the endzones for more tickets.