Paul Beeston wonders about grass at Skydome and making it a "baseball-only" facility

[R.J]

The TFC vs. Galaxy game is being played on grass, why wouldn't the Jays try it out for a month. Could be a could trial run, let them see the up keep costs, revenues lost etc, but I highly doubt it will happen. Rogers generates too much money on other events for them to want to lose anything. Until a major renovation or new building comes for the Jays the Argos aren't going anywhere.

[shayman]

I doubt MLB would allow you to switch surfaces part way through the season.

[1argoholic]

You can't just lay down sod for a month to try. It is a living thing that requires plenty of water and light. Beeston open a huge can of crap with his comment. They need to a crap load of consctruction to allow sod to be put down I'm sure they don't have proper drainage.

[T-Bone]

The TFC vs. Galaxy game is being played on grass

Actually it's not. They're playing it on the Rogers Centre turf.

[R.J]

Actually it's not. They're playing it on the Rogers Centre turf.

Oh really, I thought I read somewhere that they were putting in grass. That kind of sucks as turf seems to make the ball bounce more than on grass.

[T-Bone]

Oh really, I thought I read somewhere that they were putting in grass. That kind of sucks as turf seems to make the ball bounce more than on grass.

Though the turf isn't ideal the team trains on both surfaces. They looked in to getting sod but decided against it due to cost. They would have had to ship it up from the States due to the winter. If it was summer they would have probably done it because they could have gotten the sod from Ontario which would be a lot cheaper.

[R.J]

While sitting at the Rock game, I started thinking about the Argos stadium situation and realized that the Toronto Rock have a similar situation in which they don't own the facility, the owners of the facilities occupy the same amount of dates as the Bluejays do (82 Leafs & Raps, 81 for the Jays) and the ACC has more dates filled then the Skydome does, and yet the Rock still have a pretty solid schedule year in year out. Wonder why Rogers has to be such a pain to the Argos, yet MLSE seems pretty reasonable o the Rock even with Bill and Brad Waters owning the team anymore. James Dawick currently owns the team btw.

[Mulder]

While sitting at the Rock game, I started thinking about the Argos stadium situation and realized that the Toronto Rock have a similar situation in which they don't own the facility, the owners of the facilities occupy the same amount of dates as the Bluejays do (82 Leafs & Raps, 81 for the Jays) and the ACC has more dates filled then the Skydome does, and yet the Rock still have a pretty solid schedule year in year out. Wonder why Rogers has to be such a pain to the Argos, yet MLSE seems pretty reasonable o the Rock even with Bill and Brad Waters owning the team anymore. James Dawick currently owns the team btw.

With the ACC's new movable seating it takes about 30-45 minutes to convert from basketball to hockey. Or so I've heard.

They have talked about how it's possible to have a raptors game at 1pm, and a leafs game at 7pm

[R.J]

With the ACC's new movable seating it takes about 30-45 minutes to convert from basketball to hockey. Or so I've heard.

They have talked about how it's possible to have a raptors game at 1pm, and a leafs game at 7pm

That I knew already and it takes Rogers 48 hours to convert from baseball to football, which is why I still have a bit of trouble understanding why the Argos still got horrible dates. The ACC has a lot of concerts/events on Friday and Saturday nights (when NLL is usually played) and MLSE still allows a pretty decent schedule for the Rock. I could understand 2-3 bad dates for the Argos, but this years as well as last years schedules have been horrible.

[Will]

That I knew already and it takes Rogers 48 hours to convert from baseball to football, which is why I still have a bit of trouble understanding why the Argos still got horrible dates. The ACC has a lot of concerts/events on Friday and Saturday nights (when NLL is usually played) and MLSE still allows a pretty decent schedule for the Rock. I could understand 2-3 bad dates for the Argos, but this years as well as last years schedules have been horrible.

Rogers doesn't value the Argos as a tenant. That's a conclusion that can be drawn from your statement.

[R.J]

A tweet I figured would be interesting for some to see.

steve milton ‏ @miltonatthespec
Contrary to popular belief the #Argos ARE in serious negotiations for a new lease at Rogers Centre. 3-5 yrs, and expect to get it done. #CFL

[argolio]

steve milton ‏ @miltonatthespec
Contrary to popular belief the #Argos ARE in serious negotiations for a new lease at Rogers Centre. 3-5 yrs, and expect to get it done. #CFL

Even with legitimate complaints about scheduling, that's great news considering the team has no other alternative at this point in time.

[1argoholic]

It's great news and perhaps if the CFL and whoever is the owner of The Argos down the road can look at a new venue. I'd have no problem if the folks at Rogers started treated the Argos with some respect.

[Argoscflguy]

blaaaaa blaaaaa blaaaa! i think beeston is just talking smack!!!!!!!!!!!! if your gonna do it then do it already!? this is what i think is for the argos to build their own stadium and not having to deal with all this !"%$/? crap! and maybe somewhere where we can all tailgate ( bbq, beer)Arrrrgooooossssssssssssssssssss!!

[argotom]

I wonder where the truth is here, grass versus new lease?

[UncleFester]

If we can believe Chris Rudge that he is not worried about this issue at this time then I would think that the new lease is closer to the truth than grass is. IMO Beeston and the Jays are doing some PR work to appease their season seat holders who want grass and that's all this is. They'll come out and say they tried but it's just not doable at RC. And then Rogers and the Jays will begin to trumpet what they really really really want.....a new open air baseball only stadium with grass with taxpayers paying most of the bill. I believe that this is where this is ultimately going. As to what happens to RC down the road only Rogers knows this but with the demise of the Bills in T.O. thing maybe, just maybe they are ready to give up on the NFL dream and RC begins to take on a new light in the company's eyes.

[Will]

I found an article from early 1987 in the Star. It turns out that this isn't the first discussion about natural grass at the Skydome. I'll try to post some of it later.

[R.J]

Unless money starts falling from the sky I don't see this happening for another 30 plus years, but here's a fantasy map of the TTC "expansion".


Large scale view : http://transit.toronto.on.ca/archive...yyap/ttcV5.png

[argolio]

That's not an official TTC map, but something like that might take closer to 50 years than 30 to build under the current funding system (begging Queen's Park for money).

[rant] For a massive and accelerated subway expansion, Toronto would need a guaranteed stream of revenues that could only come from a combination of road tolls, gas taxes, parking fees, and/or sales tax increases. Our mayor says he wants more subways (and so do most Torontonians) but he's unwilling to add the required "gravy" to pay for them. He's all talk and no action. [/rant]

[argolio]

There are dozens of fantasy maps floating around the internet, and many are similar to that.

As for the fees and taxes (which I think will happen eventually), the point is that Ford has trapped himself into an ideological corner. He's all for subways and wants to defeat the LRT plan but he can't bring himself to be for the means to pay for subways. So unless he compromises, he'll lose.