Turf the artificial turf at BMO Field - Jeff Blair

[markus]

Jeff Blair

Turf the artificial turf at BMO Field

MLSE appears to be frittering away a chance to turn Toronto into a prime destination for the world's most popular sport...

READ MORE (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/soccer/turf-the-artificial-turf-at-bmo-field/article1151146/)

[Canary Canuck]

WoW! With so many soccer haters in the media it always comes as a refreshing shock when a journalistic expert on a mainstream sport (baseball) speaks with knowledge and passion about soccer. Bravo Jeff Blair!

Let's get Blair on the TSN The Reporters on sunday mornings to balance out Simmons and his smug ignorance.

[Roogsy]

Thank you Jeff.

Thank you thank you thank you.

[nascarguy]

this was a funny part

" The Buffalo Bills are rumoured to be one of five teams interested in disgraced quarterback Michael Vick. Why am I not surprised? "

[Redcoe15]

WoW! With so many soccer haters in the media it always comes as a refreshing shock when a journalistic expert on a mainstream sport (baseball) speaks with knowledge and passion about soccer. Bravo Jeff Blair!

Let's get Blair on the TSN The Reporters on sunday mornings to balance out Simmons and his smug ignorance.
Blair appears on Prime Time Sports, which rules him out for anything on TSN. Besides, he and Brunt have a hard enough time holding down McCown's purposeful igmorance.

[prizby]

comment off the article, i found interesting



So taxpayers foot 85% of the bill on the condition that it be useful to the community, but now we should just forget that? If MLSE wants it that badly, they should find a way to use grass for their games and still have an artificial surface for the community. Wouldn't be cheap, but that's their problem.

Oh, and what's so wrong with Vancouver being a major centre for soccer in Canada? This city has supported the sport as well as any in Canada (better than Toronto) historically.



while it might be a good article, i am still under the belief that nothing will happen

[nascarguy]

mlse need to just own about 65% to have any say about what goes on at bmo field

[flatpicker]

I don't see why there is much of a roadblock with this.
How hard would it be to bubble Lamport?
Seems like that would be a pretty easy solution.

[arbogast]

Why does't MLSE just pony up the cash for, at a bare minimum, a controlling interest in BMO and then do whatever the hell it wants with the place?

[ilikemusic]

Another one of Bob McCown's regular guests/co-hosts.

Anybody who thinks him and his show are useless simply arent listening to it.

He has the most intelligent writers in Canada on his show every day.

Save for Jim Kelly. :p

Soccer on fake turf is a bastardization.

Hes reading my posts. :lol:

[Blizzard]

Another one of Bob McCown's regular guests/co-hosts.

Anybody who thinks him and his show are useless simply arent listening to it.

He has the most intelligent writers in Canada on his show every day.

Save for Jim Kelly. :p

Soccer on fake turf is a bastardization.

Hes reading my posts. :lol:

I agree. It's quality programming ... and don't take him seriously on his anti-soccer schtick guys. He's just playing with you!

B

[Cambridge_Red]

Or build a soccer complex... :D

[Blizzard]

Why has nobody mentioned this quote: "… What separates Danny Dichio from all the other guys that play up front for Toronto FC is that he doesn't panic when he actually finds the ball at his feet. I don't know if he has the wheels to log as much time as he did Saturday, when he was the most influential player on the pitch against the New England Revolution, but I'd ride him to the bitter end. … "

[Kristofager]

Great piece Mr. Blair..........There are so many people who watch all the top leagues in the world and then when they watch TFC playing on that plastic pitch, it just takes away from the whole experience and they dont take TFC serious because the FO isnt taking the sport serious...and not to mention looks horrible when the ball keeps bouncing around....

[billyfly]

Why does't MLSE just pony up the cash for, at a bare minimum, a controlling interest in BMO and then do whatever the hell it wants with the place?

B/c they don't own the land and they probably don't think its a very good business decision to own the building but not the land.

[Boudge]

Build a new stadium!

[Pookie]

Why does't MLSE just pony up the cash for, at a bare minimum, a controlling interest in BMO and then do whatever the hell it wants with the place?

Probably because it cost $27 million from the Feds, $8 million from the Province and $9.8 million from the city.

That's a lot of ponies for a team that generated an operating income of just $2.1M

[Pookie]

Quote of the article for me:

What's wrong with putting down grass and keeping BMO Field just for soccer? Surely with all the kids playing soccer in this country and the game's social health strengths compared to other sports (cost of equipment, physical benefits, stuff like that), it wouldn't do anybody any harm to show it some friggin' respect.

[rocker]

Quote of the article for me:

What's wrong with putting down grass and keeping BMO Field just for soccer? Surely with all the kids playing soccer in this country and the game's social health strengths compared to other sports (cost of equipment, physical benefits, stuff like that), it wouldn't do anybody any harm to show it some friggin' respect.

yes, I'm sick of this multi-use ideology that permeates all stadium discussions over the past 20 years. multi-use ends up satisfying nobody completely.

There's nothing wrong with spending money on specific use facilities. The opera house downtown isn't a movie theatre on the side, or a rock concert venue. And I can't rent it to have my students sing opera on the stage after hours. It received government funding, yet nobody complains it isn't a multi-use facility. Yet for some reason a soccer stadium doesn't get that respect.

[Marco2K]

i dont believe they made only 2.1 million last year. They sell tonness of jerseys and beers every game. the whole season is sold out.

[flatpicker]

Build a new stadium!

I would be all for it if they could find a way to sell BMO to the Argos.
Problem would be finding another suitable place to build a new soccer stadium.

[Blazer]

"Soccer on fake turf is a bastardization." :smilielol5:

Can someone help me on getting this quote attached to all of my posts? How do I make it my signature kinda thing? Anyone?

[Parkdale]

^ signatures are for members only.

[Pookie]

i dont believe they made only 2.1 million last year. They sell tonness of jerseys and beers every game. the whole season is sold out.

That's what was reported in Forbes magazine. That's "net operating income" so wouldn't necessarily include 1 time cash infusions such as transfer fees.

It's a slim margin in this game, they may be sold out but the average ticket price is under $40 and they have under 20 home games (16 of which are MLS games, the others being friendlies and this Nutralite Championship).

They do not have a national TV contract and command in the area of 200,000 viewers which impacts what they can draw from advertisers.

[menefreghista]

The merchandise lines are minuscule now at BMO Field compared to the first season and even last season.

[Dbl_D]

why don't they give MLSE the stadium like they gave our 1billion $ skydome to rogers...? or even... make the skydome multiuse and let the kiddies kick the ball around there in the winter... our billion spent there is significantly more than the ~40 spent on bmo

[Dbl_D]

The merchandise lines are minuscule now at BMO Field compared to the first season and even last season.

there only so much TFC merchandise my wife lets me buy... ;)

[Thomas Jacusy]

I think that the stadium just needs the little maintenance to make
it good and better to safe play on the field.

[razor787]

Was it really necessary to bump a 4 year old thread for that statement?

[Eastend]

Can you say Troll?

[Initial B]

C'mon guys, cut the new guy some slack. We need all the fans we can get. ^_^

[shwade]

I could have sworn the BMO pitch was replaced with real grass a couple of years ago. What am I thinking about?

[TOBOR !]

Maybe dude wanted to post about the condition of the pitch and searched for a relevant thread first.

[TOBOR !]

On second thought, after reading dude's other post on the subject, I have no idea what's going on.

[JavierMartini]

On second thought, after reading dude's other post on the subject, I have no idea what's going on.

+1 for the troll, got me good.

5 minutes of my life i'll never have back :o