New Stadium Locations

[rdavies]

Has Ford done much for the Argos? We know that he and his brother have been on record about going after an NFL franchise. I am not sure that Roger Goodell will be taking any calls from the Fords anytime soon though, especially after Ford wore an NFL tie for today's big "crack admission" press conference: http://blogs.canoe.ca/slam/sports/ba...poor-judgment/

I think where we would have seen some influence would have been when MLSE came looking for building permits and the like for BMO. I would have thought that the mayor would have asked the question about a city owned stadium not making itself available to a team that would be without a home.

After I posted, I saw the "tie" article. Thinking of it now, that may have been his greatest service to Argo and CFL fans.

[paulwoods13]

I think where we would have seen some influence would have been when MLSE came looking for building permits and the like for BMO. I would have thought that the mayor would have asked the question about a city owned stadium not making itself available to a team that would be without a home.

The mayor has had almost no influence on government in Toronto for many, many months. He is a one-man band on a council of 45. The notion that he could influence council is based on how thing are supposed to work in a normal city.

[T-Bone]

I think where we would have seen some influence would have been when MLSE came looking for building permits and the like for BMO. I would have thought that the mayor would have asked the question about a city owned stadium not making itself available to a team that would be without a home.

Leiweke mentioned at the TFC Presidents Breakfast at the end of September that the city (Probably Ford) had approached MLSE about what it would take to renovate BMO Field to accommodate the Argos. There was a rumor that PCL already has plans drawn up which is quite possible as Leiweke also mentioned at the breakfast that they were well on their way with roof designs for BMO Field. Any renovation to BMO Field has to be approved by both the Exhibition Board and City Council. MLSE can easily go in and say, here are the plans with accommodations for the Argos which cost X amount and here are plans with out accommodations for the Argos which cost X amount. We are willing to cover 100% of the cost for the cheaper plan that doesn't accommodate the Argos so if you want them in there you can pay for that plan. The only way MLSE will pay for renovations to BMO Field that accommodates the Argos is if they buy the team because they feel they can make a return on that investment, otherwise I highly doubt it will happen.

After I posted, I saw the "tie" article. Thinking of it now, that may have been his greatest service to Argo and CFL fans.

Ya, I was quite happy it was a NFL tie vs. a CFL tie as well.

[Neely2005]

It looks like there must be a sizable number of Argonauts fans from York Region.

[QBall]

What about Lamport stadium? You could tear it down and rebuild it to meet CFL size and increase the seating (the size of the lot could easily fit this). You might lose the parking lot on the south side of the stadium in order to fit the end zones and end zone seating, but there's quite a few public parking lots in that area. Plus you would still have access to the Go train station and better access to the Dufferin St bus and King St streetcar lines.

[Neely2005]

What about Lamport stadium? You could tear it down and rebuild it to meet CFL size and increase the seating (the size of the lot could easily fit this). You might lose the parking lot on the south side of the stadium in order to fit the end zones and end zone seating, but there's quite a few public parking lots in that area. Plus you would still have access to the Go train station and better access to the Dufferin St bus and King St streetcar lines.

There's not enough space to build a 29,000 seat stadium there. And there's no where near enough parking and limited highway access and no subway access. Plus Lamport is owned by the city.

Braley has already said that he's looking at North Toronto, Vaughan, Markham and maybe Mississauga.

[Tau Ceti]

The Lamport site has been discussed extensively on the Skyscraper forum. See here for a mock-up someone did of a 31k seater: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...52997&page=154.

Basically, you can get a CFL stadium in there but it would use up every square inch of the grounds and parking lot. That would be entirely impractical. I took some pictures down there and noticed you'd also need to purchase at least one private home to make it work on the western side. Plus it's a comparative stone's throw to BMO and the city would be very unlikely to put money toward another stadium so close.

A fair idea but not quite doable.

