Thank-you Mr. Braley

[eiben35]

I just wanted to give a big thank-you to David Braley for saving the Argonauts many years ago. Like John Tory said today. "The CFL would not be here today without Mr. Braley's deep pockets." Hopefully the Arogs can now get on with the business of football and lock up Jim Barker and Scott Milanovich to contract extensions.

[Ron]

Amen!

When Braley first took over he said his mandate was to establish a secure future for this team. Mission Accomplished!!!

[argonaut11xx]

say what you want.....but David Braley is the biggest CFL fan ever.....

He put his money where his heart is...The Canadian Football League

[doubleblue]

Braley the villan has turned into Braley the Hero. lol

The question was asked today about the Argo Management going forward. The new owners kind of dodged the question. I wouldn't be surprised if the Argos don't do well on the field this year it would give the new guys an excuse to bring in a new high profile GM. Hope not as I like Jm Barker, but change in ownership quite often means a change in Management.

[Neely2005]

I've gone back and forth on Braley but definitely sending out big thanks to Mr. Braley!

Braley the villan has turned into Braley the Hero. lol

The question was asked today about the Argo Management going forward. The new owners kind of dodged the question. I wouldn't be surprised if the Argos don't do well on the field this year it would give the new guys an excuse to bring in a new high profile GM. Hope not as I like Jm Barker, but change in ownership quite often means a change in Management.

Who has a higher CFL profile?

[ArgofanIan]

David Braley jumped in to help out the Cats , Lions and Argo's over the years and has supplied stabile ownership as needed. There is not a lot of corporate or media support for the CFL ( or any Canadian sport IMO). I really think Friends of CFL really owe a big thank you to My Braley.

Think its up to Argo fans to take it from here.

Thank you My Braley- really appreciate all you have done for our team and league.

[Rocket]

No way! I still say screw cheapskate Braley! I don't understand what has cheapskate done to help out the Argos? This team would have survived without him buying the team. What's the difference the cfl owning the Argos or cheapskate? how can A guy who didn't spend a single dollar marketing this team for 5 years be called a hero? Talk to any of the Argos players and ask them seriously how they felt about him. Running around from one high school field to another all around the city for a practice was a complete joke. His whole time with the cfl he has done NOTHING with regards to grassroots football or getting any new fans to watch this team. I hope the league steps in and takes the b.c. Lions away from cheapskate as they are heading in the exact same direction the Argos are in right now. I can't believe that cheapskate Braley didn't even apologize to bell for running the Argos into the ground. Bell has so much work to do if they have any thought of the Argos being profitiable in the future all because of this guys brutal ownership the past 5 years.
The only thank you I give to this day is Ricky foley for sticking up to this team the first I heard of anyone doing in years. And as well tothe Argo fans that have stuck with this team through this poor ownership of this team. It is amazing that they still have 3,000 season ticket holders considering cheapskate giving the worst game day experience for any sporting team in North America. Let's hope after this year when Braley goes away that all the dark clouds go away with him and the Argos can enjoy a successful franchise that we can be proud of as fans!

Screw Rogers!

[jerrym]

I just wanted to give a big thank-you to David Braley for saving the Argonauts many years ago. Like John Tory said today. "The CFL would not be here today without Mr. Braley's deep pockets." Hopefully the Arogs can now get on with the business of football and lock up Jim Barker and Scott Milanovich to contract extensions.

It is definitely time to move on to new ownership as Braley has been keeping the Argos on a starvation diet. However, without Braley there would be no Argos or CFL, nor would there have been a 2012 Grey Cup win without him funding a good team to win it. Thanks for that, Mr. Braley.

[argolio]

Thank you Mr. Braley.

Now get lost.

[Invader]

Braley's mission was to secure the future of the Argos before he relinquished control of the team. Mission accomplished! The Argos have a long-term lease at BMO which has terrific sight-lines for football, a natural-grass field and a roof over the seating. The team will be controlled by one of the largest and most experienced sports management companies in the world. Thank you Mr. Braley!

[Rocket]

Are you serious that you actually think that Braley had anything to do with the Argos getting into bmo? Try giving Toronto councillors, mayors,prime minster, politicians that all felt sorry for the Argos and actually were the ones that pressured ml$e into letting the Argos to bmo field.

[paulwoods13]

Braley's mission was to secure the future of the Argos before he relinquished control of the team. Mission accomplished! The Argos have a long-term lease at BMO which has terrific sight-lines for football, a natural-grass field and a roof over the seating. The team will be controlled by one of the largest and most experienced sports management companies in the world. Thank you Mr. Braley!

True to form, at least.

[DanoT]

Rocket and other anti Braley guys seem to forget that the reason Braley became owner of the Argos was because the team was losing money and had very poor fan attendance and no one wanted to own the team. He didn't stop the bleeding or turn things around but rather just paid the bills when no one else would and then made sure the team went to an ownership group that wanted to make things work and that did not include Rogers.

