Argos Stadium Update

[AngeloV]

It's an iron clad contract, I forget for how many years involving management and with first rights for usage by MLSE. What makes you think now all of a sudden and especially since MLSE, City of Toronto and Soccer Canada are sleeping in the same bed, that this would change?

I don't know...wouldn't this give Ford a chance to show how sincere he really is towards the Argos?

[argotom]

I don't know...wouldn't this give Ford a chance to show how sincere he really is towards the Argos?

Even if Rob could, MLSE still has big influence in the city. Which brings us back to the poor excuse of a stadium that would now cost mega bucks to retrofit and improve. I say either build new to the team's liking with added revenue to include other events or stay in the crap dome, if possible?

[Ron]

Oh, the excitement when SkyDome first opened: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...81/1/index.htm

Reading this article, it seems as though this stadium was built with baseball in mind first and foremost.

This stadium was built with 2 main functions at the time. A home for the Jays and a lure to grab an NFL team. A home for the Argos was not a primary function. (I don't care what Davis said in 82 ... things changed between then and when the first shovel hit the ground)

[Ron]

Even if Rob could, MLSE still has big influence in the city. Which brings us back to the poor excuse of a stadium that would now cost mega bucks to retrofit and improve. I say either build new to the team's liking with added revenue to include other events or stay in the crap dome, if possible?

The dome will not be there forever. 15 years tops based on what Beeston said.

Still ... far better to build their own football stadium. (Great football sightlines, private boxes, etc) If the Ticats can make it work then there should be no issue with the Argos making one work. Let BMO be what it was built to be ... a good soccer stadium

[argotom]

The dome will not be there forever. 15 years tops based on what Beeston said.

Still ... far better to build their own football stadium. (Great football sightlines, private boxes, etc) If the Ticats can make it work then there should be no issue with the Argos making one work. Let BMO be what it was built to be ... a good soccer stadium

For me being there once, BMO is a horrible place to watch soccer. Poor seats and the sightlines are not so great either.

[Deerkeeper]

For me being there once, BMO is a horrible place to watch soccer. Poor seats and the sightlines are not so great either.

Poor sightlines!? Good heavens, what do you want? Are you sure your not trying to hate it to much. However, I do agree with you about the seats. They are beyond cheap. I would be more comfortable sitting on a bench.

[argos1873]

This stadium was built with 2 main functions at the time. A home for the Jays and a lure to grab an NFL team. A home for the Argos was not a primary function. (I don't care what Davis said in 82 ... things changed between then and when the first shovel hit the ground)

It was definitely built with football as a second thought, but if they did build it with NFL in mind, they built it about 6,000 seats short, and this was well known at the time. If they were thinking of luring an NFL team with the Skydome, I'm not sure how they made that oversight.

[Ballstothewall]

It was definitely built with football as a second thought, but if they did build it with NFL in mind, they built it about 6,000 seats short, and this was well known at the time. If they were thinking of luring an NFL team with the Skydome, I'm not sure how they made that oversight.

Your right, the NFL was not a factor when building the Dome

[argos1873]

Your right, the NFL was not a factor when building the Dome

Yep, they didn't and this was actually big news at the time, since Paul Godfrey was very much trying to obtain an NFL franchise at the time, and at the time, many people believed he could do it. But also at the time the minimum NFL stadium size had to be 60,000, as it still stands, but Skydome came in at ~54,000. I'm pretty sure this notion alone indicates that the stadium was built with baseball primarily in mind. Even though many of us Argo fans like to think the '82 Grey Cup was the deciding factor to get a dome in this city, it wasn't until the Blue Jays drastically rose in popularity that the city and province actually decided to do something about it. And the dome's configuration proves that. Baseball way out in front, football, of any sort, a distant second. But no one can say that the sightlines for football were worse in Skydome than the were in old Ex after the re-configuration for baseball. They tilted the playing field to make it somewhat palatable for the new "East stands" even though they hardly were, at the detriment to the sightlines of the old grandstand. I've never been to a pre '77 Argos game, but I've seen overhead pictures, and the sightlines look great from both sides. But I had been to plenty of post '77 Argos games at the Ex, and if you were stuck in the south end of the grandstands, or first base line area of the new part the sightlines sucked. In the first base line area, some of the seats actually pointed away from play. I can say to all those who have pre '77 goggles on, most seats in Skydome were much better to watch football in, than post '77 Ex games.

I say 77, could be 76. I was just a kid at the time, and didn't bother looking up the actual year the stadium was reconfigured. But you get the point.

[Gill The Thrill]

Poor sightlines!? Good heavens, what do you want? Are you sure your not trying to hate it to much. However, I do agree with you about the seats. They are beyond cheap. I would be more comfortable sitting on a bench.

The sightlines are good, and the seats are cheap. As a matter of fact, the entire stadium is looking cheap even by MLS standards. I believe Toronto built the 2nd Soccer specific stadium in the league after possibly Columbus or LA, whatever. That being said, I watched the MLS all-star game in Kansas City on TV last night and that stadium is wayyyyyyyy better than BMO field. It reminds me of a soccer version of Investors field in Winnipeg but even smaller. Many MLS clubs have built soccer specific stadiums and they look to have more amenities than BMO. The Red Bulls built one in Harrison, New Jersey for the New York team and it has a roof like KC's stadium and Winnipeg's Canadian Football Stadium.

Many of these MLS stadiums are also being built in the suburbs and not in the downtown core. Funny how Olympic Stadium was viewed as really far to go and watch the Expos or the Alouettes, but that Olympic Park with the smaller Saputo Stadium works well for the MLS Impact. I think this is evidence that it was not really the geographical location that was the problem with the "Big O" but the stadium itself and the ambience or lack thereof during game days which turned off fans.

I'll say this BMO Field as it currently looks would be crappy for the Argos and the CFL in Canada's largest city. It would not just need the end zones scaled back, but would also need to increase seating on the east sidelines and have a roof added to at least the West side. When one considers how frigid the late season games could get down by the Lake with the fog rolling in, you may understand how much better the Argos could do at Downsview or York building a stadium that was meant for Football from scratch.