Open Letter to Richard Peddie
http://www.thenorthendelite.com/
Richard Peddie
President and CEO
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment
40 Bay Street
Toronto, ON M5J 2N8
Dear Richard Peddie,
This letter is from the members of the North End Elite supporters group of Toronto FC. Our membership implores your organization to oppose any retrofit that would change the soccer-specific status of BMO Field.
Toronto FC has obviously been one of the great expansion success stories in recent sports history. This is not news to you. It's a safe bet that the team has handsomely exceeded all the financial targets that your managers set for it.
We feel it's crucial that you and your fellow executives understand why Toronto FC has been such a success. If you heard John Carver's recent public outburst against just about every player in TFC red you'll know it's not breathtaking soccer that brings 20,000 through the gate every game. From the calamity that was Adam Braz through the comical efforts of Jeff Cunningham this has been a bad team to watch and support.
The main ingredients in the Toronto FC miracle have been the supporters and the stadium.
BMO Field is the national soccer stadium, or at least it's supposed to be. It's a big reason why the city's sophisticated soccer fans bought into Toronto FC. It's a real soccer stadium. It's rectangular. It's intimate, with stands close to the pitch. European-style soccer nets are just one of the many accessories that add to the feel.
It's a shame there isn't a real grass pitch. Players are starting to reject the opportunity to join us because of the pitch. Our own national team doesn't want to play in the supposed national stadium because of the pitch. As we travel throughout the league we discover gorgeous superior soccer-specific stadiums superior to our own with lush grass pitches.
But generally we're happy with what we have.
Allow a retrofit for Canadian football and the value proposition for a fan changes dramatically. A CFL-sized field won't come close to fitting the current BMO Field footprint. Stands would have to be moved. And scrub all you want but you can't completely remove yard-lines and sponsors' logos from a gridiron field. Others have tried with laughable results.
The soccer feel will be gone. And so will we.
Some of us may stay to give it a try. But the spirit will be gone. Noise levels are not all that distinguish Toronto FC supporters from their drab Toronto cousins. The spirit and creativity of the supporters have fused to form a remarkable mass collaborative effect. From the news value of the supporters' boards to the chants and the colourful visual displays, the Toronto FC fans have created on their own a marketing effect that would have cost you millions. What's the team worth, by the way? If the 2011 expansion teams will fetch $40-million what is your team worth?
Whatever it is, it seems to us a lot of money to gamble by encouraging an Argos retrofit. If you're playing with the stadium's soccer specificity then you're playing with the supporters and thus you're gambling with the two things that have made this special. It's why you have 9,000 fans on your waiting list. They're not there because they're desperate to see Marco Velez. They're there because BMO Field is the place to be in Toronto. But it won't be the place to be when the atmosphere is gone and trust us, the atmosphere will be gone if you do this.
Maybe you can make it work. Maybe you'll give us a removable grass pitch as part of an Argo deal. Maybe modern science will mean we'll never notice that stands have been moved.
As a group we doubt it.
As a group we want you to know with all certainty that we do not support this and never will. We want you to know that the very viability of your franchise is at stake.
Yours respectfully,
The Members of The North End Elite
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Originally Posted by mclaren
