Argo Sale

[Ron]

The fact a Paul Godfrey lead rogers corp bid bought the TAXPAYER OWNED property for a mere 25 million which us poor tax paying folks paid 580-600 million to build in 1989 makes be sick .

It should make you sick since you are wrong about this.

[Neely2005]

It should make you sick since you are wrong about this.

Yeah there were other private owners between the government and Rogers but why let facts get in the way of bashing this sites # 1 Bogeyman. Everything is a Rogers conspiracy!

[bluto]

yeah... but none of the other owners (between the building and Rogers acquiring it) smuggly thanked the taxpayers for building him such a nice stadium for such a low price.

i still fight the urge to vandalize that asshole's statue every time i walk past it to gate 5.

[Neely2005]

yeah... but none of the other owners (between the building and Rogers acquiring it) smuggly thanked the taxpayers for building him such a nice stadium for such a low price.

i still fight the urge to vandalize that asshole's statue every time i walk past it to gate 5.

I don't recall him doing that. Do you have a Link for that?

This is all that I could find and there aren't even any quotes from Ted Rogers:

http://www.tsn.ca/story/print/?id=106352

[ArgoZ]

I don't recall him doing that. Do you have a Link for that?

This is all that I could find and there aren't even any quotes from Ted Rogers:

http://www.tsn.ca/story/print/?id=106352

It was during the infamous Bills series announcement. He thanked the city of Toronto for building a stadium that they recently bought for 25 million. As a thanks, he was repaying the favor by bringing the wonderful NFL experience to town via the Bills. Minutes later, Ted chocked on his bottled water, when someone asked if there will be any tickets for under $100 dollars. No need, he remarked that they will be lining all the way up to King St. when the tickets go on sale. The most pompous and arrogant press conference I have ever seen. Ralph Wilson could only smile while commenting on how awesome Toronto was with all it's construction cranes, compared to Buffalo. I felt like I was watching the Muppets. It was the beginning and the end of that series all at once.

[argotom]

It was during the infamous Bills series announcement. He thanked the city of Toronto for building a stadium that they recently bought for 25 million. As a thanks, he was repaying the favor by bringing the wonderful NFL experience to town via the Bills. Minutes later, Ted chocked on his bottled water, when someone asked if there will be any tickets for under $100 dollars. No need, he remarked that they will be lining all the way up to King St. when the tickets go on sale. The most pompous and arrogant press conference I have ever seen. Ralph Wilson could only smile while commenting on how awesome Toronto was with all it's construction cranes, compared to Buffalo. I felt like I was watching the Muppets. It was the beginning and the end of that series all at once.

I saw that as well, what an ignorant sob he was.
I recall TR saying there would be 1 ticket for $100, with a sarcastic grimace as well.
And yes who can also forget from the Stephen Brunt school of certainty the other famous statement how the 5 year worth of tickets would be sold in mere minutes and in fact overloading the Ticketmaster system?

[OV Argo]

How dare any of you guys disparage any of these fantastic supporters of Canadian football like Uncle Ted / Rogers or Stephen Brunt or Larry Tanenbaum or Booby McCown or Steve Simpletonsimmons ?

C'mon now - this is not the place for negativity - get with the program; let's all support and embrace some nice new corporate "owners" of the historic Argo team/franchise, and their media puppets, er, shills, er, boosters !

[T-Bone]

I have a feeling we are not going to get any new news about MLSE's possible ownership of the Argos for awhile. My guess is, now that the BMO Field expansion is pretty much a done deal MLSE is going to wait Braley out on the purchase of the team. Or MLSE is leaving the team in Braley's hands with the understanding that they will take it over after Braley makes some money back from them playing at BMO Field.

[Treblecharger1]

I have a feeling we are not going to get any new news about MLSE's possible ownership of the Argos for awhile. My guess is, now that the BMO Field expansion is pretty much a done deal MLSE is going to wait Braley out on the purchase of the team. Or MLSE is leaving the team in Braley's hands with the understanding that they will take it over after Braley makes some money back from them playing at BMO Field.

I sort of agree this transaction will not take place until after the 2014 season. MLSE will not want them while playing out of Rogers Centre. I expect sometime during the season a transaction and announcement will take place. Here is the kicker if the Argos announce they are having training camp at downsview it will be a lock in my opinion.

