Tim Leiweke arrived here and deserved to be treated with open minds from most fans. However, if you're a Tottenham Hotspur supporter - and I am - you have a different perspective of Leiweke's motives and methods.
If you follow English football, you know how densely populated London is with 14 professional clubs within greater London and many more just around it, like Watford on the northern verges. Here's quick link to a map:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_in_London
Well established rules exist regarding how clubs may move within their own territory but may not move into another club's area without proper permission. And, no, I'm not going to hammer gypsy Arsenal for moving across the River Thames.
You can look up online what all the details were with the bidding process, but when the London Olympics were over, there was a need to do something productive and revenue generating with the stadium site which, in the fine English tradition, was already a financial fiasco.
West Ham bid to take the stadium as it was (new, expensive retractable stands are now going in) but Spurs, with Leiweke playing a big role, proposed to move there and build a brand new, football-only stadium. The stands from the Olympic stadium would be moved to the old historic home of British athletics, Crystal Palace, in south London, where a 40,000 capacity stadium would be built along with a training and administration centre for UK Athletics.
But the unthinkable had been put forward by Spurs. Move out of their traditional home site to an area that is now considered home turf to both West Ham and, even moreso, Leyton Orient(currently in good shape for promotion to the Championship League). The fallout from this bid was heavy on both sides of the fence. Many Spurs fans were appalled that the club could countenance a move away from their historic home. West Ham and Orient fans were equalled dismayed at the prospect of a Premier League heavyweight moving onto their manor. The consequences for a financially struggling West Ham were extremely negative as far as their future prospects went. Spurs management saw protests from their own anxious fans precede many home games during the bidding process. They didn't want to abandon their historic home turf.
Happily, the deal didn't go down. West Ham won the bid(a filthily corrupt process that went to court and was resolved with punitive terms) and Spurs have received zoning approval to build a new stadium to rival Arsenal's 60,000 seater, with the possibility of housing a new NFL franchise (yeah, MLSE are helping in marketing endeavours with that one).
The upshot of all this foofarraw is that Leiweke - as an Anschutz Entertainment Group(AEG) executive - was at the forefront of a bid that created all manner of disharmony and unrest for several years while this deal got sorted out. Despite the possibility of ripping out an historic club from an equally historic home and causing no end of problems for two clubs long-established in the area they aimed to move into, this deal was pushed forward and ardently pursued. I've never heard or read Leiweke express any sincere concerns or feelings about this unsettling process. It may well have been a carefully executed bargaining manoeuver to help Spurs get the best possibility from their local borough council and the city of London, but no one from AEG was back-pedalling on it at any time. It was go-go-go the entire time it was up for grabs.
It was a rather soulless act, when it was all said and done. The fabric of the game and it's long-established history and local rivalries, were subject to dog's abuse and AEG and Leiweke were right in the midst of it.
So when I see him dicking around with a good thing here in Toronto that has the potential to be a great thing, I get my quills up. I don't hate the Argos for one second. I loved them as a boy. I'm indifferent to them nowadays. But TFC and the game of soccer in general have a good thing going at BMO Field. And here's this guy again looking to pick at the seams of what we have woven as the fabric of the Toronto sports scene and pit two sets of fans from two great clubs against one another, so that, when it all comes down to the nutty crunchy, MLSE can stage outdoor Leafs hockey games to assuage their corporate ego.
It has the potential to wreck things, badly, for both clubs. But mostly TFC.