B.Knight: The battle of BMO Field
Knight: The battle of BMO Field
The Toronto Argonauts say they're just testing the waters. Toronto FC fans are mobilizing to fight them on the beaches.
The Argos recently sent out a survey to their season ticket holders, and one of the questions asked was how everyone feels about CFL football in the cozy outdoor intimacy of BMO Field. Seems a nice enough idea. Do what the Alouettes did in Montreal vacate a cold concrete chasm and sell out a tiny little gem of a park. Good for the game, good for the fans, good for everybody.
But really bad for soccer, and for the team and fans that have already claimed Canada's so-called national soccer stadium for their own.
And the fight
is
on!
Some historic background: When plans for the stadium were first unveiled in the steaming summer of 2002, the Canadian Soccer Association was actively counting on the Argos to be part of the plan. But the Boatmen were saddled with utterly incompetent ownership, and could not be reached for any kind of believable comment.
But then came that happy at the time news that David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski had bought the CFLers. Practically the first thing they did was embrace soccer and the new stadium.
Things didn't work out. Everything looked set for a gleaming new park up at York University, and then the Argos signed a new lease at SkyDome and the entire soccer stadium project looked dead.
But then
Toronto Mayor David Miller offered to pump in $10-million bucks if the park was built at the Exhibition grounds on the waterfront. That suddenly made an MLS expansion team make sense to Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. In a blinding round of handshakes, deals and happiness, both Toronto FC and BMO Field was born. A delicious little soccer park with seats almost up to the touchlines has been winning hearts and loyalty ever since.
And now, the Argos are interested?
Couple of problems, people. The playing surface at BMO Field is officially 40 yards too short to accommodate a CFL field. A major reconstruction and expansion of the building would be necessary before the Argos could play there. And that sits very badly with the most passionate and politically powerful group of fans this town has yet seen.
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