[QBall]

The Lamport site has been discussed extensively on the Skyscraper forum. See here for a mock-up someone did of a 31k seater: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...52997&page=154.

Basically, you can get a CFL stadium in there but it would use up every square inch of the grounds and parking lot. That would be entirely impractical. I took some pictures down there and noticed you'd also need to purchase at least one private home to make it work on the western side. Plus it's a comparative stone's throw to BMO and the city would be very unlikely to put money toward another stadium so close.

A fair idea but not quite doable.

Interesting (I'm assuming the designer didn't have the time to put a roof on their model). I thought maybe Lamport might have been viable since you wouldn't have to start from scratch as you would, well, pretty much anywhere else. Transit may not be ideal (yeah no subway but there aren't too many viable sites near the subway line), but it's not bad. Highway access is also not ideal, but if Argos fans have been able to live with trying to access the QEW from around Robbers Center all these decades I'm sure having to access it from the Ex is not a big deal. Plus you wouldn't have to worry about having to contend with traffic coming out of the ACC on the rare occasions when the two venues let out at the same time. I really don't want to see the Argos leave the City of Toronto proper. It's just not the same having them in Mississauga or Vaughan.

[Neely2005]

Interesting (I'm assuming the designer didn't have the time to put a roof on their model). I thought maybe Lamport might have been viable since you wouldn't have to start from scratch as you would, well, pretty much anywhere else. Transit may not be ideal (yeah no subway but there aren't too many viable sites near the subway line), but it's not bad. Highway access is also not ideal, but if Argos fans have been able to live with trying to access the QEW from around Robbers Center all these decades I'm sure having to access it from the Ex is not a big deal. Plus you wouldn't have to worry about having to contend with traffic coming out of the ACC on the rare occasions when the two venues let out at the same time. I really don't want to see the Argos leave the City of Toronto proper. It's just not the same having them in Mississauga or Vaughan.

I would think that Lamport would actually take longer because you would have to tear down the old stadium first.

Driving to BMO Field or Lamport Stadium is actually worse than the Rogers Centre because the highway exits aren't as good and there is less parking. Plus when the CNE is on you lose parking and you lose access to/from Dufferin street. Another problem is the lack of bars and restaurants in the area.

As far as I'm aware the only sites in 416 Toronto that are being considered are BMO Field, Downsview and Woodbine Racetrack.

As to Vaughan you would have highway and subway access. Also the Ottawa Senators don't play in Ottawa and the 49ers are moving out of San Francisco too.

[Rich]

I think going to a refurbished BMO is the best option, but only if MLSE buys the team. It's the safest bet.

But if it comes to best location for a new stadium, I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the Portlands. Minutes from downtown, thousands of acres of developable land, its the perfect place for a Lansdowne Stadium-type development with lots of commercial and residential in and around the stadium. Enough land -- downtown land -- that could attract a really great civic-pride kind of development.

The best part is how the changing transportation infrastructure could make the Portlands a perfect fit for the future. The Gardiner east of Jarvis is coming down. They are going to completely redesign the Don Valley/Gardiner/Lakeshore interchange. You could have a Don Valley offramp heading straight into the stadium area, and a Lakeshore Southeast turnoff coming off the Gardiner eastbound.

The new Downtown Relief Subway line is supposed to head south from Pape Station then west to the West Donlands, pretty easy (relatively) to connect to the Portlands from there. No real good GO solution, though.

[argolio]

The new Downtown Relief Subway line is supposed to head south from Pape Station then west to the West Donlands, pretty easy (relatively) to connect to the Portlands from there. No real good GO solution, though.

Problem is that relief line is probably at least ten years away. They haven't even started an Environmental Assessment. Ford and Miller both screwed the city by ignoring this project.

Couldn't they add a GO station somewhere between Cherry Street and the Don?

[Rich]

Problem is that relief line is probably at least ten years away. They haven't even started an Environmental Assessment. Ford and Miller both screwed the city by ignoring this project.