[ArgoRavi]

Braley does confirm it in this article: http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/9...-david-braley/

The original Toronto Sun article that is referenced is actually Steve Simmons' weekend column: http://www.torontosun.com/2014/03/22...more-than-ever

[bluto]

I have a feeling we are not going to get any new news about MLSE's possible ownership of the Argos for awhile. My guess is, now that the BMO Field expansion is pretty much a done deal MLSE is going to wait Braley out on the purchase of the team. Or MLSE is leaving the team in Braley's hands with the understanding that they will take it over after Braley makes some money back from them playing at BMO Field.

20 year lease at "new BMO" for the Argos is a condition of the expansion deal.

hint: David Braley isn't in a position to offer a commitment of 20 years...

[1argoholic]

Too much smoke here to not be a fire. I think it's done and hopefully the Argos aren't done with ownership that has no winners in it's large selection of sports franchises. Looks like it's poster boys for crapping the bed since 67 are on their way to doing so yet again this year. I hate this but if it's the only option than it is what it is. MLSE is everything I hate about our world today. Big Boxed BS basically. BMO Field even with a roof is still a big step backwards. CNE was called the mistake by the lake and I spent many way too cold and wet games there in the fall to ever want the team to be there again. Outdoor stadium is one thing but an outdoor stadium with cold winds and pissing rain coming off the lake SUCKS!!!!! I'm not going to get all juiced up like back in the day and hit the GO back to Port Credit. That was easy but times have changed and after having Skydome right in the middle of all the downtown action BMO is a step backwards.
Hopefully the Argos office staff etc doesn't get dumped.

On the bright side maybe we'll get more sweet merch. Let's start with Ticats toilet paper. In Ann Arbor Michigan they sell Ohio St tp. haha.

[T-Bone]

20 year lease at "new BMO" for the Argos is a condition of the expansion deal.

hint: David Braley isn't in a position to offer a commitment of 20 years...

Signing a 20 year lease only means the Argos will have to play at BMO Field for 20 years not that the same owner has to own them for those 20 years. Only time will tell. Also the BMO Field expansion may not be as done a deal as I previously thought. There seems to be some grumbling about the provinces fincial commitment to the deal.

[rdavies]

All this might be moot now. Ralph Wilson just died, who knows where this will lead in the coming months. Would MLSE dare to back out on the Argos? Is it too late? Is Argos to BMO an official done deal, I don't think it is technically, yet.

[bluto]

All this might be moot now. Ralph Wilson just died, who knows where this will lead in the coming months. Would MLSE dare to back out on the Argos?

it begins... the great sh!tstorm of our time...

[paulwoods13]

I don't see how this makes anything moot. Wilson's death should not come as a surprise to anyone -- he was 94 years old. Surely MLSE and everyone else involved in the proposed expansion of BMO have not been operating in a vacuum.

[T-Bone]

I don't see how this makes anything moot. Wilson's death should not come as a surprise to anyone -- he was 94 years old. Surely MLSE and everyone else involved in the proposed expansion of BMO have not been operating in a vacuum.

Agreed. They are separate issues.

[rdavies]

MLSE reached it's nadir in its "American Dream" quest. In his TSN interview the other day TL was extremely reluctant to talk about MLSE/NFL either because he thought it was (pardon the expression today) dead or because MLSE screwed it up so bad he didn't want to say anything to make it worse.

Yes, MLSE has been waiting for this, even planning, pretty sure Bob Hunter has a stadium render to unveil, when the dust settles, but after all the negative publicity MLSE has received over this recently, I'm sure they thought they had some time to retool the works.

[paulwoods13]

In his TSN interview the other day TL was extremely reluctant to talk about MLSE/NFL either because he thought it was (pardon the expression today) dead or because MLSE screwed it up so bad he didn't want to say anything to make it worse.

Those are two possibilities, but they are not the only ones. Maybe Leiweke understands (better than he did last fall) that the NFL does not take kindly to prospective franchise owners talking publicly about their NFL aspirations. Keeping quiet is sometimes the best policy. There is no evidence that MLSE (or the individuals who would emerge from the MLSE structure as official owners) has torpedoed its chances for an NFL franchise. I'm not saying they are any closer to getting one, I just don't buy that they are any farther away now than they were in the past.

[Ron]

Signing a 20 year lease only means the Argos will have to play at BMO Field for 20 years not that the same owner has to own them for those 20 years. Only time will tell. Also the BMO Field expansion may not be as done a deal as I previously thought. There seems to be some grumbling about the provinces fincial commitment to the deal.

Yes, the Tories are clinging to their long standing crusade against corporate welfare.