Did McCown say he believes Argos will fold or move within 5 years?

[Will]

Second hand information but that's what I heard he said today. Anyone able to confirm that?

As much as argotom will foam at the mouth about Rogers the sad truth is that if things don't change he's probably right.

[LLB997]

Many a sports reporter have come and gone predicting the same thing. Argos are not going anywhere.

[AngeloV]

I agree. I don't think the league will allow them to fold, unless they plan on going to a much smaller league in terms of salary and revenues. I'm still optimistic that they will be in BMO sooner or later (hopefully sooner).

[Neely2005]

Second hand information but that's what I heard he said today. Anyone able to confirm that?

As much as argotom will foam at the mouth about Rogers the sad truth is that if things don't change he's probably right.

Well the Podcast should be up tomorrow, I'll try to post it once it's up.

Does anyone think that this is McCowan trying to weaken Braley's negotiating position? He certainly doesn't seem to be a fan of Braley and he was friends with the previous owners (C & S) plus he is part of MLSE, indirectly.

I agree. I don't think the league will allow them to fold, unless they plan on going to a much smaller league in terms of salary and revenues. I'm still optimistic that they will be in BMO sooner or later (hopefully sooner).

It does seem to be our only hope:

MLSE still open to Argonauts playing at BMO Field

http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/sports/cfl/story/1.2656196

[T-Bone]

MLSE still open to Argonauts playing at BMO Field

Old news. The article is dated May 27, 2014 before the city agreed to the changes MLSE requested for the BMO Field renovation plan. I'm pretty sure this was already posted somewhere, why are you bringing it up again now?

The attached article adds nothing new. As things currently stand, $10 million will get the Argos in to BMO Field in phase 3 of the renovation plan.

[ArgoRavi]

Well the Podcast should be up tomorrow, I'll try to post it once it's up.

Does anyone think that this is McCowan trying to weaken Braley's negotiating position? He certainly doesn't seem to be a fan of Braley and he was friends with the previous owners (C & S) plus he is part of MLSE, indirectly.

Braley is doing a good enough job on his own of weakening his negotiating position that he doesn't need McCown's help.

[Neely2005]

Old news. The article is dated May 27, 2014 before the city agreed to the changes MLSE requested for the BMO Field renovation plan. I'm pretty sure this was already posted somewhere, why are you bringing it up again now?

The attached article adds nothing new. As things currently stand, $10 million will get the Argos in to BMO Field in phase 3 of the renovation plan.

Read the whole article, it's still relevant.

[ArgoRedneck]

I agree. I don't think the league will allow them to fold, unless they plan on going to a much smaller league in terms of salary and revenues. I'm still optimistic that they will be in BMO sooner or later (hopefully sooner).

Move 5 minutes away and that will get fans out to the game? Much bigger issues then playing location. Once the "honeymoon" effects are gone back to the same. Toronto is not supporting this team at the gate. They have one chance left....40% of the people that took the location survey are from the northeast. Time to move north.

#DONileRiver

[argolio]

Move 5 minutes away and that will get fans out to the game? Much bigger issues then playing location. Once the "honeymoon" effects are gone back to the same. Toronto is not supporting this team at the gate. They have one chance left....40% of the people on this forum are from the northeast. Time to move north.

#DONileRiver

That argument suggests this market has outgrown the Argos. I can't argue that it's not like the old days when Toronto was a smaller, compact city with a large blue-collar population, and had no teams in big-money American sports leagues.

Saying the Argos should move out of the core is easy, but who is building a stadium? And what if that didn't work?

[argotom]

Second hand information but that's what I heard he said today. Anyone able to confirm that?

As much as argotom will foam at the mouth about Rogers the sad truth is that if things don't change he's probably right.

Say what!
Everyone remembers the dark days when this team had the best team arguably ever during the Flutie years.
Like the beginning of this year, we were also drawing flies for the two years he was here.
No one could figure out why, other then saying the end is near.
Back then it was the NFL elephant in the room on top of which the league was teetering on the brink.
The biggest difference is the league is healthy like never seen before.
Sure the Toronto thing is worrisome and is a brush fire that needs to be looked after.
I do say it's only a matter of time before MLSE buys out.
But to believe that clown McCown who hates anything that is Mr. Braley or the league, I chose not to.

[argolio]

Things are different than then. We have an owner who wants to get out but only on his terms, and we won't have a place to play within three years.

The most noteworthy thing McCown said was that the turnstile count was only 9,000. That's a scary number.

[ArgoRavi]

Things are different than then. We have an owner who wants to get out but only on his terms, and we won't have a place to play within three years.

The most noteworthy thing McCown said was that the turnstile count was only 9,000. That's a scary number.

And even scarier than that is that few on here would doubt that number.

