Toronto BMO Field Renovations | ?m | ?s | MLSE | Gensler

Recently the Argos owners said (once again) that they'd like to play at BMO field. I could go into detail why this won't happen but Ben Knight has a really good post on his blog about why this will never happen. It's a great read and provides some great ammo for all those who oppose anything but soccer at BMO.

http://onwardsoccer.com/?p=1817
Keep sailing, Argos!
Filed in Blog Entries on Nov.30, 2009
By Ben Knight

Years back, my memory recalls an incident in a prominent Northern Ontario city I’m just about certain was Sault Ste. Marie.

A major curling event was scheduled, and curling ice installed in the big arena. The local junior hockey team – displaced for two weeks by the intricate subtleties of high-level rock-throwing – were departing on an extended road trip.

But before they left, some of the players thought it would be amusing fun to don their blades, and do some hard skating drills on the curling ice.

The ice was destroyed. The event nearly had to be cancelled. Curlers the world over reacted in horror. Hockey folk didn’t much get what all the fuss was about.

And here we are again, perhaps – as one more time the Toronto Argonauts seek to cast the carnivorous cleats in the general direction of BMO Field.

Just as curling ice needs to be smooth, even and free of gouging ruts, so too does soccer grass require protection from the grinding, concentrated destruction of gridiron football. What is the point of building a real soccer stadium, and finally being allowed to install truly good grass, if the surface is destroyed nine or more times a year by a brutal, gouging, grinding rival game?

Soccer fans are already reacting in horror. The problem is getting CFL fans – and local politicians – to care.

For what it’s worth, though, I don’t get the sense the Argo invasion is actually all that serious a threat this time around.

The team is losing games and money at an appalling clip. We’ve recently learned that their owners are being financially propped up by the owner of the British Columbia Lions – and have been since they arrived.

The Argos famously bailed out of two earlier, abandoned Toronto soccer stadium plans, primarily using Canada’s hosting of the FIFA Under-20 men’s tournament in 2007 as leverage for a better rent deal at the Dome With Sky Formerly Known As SkyDome.

Now, with the team up for sale, any and everything that could make the Boatmen seem more attractive is – once again – in play.

But before we start getting the entire south-end support section of ravenous Toronto FC fans stomping and chanting at every single Toronto City Council meeting throughout 2010, let’s take a collective deep breath, and consider … the obstacles.

- The playing surface at BMO Field is 75 yards wide. That’s sufficient for the CFL, although it leaves next to nothing for the huge bench areas most gridiron teams require.

- BMO’s field is 115 yards, end-to-end. A CFL field is a whopping 150 yards long. Big end-zones are essential in the pass-heavy three-down gridiron game. Even if they were shrunk to 15 yards – something the league has said it would grudgingly accept – we’re still 75 feet short of playable.

- The field is already hemmed in tightly by grandstands on three sides, and a plan has been approved to add some permanent seating in the open north end.

- Any lengthening of the playing surface would require the demolition of the south end, extension into and across Princes Boulevard, and the building of new – and movable – seating for several thousand people. That takes money, and …

- There’s no money.

- For the Argos to play at BMO Field in 2010, the fundamental rules of CFL football would have to be altered. Expanding the field and getting stadium capacity up to the current Argo level of along about 26,000 would take two full years, at least.

- The three levels of government, having already paid the entire shot for the stadium’s construction, are unlikely to smile on this plan – especially given the hugely loud and vocal public opposition that will arise. Not only are TFC and Canada soccer fans loud, they are brilliantly organized. They will be heard.

- About the only reason grass is being installed at BMO in the first place is that private money is paying for it. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment – owners of Toronto FC – are in an awkward position. They can’t really publicly oppose another team moving into a stadium which public money built for them. But the $5-million they are investing in the new turf certainly raises the bar higher than the financially battered Argonauts can comfortably leap.

Far more likely, I think, is that the Argos are threatening to leave the ‘Dome in hopes that the ‘Dome owners – Rogers Communications – will buy the team. Possible, I suppose, but if I’m a landlord with a struggling tenant who’s managing to pay the rent, last thing I want to do is buy that business.

But vigilance is always appropriate, and it’s not a bad time to work up some strategies for effective public opposition of any attempt to dock the Good Ship Argo at the pleasant port of BMO Field.

This is crucial. If Canada is to have soccer – real soccer – it has to protect the grass at BMO Field. The park is finally free to become the true home of Canada’s national soccer teams, and the day isn’t far – I truly believe – when TFC will pass the Argos as Toronto’s fourth professional sports team.

The Canadian Football League is both a sporting and cultural institution in Canada. Yesterday’s Grey Cup game was a blast. And did you know the CFL draws just about exactly the same average number of fans per game as the German Bundesliga?

But gridiron lines – and gridiron cleats – destroy both the atmosphere and artistry of the beautiful game. And to permit these atrocities for the benefit of a struggling, bankrupt franchise whose financial seizures have already dealt multiple setbacks to the Canadian soccer dream is simply not a reasonable option.

