I will pile on (pun intended) and say there is no way it ever happens ever.Originally Posted by Adamo23
I will pile on (pun intended) and say there is no way it ever happens ever.
Where is the petition I will be the first to sign it! Get the fuckers out!
why don't you not renew your season seats and tell them why, thats the only thing MLSE understands is $$$.
You can still support the club through games on TV.
petition isn't going to do shit.
Not renewing now will do little change as well. If one doesn't renew they are pretty much in the same boat - doing it for themselves and their piece of mind.
FORMER FULL TIME KOOL-AID DRINKER
the different being is you still have your $$ and they don't .. and you can tell them directly what you think.
I don't even think they would bother with FREE BEER to stop the petition. Maybe OP could get 15% flex pack tickets!
That's just it. You have Your money - but they have someone else's. We're at an upswing of renewals right now with expansion and having an MVP year. Renew or don't but do it for yourself not to "vote" or hurt the clubs pocket book. The difference is as much as a petition.
FORMER FULL TIME KOOL-AID DRINKER
I was being sarcastic it's too late for a petition this company does not care and they are going to get the most use out of BMO as they possibly can and that's why the Argos are here and these bastards are not going anywhere, I don't like it and I never will, but I like soccer too much not to renew and not go so they got me and got me good the bastards!
Essentially how it went down (in my eyes):
Rogers screwed Bell out of content by going for the hockey rights alone (believe they thought it was going to be split). Bell therefore needs to protect all the content it can, especially if it is Canadian content. Nobody wanted to buy the argos so bell stepped up to protect the league from too much instability in a self protective manner. At the same time Rogers with no ties to the argos told them the sweetheart deal they were given would be expiring and they were homeless.
LT has tried to get in on an NFL team in the past and I'm sure he still wants one in Toronto, he plays nice with the city to make any future dealings easier.
The byproduct of all of this is we get screwed around and shoehorned into an unfortunate situation.
With the $$$ at play no petition was ever going to stop this, all i hope for (beyond minimal damage to the pitch) is LT getting that NFL team and the argos moving into that stadium.
Last edited by Pint; 03-14-2016 at 02:51 PM.
This is pretty much exactly right.
But ill sign the petetion if it gets us Free Beer.
Agreed but I hope even more that there is a partnership for a similar sized stadium for the Argos and a CPL team
but ya I'll take the other way they'd move, too,
FORMER FULL TIME KOOL-AID DRINKER
That may be the kicker here... the exact contract that screwed bell and caused them to take such a protective stance on content may have lead them to invest (TV contract) in the CPL and give it the financial backing it needed to move ahead.
Maybe a CPL team comes to toronto and they share with the argos somewhere else (York/UofT)
Why didn't he buy the Bills when they were for sale? Will there ever be a cheaper way to get a team in Toronto?
From what I recall the Buffalo area billionaire paid well above market value for the team and promised to keep them in Buffalo.
What he paid sets the market price. And if e Bills were too expensive there will never be a cheaper way into the NFL.
We're with the Argos for at least ten years. The one promise I hope MLSE keeps is that on TFC games days we will not be able to tell it's a shared stadium.
The chances are not extremely slim, they are non-existent, zero, zilch, nada. Besides, if you know anything about Lamport, you would know that it holds only 10k and it's field is only 120 yards long. Could be a perfect home for the Canadian Premier League though.
MLSE holds the operating rights for Lamport. Under no circumstances would a pro sports team of any repute play there with the stands in their current configuration or primitive condition. They would be demo'ed and a whole new facility built. The footprint of land there is more than adequate to build another stadium for the Argos. It would make sense in so many ways, as a showcase venue on several levels for the Canadian game, but it won't ever happen.
This whole hare-brained idea of a Canadian soccer league will never fly in our lifetimes. Sure, it might get tried, but it will fail. Not the least of reasons is that the CFL is involved, trying to use this as a competitive league to undermine the current MLS clubs in Canada and possibly find a way to milk back some of the economic thunder taken from them by MLS.