[argolio]

And even scarier than that is that few on here would doubt that number.

It's certainly close because there's no way there was more than 10,000. If/when we host a playoff game this year, it better be against the Ticats.

[AngeloV]

And even scarier than that is that few on here would doubt that number.

I sure don't. I still believe the total number of people that actually attended the first 2 games combined was fewer than 25k.

[BATKINSON001]

And even scarier than that is that few on here would doubt that number.

\

That's because we have no way of disproving it or proving it... at least I don't have access to that info...

[Invader]

The BJ's were drawing fewer than 10,000 fans per game for several years and have bounced back. The Argos will also in an appropriately-sized football stadium. The Argos have tons of fans who just need a reason to buy tickets. They will come out in the right venue at the right price.

The league or TSN would never allow the Argos to relocate or fold. The franchise would be subsidized by the other clubs if it came down to that. Having a vibrant franchise in Toronto is crucial to the CFL.

How would McClown know the Argos "turnstile" count? Did he actually count the crowd or does he have some inside information? Too bad he didn't do a turnstile count of the BJ's before they admitted a couple years back they had been exaggerating their attendance for many years (claiming over 20,000 attendance when anyone could see there were fewer than 8,000 at BJ games). Then the BJ's brass admonished reporters for asking about the poor attendance saying it "wasn't important" and demanded they no longer talk about it.

[LLB997]

just heard the segment. i would put little stock in any mcclown claim. he said he received an email friday from an "unamed" source who said the turnstile count was 9 grand. i seem to remember the game being Saturday. this guy never lets the facts get in the way.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/prime-time-sports/

[Neely2005]

Well the Podcast should be up tomorrow, I'll try to post it once it's up.

Does anyone think that this is McCowan trying to weaken Braley's negotiating position? He certainly doesn't seem to be a fan of Braley and he was friends with the previous owners (C & S) plus he is part of MLSE, indirectly.



It does seem to be our only hope:

MLSE still open to Argonauts playing at BMO Field

http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/sports/cfl/story/1.2656196

Here's all the Audio from yesterday:

Recent Podcasts

---

Jul
14


Listen Prime Time Sports - July 14 - 6pm
July 14th, 6 pm: Bob McCown and Butch Carter are joined by Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe to discuss Lebron James move to Cleveland, and Anaheim Ducks head coach Bruce Boudreau joins the show to talk about their recent signings and the upcoming year.



Listen Prime Time Sports - July 14 - 5pm
Bob McCown and Butch Carter welcome Jonah Keri to talk about the All-Star Game and David Price. Also Queens Univeristy Football Coach Pat Sheahan to talk about this upcoming seaon being in jeopardy due to local disputes.



Listen Prime Time Sports - July 14th - 4pm
July 14th, 4 pm: Bob McCown takes you calls on the Blue Jays, the MLB All-Star game, Homerun Derby, Raptors and everything else you want to talk about.


Anyone know what time it was at?

[shayman]

Maybe we could try a little argofans.com project. Everybody pick a different section of the stadium, and let's all try to do a good estimate of how many people are in that section at, say, the start of the 2nd quarter. Add in a percentage for the number of people out of their seats.

I will sometimes amuse myself by estimating the attendance in a "typical" section of Skydome - perhaps you decide that section 134A is 60% full - and scaling that up by the actual Skydome capacity for football. One challenge is knowing what 100% full would actually mean. What's the capacity for football? I've seen different numbers.

• 49,290 ( http://www.rogerscentre.com/about/facts.jsp )
• 52,230 ( CFL statement that 2007 grey cup game was sold out )
• 31,074 ("Canadian Football" capacity in wikipedia article, presumably that's without the 500 level)

so if 134A is 30% full and that seems about average, then you'd figure 60% of 31,074 = 18,644

Or we could just take a few high-res pictures and count actual heads :-)

[QBall]

Maybe we could try a little argofans.com project. Everybody pick a different section of the stadium, and let's all try to do a good estimate of how many people are in that section at, say, the start of the 2nd quarter. Add in a percentage for the number of people out of their seats.

I will sometimes amuse myself by estimating the attendance in a "typical" section of Skydome - perhaps you decide that section 134A is 60% full - and scaling that up by the actual Skydome capacity for football. One challenge is knowing what 100% full would actually mean. What's the capacity for football? I've seen different numbers.

• 49,290 ( http://www.rogerscentre.com/about/facts.jsp )
• 52,230 ( CFL statement that 2007 grey cup game was sold out )
• 31,074 ("Canadian Football" capacity in wikipedia article, presumably that's without the 500 level)

so if 134A is 30% full and that seems about average, then you'd figure 60% of 31,074 = 18,644

Or we could just take a few high-res pictures and count actual heads :-)

Ack! Is there an app for that?