Couldn't they add a GO station somewhere between Cherry Street and the Don?

Well the rail line runs right along there, I suppose they could, it's probably a similar distance away from Union that the Ex stop is.

As for the infrastructure, sure there's a lot that needs to happen for the Portlands but not much more than if they put the stadium up in Boonerville like some suggest. Putting the team way up there would be suicide, the Argos would become the next Toronto Lynx.

[Neely2005]

Well the rail line runs right along there, I suppose they could, it's probably a similar distance away from Union that the Ex stop is.

As for the infrastructure, sure there's a lot that needs to happen for the Portlands but not much more than if they put the stadium up in Boonerville like some suggest. Putting the team way up there would be suicide, the Argos would become the next Toronto Lynx.

Most of the Argonauts fans are from the 905 and Vaughan has highways and a TTC Subway stop.

[argolio]

BTW , this subway relief has been bandied about since the late '60's ; so we shouldn't count on that .

Difference is Toronto Council has definitively declared it the city's next major transit priority. So it'll happen when funding is secured.

[Neely2005]

Difference is Toronto Council has definitively declared it the city's next major transit priority. So it'll happen when funding is secured.

So best case scenario is that it's a decade away. Vaughan TTC Subway has already completed all tunneling and will open within 2 years.

Plus the relief line isn't necessarily the next line to get built. Tim Hudak says that he wants to build the relief line and the Richmond Hill extension. Who knows which one will get built first.

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/po...service=mobile

[rdavies]

Can't remember where I read it, but it said something like most Wikipedia "vandalism" was corrected within four minutes.

Remember, Wikipedia has checks and balances for writing to it. I even corrected something once.

I was reading the entry on the Toronto Maple Leafs and some clown changed the names of The Kid Line to Chen Lee, Kwang Ho and Kam Lo (making names up, can't remember what they were exactly) I figured out how to make a correction and went and fixed it.

It's been so long, but IIRC it logs people's IP addresses so they have an idea of who is vandalizing and who is correcting, so vandalism is kept to a minimum. In fact, I don't recall seeing anything glaringly wrong since (not to say that doesn't happen).

To me the strength of Wikipedia are the links at the bottom of the entry that lead to a more first hand source of info.

[Ballstothewall]

Funny on Ticketmaster, you have to search for this game, and then when you find it, there is a comment about limited tickets left, however it's not posted under HOT Ticket, that section is reserved for the Raptors, Marles, and the NFL game in Toronto. I would think, MLSE and Rogers pay to have that placement up front on Zticketmaster

[ArgosFanEastSide]

As a resident of Pickering, I think our city should be considered. There is tons of room near the newly renovated GO station (where the large secondary parking lot is which the city is planning to remove for "growth"), that is 30 minutes from downtown on the express Lakeshore East line (40 minutes non-express). This area is also literally right off the 401 (making it a 20-30 minute drive for anyone in Toronto that lives near the 401). It would also be relatively easy to build a 401 off ramp right at the location. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the area, use Google Maps to check the travel time to the intersection of Liverpool and Bayly. I bet it's not that long of a time. The location would be very easily accessible for anyone near the Lakeshore GO line or the 401, which is a very large portion of people. It would also be able to draw on Durham Region's 500k+ population, the northern suburbs of Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan, and would undoubtedly draw people from as far east as Peterborough. I'd argue that the western side of the Toronto, and Mississauga, are too close to Hamilton as well.

Just another idea to consider.

Edit: What the area looks like right now: https://maps.google.ca/?ll=43.833575...12,233.52,,0,0. The other side of that dead end is the 401.

[doubleblue]

That would be great for me but I expect a new Stadium will be more central. Either BMO or more north central.

[paulwoods13]

I'd argue that the western side of the Toronto, and Mississauga, are too close to Hamilton as well.

So the Argos should abandon fans in those regions? We should all become Ticat fans?