The gridiron teams have seen MLS trample past the mocking disbelief they and their media allies long held about the game to compete strongly in Canada's three major markets for fans, sponsor dollars and media play. It has steadily proven to be a detriment to future CFL success as there simply aren't enough deep pockets in the CFL to sustain losses for long.
MLS is far too strong a competitor for it and its current Canadian members all come from cities that have long participated in the standard, top-flight North American pro sports league model of having cross-border play. We wouldn't settle for a diminished soccer experience in Toronto. We just finished two great games in New York that earned us very positive international media coverage. No one - not here nor out there - is going to give a farthing's worth of Fuchs about how a Toronto CSL side do against Saskatoon. Until our national population climbs above 100 million, a Canadian-only soccer league will never have enough appeal or commercial clout to succeed at the level of MLS.
Who needs another CFL? Or CSL, for those who not-so-fondly remember Le Circuit de Thundering Dale Barnes.
Last edited by greatwhitenorf; 03-14-2016 at 09:39 PM.
You know it is possible to support the CFL, TFC and the CPL all at the same time. Heck, its even possible to admire the effort and the idea of the CSL.
BTW, the CFL doesn't fear MLS at all. The CFL's issues in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver predate MLS. The CFL's issues in those 3 towns are competition for the entertainment $ from the vast amount of stuff we all can do in those towns. MLS is a small small SMALL part of all that.
CFL teams want to set up the CPL to get more revenue out of their stadium leases. Fair enough. Now, I have SERIOUS issues with the people hoping to set up the local CPL efforts in the different cities as I don't think they have a clue how to develop soccer culture. (Listen to this blog if you want to get a deep look into that issue https://soundcloud.com/footy-soldier...rleaguespecial )
But, doing this to get back at MLS? Do you really think the owners in Regina give a shit about MLS?!?! Nah, lets not flatter ourselves here.
Last edited by OgtheDim; 03-14-2016 at 09:55 PM.
Wow. Plenty tinfoil talk in this one. You seem pretty confident in your prediction. That's cool. But as for your bold "no one would care" theory that's just wrong. There is a market for it. The market just isn't the numbers that impress you. I don't see why CFL or MLS would be intimidated or undermined. CFL would look for partnership and the CPL would look to smaller markets to sustain rivalries with bigger market teams that would market to the same demo.
I can't see anyone feeling insecure about this prospect once its off the ground. And if it doesn't fly? So what. I don't see the harm in trying to grow the game here. Staying put or static doesn't make much sense if the upswell and growth is as strong you (and I) believe.
FORMER FULL TIME KOOL-AID DRINKER
^ Exactly right. And then there's the issue of TV ratings (or streaming, or whatever) and will there ever be any for MLS games outside of the three cities with teams? That leaves out a lot of potential viewers in the rest of the country.
Its actually simple - NFL doesn't allow for corporate ownership. LT didn't want (maybe not have) the amount needed to buy the Bills then enact MLSE as the contracted operators for the team.
Further to Pints points, TL was under immense political pressure to get this deal greased through. The MLSE board was in total disarray hence the spin off ownership materializing.
Road Trips: July 7 2007 Chicago, July 22nd 2007 Columbus, August 11 2007 NY, October 13 2007 LA, March 29 2008 Columbus, May 24th 2008 DC, May 26 2008 Montreal, June 28th 2008 NE, March 7-11-14 2009 Charleston, March 28 2009 Columbus, April 10 2010 New England, May 12 2010 Montreal, April 7 2012 Montreal, March 16 2013 Montreal , June 3 2014 Montreal, March 14 2015 Columbus
Twitter: @RPBPhil
The Bills bid put forth by Tanenbaum-BonJovi's group was used by the NFL as a stalking horse bid to force Terry Pegula to raise his purchase price to a level that was more in keeping with the NFL's average franchise value. NFL owners were quite happy to see it rise to $1.4 billion when initial bids were coming in not much above a paltry $800 million.
