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Ford Wants NFL Team For Toronto

GenerationW said:
I only watch the Leafs. That's enough of a burden. I watch the NFL as well by the way.

Canada was in the '86 World Cup. And yes, by an act of Parliament I am officially allowed to tell people who they can cheer for.

I could own it too in theory. The point is four groups are mentioned but no one is named and no one is quoted. The Fords were clearly grandstanding. They sent up a trial balloon and almost everyone in the media shot it down.

A massive lie and an ignorant statement. Your credibility just went out the window.
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Not true. Western Canada consist of the Majority of CFL fans.
 
theterribleone said:
So I support my parentd country.
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Ah, I hadn't realised you were an immigrant.

Oh dear, your not one of those come watches Canada plays once a decade when their country of birth plays Canada, but can't be bothered to come watch Canada play anyone else.
 
I'm not going to say what I've witnessed at my workplace is indicative of others', but lots of people at worked talk about the NFL in general and the SuperBowl. I've never heard anyone talk about the Argos. Leafs yes certainly. Jays maybe once or twice. Raptors no. I haven't interviewed people on whether they'd want an NFL team, but I have no objection to it personally. As others have pointed out, we share baseball, hockey and basketball with the US already, so why not football? And as Ford said, if the CFL and NFL teams had common ownership, they could benefit each other.
 
Well, CC, you're the first person I've heard - other than the Brothers Ford - that is willing to give this idea a go. Even the Sun and the Post, and their genuinely Ford-supporting online commenters, are dead set against the idea of bringing the NFL to town.

I think there's a big difference between having a MLB baseball team or an NBA basketball team from having an NFL football team. As jn-12 pointed out, what really matters is the TV rights and the franchising of the team, not stadium attendance (let alone the "size" of a metropolitan market), which is why a city like Green Bay, WI which is the size of London, Ontario, can have one of the strongest franchises.

I also think most Canadians underestimate just how "big" football is to the American psyche, and therefore how big it is economically. While we think that we're crazy about hockey, only a tiny fraction of Canadians would do something like spend a lot of their after-tax income following their favourite team around from game to game, or invite their extended family to set up a picnic in front of the arena 6 hours before the puck drops. I was recently in Scottsdale, AZ when the Bowl Championship Series game (to decide the winner of NCAA Division 1A football) was in town, and the euphoria in the air, the sheer number of out-of-state license plates, and the amount of merchandising and advertising that you were assaulted with from the airport all the way into town made it feel like the Olympics had rolled in. I don't think that a couple of Canadians talking about the NFL at the water cooler are going to compete with a fan base like that.
 
Hipster Duck said:
, only a tiny fraction of Canadians would do something like spend a lot of their after-tax income following their favourite team around from game to game, or invite their extended family to set up a picnic in front of the arena 6 hours before
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lol, never been to Regina before a Riders game, I see :p

I think something else NFL supporters don't think about is that it is kind of a slap in the face of Canadians elsewhere in the country. Toronto already has a reputation for being "too good for Canada" and when they root for an American team over the domestic league, it really kind of feels like an insult to even non CFL fans in the ROC. Toronto may like to be world class and all that, but you're leaving behind the very thing that makes this city unique, its Canadianness. NFL is a symptom of that.
 
lafard said:
lol, never been to Regina before a Riders game, I see :p

I think something else NFL supporters don't think about is that it is kind of a slap in the face of Canadians elsewhere in the country. Toronto already has a reputation for being "too good for Canada" and when they root for an American team over the domestic league, it really kind of feels like an insult to even non CFL fans in the ROC. Toronto may like to be world class and all that, but you're leaving behind the very thing that makes this city unique, its Canadianness. NFL is a symptom of that.
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IMO these people already hate Toronto anyway. Besides the accuse Toronto of not wanting to be apart of Canada when most accuse the CBC of left wing bias, even though I have never seen it? Just waving the flag and eating Tim's = /= Canada.
 
Considering the talent on the Canadian Men'st team, Canadians should be supporting their team. It makes me ill when I see more fans of opposing countries in the stands than Canadian fans.
 
Hipster Duck said:
While we think that we're crazy about hockey, only a tiny fraction of Canadians would do something like spend a lot of their after-tax income following their favourite team around from game to game, or invite their extended family to set up a picnic in front of the arena 6 hours before the puck drops. I was recently in Scottsdale, AZ when the Bowl Championship Series game (to decide the winner of NCAA Division 1A football) was in town, and the euphoria in the air, the sheer number of out-of-state license plates, and the amount of merchandising and advertising that you were assaulted with from the airport all the way into town made it feel like the Olympics had rolled in. I don't think that a couple of Canadians talking about the NFL at the water cooler are going to compete with a fan base like that.
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The NFL season is much much shorter than the NHL's, so it's much easier to sustain that sort of intensity. At most a Super Bowl winner plays 20 games. A Stanley Cup winner plays at least 98. If the Leafs played only 16 games a season I think this city would plotz.

edit: I assume NCAA teams play a similar amount of games?
 
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An NFL team would pretty much kill the exisitence of the CFL and the cultural distinction it brings with it, all the way down to grass roots level. From the rules, the dimension of highschool fields, and the way the game is treated to the recruiting, and academic treatment of our University students (which already happens in certain schools).

It's not just an 'NFL' team. It's a bit of a cultural a-bomb.
One more sliver of cultural integration that canadians would now share with our slight wacky cousins down south.

This is a bad idea.

The jobs created will be american pro-atheletes, with tax breaks due to non-residency statuses, at least with the CFL, certain number of Canadian players are mandated, all pay Canadian income tax, etc.

Plus, why does Toronto need another LOSING pro franchise?
 
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nfitz said:
Nor does New York City. However New Jersey has two.

Do we want to be New York or New Jersey.
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Well N.Y. does have the Jets, they're just headquartered in N.J. But the thing is, Football is overall a suburban sport and draws most of its fanbase from the suburbs not the urban core. Put a stadium in Mississauga or Vaughn and it'll do well -put it downtown and it'll die a slow expensive taxpayer funded death.

If anything I'd like to see a proper baseball stadium built before I ever see an NFL football team set up shop in T.O.

And I don't really care how the west perceives the city. We could develop a cure for cancer and they'd still hate us, decide it wasn't a Canadian enough cure or that we leeched the money out of their coffers to produce it.
 
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