Mayor Rob Ford has vowed to do "everything in his power" to get the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts a new home field.[url]http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/07/23/ford-wants-a-football-stadium.html[/url]
Sounds like Rob Ford was impressed by IGF. Good news for the CFL
I like him, pipe or no pipe :lol:
Now watch MLSE and their zombies go after him !
While we all agree Toronto needs a new stadium but 35,000 is to big for Toronto but the issue for Toronto now is the FEds and Ontario have pumped a fair bit of money into the city be it the new subway line/Pan Am games he did not say that public money will be needed but if they do ask you can bet it will not go over well and wanting such a big stadium won’t help the cause.
[b]"We can either work with U of T, we can work with BMO [Field] or maybe we can work with Downsview or Woodbine," Ford said of the options for the stadium.But a U of T spokesman previously ruled out adding more seats to accommodate CFL coming to the 5,000-seat campus stadium. BMO Field, home to Toronto’s Major League Soccer team, Downsview and Woodbine would need renovations to host football. Similar discussions about moving the team to York University have also fell through in years’ past.
Regardless, Ford stressed the importance of a new place to play football in Toronto.
“We need a football stadium," he said, “especially after winning the Grey Cup.”[/b]
hmmm…
Its a good deal for both teams. MLS is in no position to dictate venues anyway. Its a lot easier to sell tax payers on upgrades instead of another stadium.
Well, if they build something expandable to NFL standards later it'd be easy to get Rogers on board.
NFL standards? I would think they would basically have to demolish the stadium and start from scratch or else do some major upgrades. NFL should it ever come to Toronto I would think is Downsview.
What is strange is that Toronto has the team worth the most money in the NHL and yet they can't hold a Winter Classic or whatever it's called there. Very weird.
I don’t think 35000 is too big. They had just under 30k in their home opener. Yeah, their 2nd game was low, but flooding and a Thursday game were also a factor. I think 30-35K is appropriate sized. I still believe attendance would increase with a more football friendly stadium as well. Even if you can get 25-28k in a 30-35k stadium, then sell out a few games a year such as LD, you are fine, and it gives room for growth.
I hope it goes through. The Argos need to stabilize.
I voted for him before and will continue.
He is the man.
The thing is if you build to big and 35,000 is reaching in Toronto is the avg attendance is 28,000-30,000 then sure you can say its not bad but if attendance goes down say to 22,000-24,000 then your going to have a major issue and sure it could go up as well but for Toronto or anywhere in Ontario building a 35,0000 is very very risky.
What if that meant a special tax to fund the stadium would you support that?
We are grossly overtaxed in this country.
However, since we here love the CFL so much, this is a Canadiana issue, one of only a few traditions left.
I would support it.
Would you?
This has to be a Toronto maybe Southern Ontario issue not a Canadian issue what i mean is the people of Toronto really want a new stadium fine but there will have to be a way to fund it with in Toronto not depend on the rest fo the country.
How about all levels of government contributing?
The city, province and the feds.
I think there should be a federal program for stadiums in Canada.
the thing is, even if he was a crack head…he pulled his act together well enough to get the job, and that would impress me even more!
Here’s the thing. My day job is as a civil servant. Every day, I see all kinds of things that are highly important to some people, sometimes a lot of people, that don’t get funded. There simply isn’t enough money to go around, and we can’t solve every problem by creating a custom tax for it. (Politicians love that because it gives them an excuse for not budgeting correctly.)
If we’re overtaxed as you think we are, you can’t then also say that there should be a new tax to pay for a stadium. Governments have to set priorities. So the question should instead be - what program are you willing to reduce or eliminate in order to pay for the stadium?
This is getting to be a major social and tax issue.
There is so much abuse and waste of tax dollars that simply put we need to control current spending and manage our hard earned tax money better.
The politicians have clearly shown so far they cannot do a decent job and have caused this gross waste that is hemorrhaging every hard working person in this land.
Having just come back from winnipeg, i found myself wondering about the cost of their new museum for human rights, how many people opposed it and how many people will actually go into it ( not just walk past it on their way to the forks) ?
It's funny, when the government funds a football stadium, everyone complains. But, the football stadium draws 30,000+ for 10 weeks a year and hosts a grey cup, concerts and other events that essentially will have the stadium pay for itself over time through taxes generated, jobs created and economic impact of visitors to those events.
Can a museum do the same?
I could be wrong, but I don't see the business case for museums or other 'artistic' venues when compared to sporting stadiums.
( winnipeg is pumping $200M into their zoo. Will they ever get that money back from zoo tickets? Hell no! )
Yet, it is the sports stadiums which seem to be the target of the ignorant masses.
Sometimes you have to build things that better the city and improve the quality of it's citizens regardless of if the money will be made back. Stadiums included.
A lottery for funding it, would probably be the perfect idea. Renoing BMO would be the most economical idea. If you reconfigure seating endzone seating so they can go to field level for the precious TFC and be able to retract for the Argos much like B.C. Place for the Lions and the Whitecaps. And add a second level to the side shown on tv, you should be able to get 35K seating no problem. As far as M(inor) LS, they have to live with non-soccer specific stadiums in Seattle and Vancouver, so why not Toronto. Renoing BMO would probably cost 50-60 million compared to 200 million build a new stadium.