Well done David Braley. The Braley haters come across as entitled elitists very willing and very knowledgeable in their own mind as how to fix the Argos using other people's money with no ability to do it themselves. Braley stepped up when no one else would and kept things afloat, losing money until the right owners could be found.

[AngeloV]

I'm just happy that the deal is done. I give Braley credit for finally finalizing it. But I will not go as far as some to suggest that Braley saved the Argos. I am a beliver that the league feels having a team in Toronto is a must, and if Braley didn't take over, the league would have run the team on as small a budget as Braley has. They did it when they took control from Shwartz, albeit for a shorter time period, but I believe they were prepared to do it again.

[DanoT]

I'm just happy that the deal is done. I give Braley credit for finally finalizing it. But I will not go as far as some to suggest that Braley saved the Argos. I am a beliver that the league feels having a team in Toronto is a must, and if Braley didn't take over, the league would have run the team on as small a budget as Braley has. They did it when they took control from Shwartz, albeit for a shorter time period, but I believe they were prepared to do it again.

So if Braley hadn't stepped in and absorbed the loses out of his pocket and the CFL had absorbed the loses instead, then the money would have come out of the pockets of the other 8 teams and maybe the CFL would have had to put a surcharge on tickets at all other stadiums to cover the loses.

Maybe there would have been a smaller salary cap with even less TV money going to the players and more of the TV money going to the CFL to cover the Argos loses instead of Braley doing it.

The CFL helped the TiCats financially when they had to play to small crowds in Guelph. Would the league have been able to to that if they were propping up the Argos?

[AngeloV]

So if Braley hadn't stepped in and absorbed the loses out of his pocket and the CFL had absorbed the loses instead, then the money would have come out of the pockets of the other 8 teams and maybe the CFL would have had to put a surcharge on tickets at all other stadiums to cover the loses.

Maybe there would have been a smaller salary cap with even less TV money going to the players and more of the TV money going to the CFL to cover the Argos loses instead of Braley doing it.

The CFL helped the TiCats financially when they had to play to small crowds in Guelph. Would the league have been able to to that if they were propping up the Argos?

I think the league would have been able to do that. Another way they could have financed it, was rather than giving Braley 3 Grey Cups in 4 years, the league themselves could have kept 2 of those to run as a league entity, rather than selling them off to Braley. The League therefore would have made 20m or so for themselves, which would have helped fund the Argos.

I'm glad Braley is a huge fan of the league, and his intentions no doubt were good. I just don't see him as an Argos savior that others do.

[1argoholic]

He'll go down with Harry Ornest as a cheap assed owner who really didn't give a crap about Toronto or the Argonauts in my books. He just had the enough money to help the league out by floating this organization for three more years then he wanted to. Thanks for that I guess. He really had no passion or interest in this organization. Still think he's old grumpy old fart. Met him at one of his Vancouver Grey Cups and he was just that.
I think the new owners have there work cut out for them. I don't think fans will automatically flock to BMO just beause it's outdoors. Braley hasn't helped with the way he's run the team down the last few years.

[DanoT]

I think the league would have been able to do that. Another way they could have financed it, was rather than giving Braley 3 Grey Cups in 4 years, the league themselves could have kept 2 of those to run as a league entity, rather than selling them off to Braley. The League therefore would have made 20m or so for themselves, which would have helped fund the Argos.

I'm glad Braley is a huge fan of the league, and his intentions no doubt were good. I just don't see him as an Argos savior that others do.

2 of the 3 GCs that you mentioned were in Vancouver and the 2nd one was in BC because Winnipeg dropped out of hosting the GC due to stadium issues. In any event you are really saying that Braley's ownership of the BC Lions helped cover his loses with the Argos giving him an even smaller profit for his BC team which is profitable but not hugely so. Any way you look at it is Braley stepping up at his expense (including the Million $ loan to the previous Argo owners who couldn't repay the loan) so the CFL didn't have to.

[AngeloV]

2 of the 3 GCs that you mentioned were in Vancouver and the 2nd one was in BC because Winnipeg dropped out of hosting the GC due to stadium issues. In any event you are really saying that Braley's ownership of the BC Lions helped cover his loses with the Argos giving him an even smaller profit for his BC team which is profitable but not hugely so. Any way you look at it is Braley stepping up at his expense (including the Million $ loan to the previous Argo owners who couldn't repay the loan) so the CFL didn't have to.

Well you have your thoughts, and you may be correct, but I don't see it that way.

Bottom line was that he really did nothing to enhance the Argos profile in Toronto. Did he pay the bills? Yes. But his bizarre way of running the business side had put them in a bad position and made them somewhat of a laughing stock. His other team is not doing as well in a business sense, since Bobby Ackles passed away either. I'm just hoping his short term "good will", hasn't caused long term issues.

[1argoholic]

No doubt it won't be a walk in the park to fill BMO after Braley dragged this team to it's lowest low. Then we had to find out that we're stuck with the old cheap fart for another year. He has as much personality as a dirty wet mop hitting the floor. The guy apparently hates Pinball, enough said!!! Just because Braley had extra money hanging around to help the league by bailing out the Argos doesn't mean he cares about this team.