The bid from Toronto had no chance of succeeding once it hit seven figures and everyone knew it. But the upside for the Toronto group is that a lot of goodwill was generated. The game to bring NFL football here remains afoot.
TFC did 96,000 viewers on our season opener. Yes, the CFL gives no fucks about what the MLS is doing.
The owners in Regina do not give a shit about MLS. Nor is soccer in general given much consideration out there. Which is why the idea that a Regina-Winnipeg soccer game would attract much of an audience - live or televised - is absurd under present circumstances.
In general, the CFL is very concerned about MLS. That concern is part of their broader worries about what the sport of soccer as a whole represents as a damaging alternative to football in years to come. An alternative to kids who have to make choices about which sports they will play and what choices they will make about what they will support as they grow up and become fans.
This whole notion of the CFL owners wanting to partner up with soccer isn't about doing some sort of benevolent missionary work in Canadian sports. It's about finding ways to tap into undeniably growing revenue streams to leverage commercial relationships and help prop up their struggling league, not to make the game of soccer better.
Granted, if the Canadian municipalities that charitably paid for the stadiums that house CFL teams want to find other revenue-generating uses, that's understandable. But that probably means playing soccer on a plastic pitch. The Canadian game will not grow anything worthwhile on that surface. Good players will not play on it and proper fans won't watch those that do for long. There's nuances that have yet to be grasped by those advancing this proposal.
In the three Canadian MLS markets, there are only so many sponsorship dollars to go around and only so much media space for coverage. If soccer draws the very respectable live audiences it presently earns, it gets the coverage it deserves. With that coverage comes greater awareness that appeals to sponsors.
Without the presence of soccer, a decent amount of ticket sales, media coverage and sponsorships would have likely found their way to the CFL clubs instead. Enough to make a difference in these three most crucial markets.
Now, the appeal of football is undergoing further corrosion from mounting controversies over head injuries. High schools have long been moving away from football. My old school in North York once had junior and senior football teams. No more. But they do have soccer at both levels and shifting demographics have made cricket popular.
There's nothing to stop the CFL teams from trying to start a league. I won't support it. Their motives come across as specious at best.
'Atta boy, Rex!
Last edited by greatwhitenorf; 03-15-2016 at 10:57 AM.
huh.
FORMER FULL TIME KOOL-AID DRINKER
Goodwill counts for nothing. The NFL will always go to the highest bidder and that won't be in Toronto in my lifetime anyway. The NFL in Toronto is not an issue when it comes to keeping lines off the BMO pitch, which is really my only concern. If MLSE keep their promise that on game days we won't be able to tell it is a shared facility then nothing else matters to me.
I have to stop clicking on this one.
Goodwill has nothing to do with it. Don't hold your breath.
Toronto and NFL will not happen until pay per view TV completely destroys network television and the great American (football and network tv) intertwine. Present NFL tv contracts nets billions and the return to LA is related to making those networks happy. Canadian viewership means nothing to US networks, NFL Canadian tv contract is nickel and dime stuff to the mighty NFL.
btw
And next Super Bowl the CRTC is promising American ads available to Canadian viewers?? A people pleaser, but an economic head scratcher. CTV(Bell) and the NFL are appealing that decision... I guess NFL cares enough to attempt to protect Bell's investment...
I don't think it's the CFL owners driving this, but TSN and its owner Bell. The CSA has a vested interest in getting this league off the ground in order to put a bid on the 2026 World Cup. They must know this will be a money-losing venture for the first decade of existence, but are looking at the long-term implications for professional sports in Canada.
In Ottawa, attendance increased over the inaugural season. Granted there were a number of free tickets passed on to kids under 14, but I went to most of the games and the 5000+ that usually came to watch and the supporters made it feel like an authentic experience, even if they did play on turf. I wouldn't be surprised if FIFA tried to stage a World Cup here to legitimize turf once and for all.
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