Tuesday, October 28, 2014

John Tory Wins Toronto Mayoralty, Good for the Argonauts?

So Tory has defeated Doug Ford, but a not particularly remarkable 6% and is now the mayor of Toronto. Of course of interest to CFL fans is the fact that Tory was also a former commissioner of the CFL in the 90s, including during some pretty dark days for the league.

Obviously with Toronto the current problem franchise for the CFL and owner David Braley being somewhat of a lame duck owner, having a former CFL commissioner as the mayor has to help. The biggest roadblock currently for the Argos is finding a way to play at TFC's BMO field and that involves dealing with Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment, the owner of the Leafs, Raptors and TFC.

Rob Ford certainly liked the Argos, however he was also a pretty big fan of bringing the NFL to Toronto (which somewhat like Quebec separatism seems to be on life support with the Bills having new owners). Somehow I don't think Tory will be leading a renewed NFL to Toronto charge (although there are rumours of the St Louis Rams leaving albeit back to LA not Toronto).

Hopefully Tory can find a way to facilitate a move of the Argos to BMO Field, while not totally screwing the Argos out of revenue from game day concessions and the like. The renewal of sponsorship for the facility is coming up and one would have to think that having the Argos at the stadium would be valuable for whoever the new sponsor is.

Certainly part of the value of the sponsorship for BMO is the fact it is right on the Gardner and a lot of drivers go by it everyday (part of the rationale of the Tiger-Cats having a stadium at Confederation Park besides the QEW and also why the Ticats want a city approved sign by the QEW (which the Ontario Ministry of Transportation doesn't want)). However the Argos draw considerably more viewers on television than TFC (whose viewership frankly is pathetic) across the country which would be valuable to a company like BMO which is national. The Argos should get some of this additional value, although I'm sure MLSE doesn't think the same (the Tim Horton's Field naming rights are rumoured to between $1 and $1.5 million)

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