The CFL does NOT belong at BMO Field. We’d all better start thinking of simple, effective ways to explain that to people.

Onward!
Click to expand...
 
City Council ready to vote on expansion of BMO Field by 1,249 seats for next season

JENNIFER LEWINGTON

More Toronto soccer fans will be able to cheer on the home team if a proposed stadium expansion at city-owned BMO Field wins approval later this week.

Toronto FC owner Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which also manages BMO Field for the city, would pay the $2-million cost of adding 1,249 seats to the 20,000-seat stadium.

The proposal is in a report to be released today and to be debated Friday by the board of Exhibition Place, a city agency. Final city-council approval is expected in January, with construction completed in time for the next soccer season.

Since BMO Field opened in 2007 for the world under-20 soccer championship, the stadium has been consistently at capacity for Toronto FC and international games. Thousands of fans are on the waiting list for season and game-day soccer tickets, according to the report.

MLSE would pay to install the extra seats at the north end of the stadium, along with upgrades to washrooms used by FC fans.

Exhibition Place chairman and deputy mayor Joe Pantalone says the proposal comes at no cost to the city, but it would receive additional revenue from food, beverage and parking for having a larger stadium.

Under an existing agreement between the city and MLSE, half of the estimated $70,000 in extra revenue would go to Exhibition Place, which would also receive an extra $18,000 for parking.

Mr. Pantalone said the deal for additional seating "does not change at all" existing terms and conditions for community use of the stadium when the Toronto FC is not in town. But he says there is pent-up demand from Toronto's multicultural community keen to attend games with teams from Brazil, Italy and Argentina.
Click to expand...
 
I'm glad they're adding seats. Maybe now I'll finally be able to get off the waiting list for seasons tickets. I'm still kicking myself for not getting them when the team first put them on sale a couple years ago. The joys of being a poor and newly graduated student.
 
I'm curious to see if most of these new seats are allotted for new season ticket holders or if they want to have more tickets for sale through ticketmaster and walk-ups.

Either way, this is very good news.
 
ladyscraper said:
I'm curious to see if most of these new seats are allotted for new season ticket holders or if they want to have more tickets for sale through ticketmaster and walk-ups.

Either way, this is very good news.
Click to expand...

I would suspect that if they got approval to build now they would leave them as game day sales for the 2010 season.....that would give them some flexibility in the construction schedule (ie. if there was a delay and they weren't ready for game 1 then you haven't sold them)......once they are in and they find that they are full for most/all matches...it would not surprise me if they raised the season ticket cap from the 2011 season onward.
 
jn_12 said:
I'm glad they're adding seats. Maybe now I'll finally be able to get off the waiting list for seasons tickets. I'm still kicking myself for not getting them when the team first put them on sale a couple years ago.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but just 1249 seats, thats not going to do much for the 6000 people on the waiting list.... i was hoping for 12,490 seats.:rolleyes:
 
They have started on the grass installation:

45677681.jpg


91006391.jpg
 
They've started on the grass and I may have just creamed my pants, oh my!


....and ~1200 extra seats is not getting me off the waiting list. Bunk.
 
I think it's smarter for them to grow slowly and keep the game in demand than to overexpand and start having the seats less full.
 
jn_12 said:
I'm glad they're adding seats. Maybe now I'll finally be able to get off the waiting list for seasons tickets. I'm still kicking myself for not getting them when the team first put them on sale a couple years ago. The joys of being a poor and newly graduated student.
Click to expand...

I just renewed my seats, and picked up 2 additional. My account rep said there were mainly reds and field seats that came up this year. I picked a pair of dark greys, but it was slim pickings. There were quite a few single seats remaing thought. I think in total there were around 200 seats that were not renewed this year.
 
If soccer people are intent on keeping football out of BMO, they'd be wise to keep capacity below 25,000. There's no way the Argonauts are going to move to a stadium that small. There's also no way that our nation's football league is going to allow the Argonauts to play in a stadium with shrunken end zones. The field at BMO is too short for football.

BMO will remain a soccer only stadium for the forseeable future. The Argonauts do deserve the same though: a football only stadium. Skydome is a horrible place to watch football, and Rogers are hostile landlords.
 
Last edited:
isaidso said:
If soccer people are intent on keeping football out of BMO, they'd be wise to keep capacity below 25,000. There's no way the Argonauts are going to move to a stadium that small. There's also no way that our nation's football league is going to allow the Argonauts to play in a stadium with shrunken end zones. The field at BMO is too short for football.
Click to expand...
I disagree that keeping it below 25,000 is a good plan to keep the CFL out. I'd actually argue that more seats would be better since the cost to renovate the facility and move those seats would be even greater and less worth the effort.

Automation Gallery said:
They did have the opportunity years ago to grab Varsity or Lamport and reno them, but now where is the cash to build one.
Click to expand...
And they were in on a deal to build a stadium at York before they backed out of it at the last minute.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top