argofandave
04-21-2012, 12:38 PM
This article was printed in the Toronto Sun on July 29, 1989:
The time is right to make an investment in Toronto's football future: Tear up your Argo tickets.
Use them as wallpaper. Give them to the kids for crayoning. Just don't sit in the seats.
And if you're a member of the majority and don't have them anyway, don't go out and buy them.
These are troubled times for football in Toronto and there are but a few solutions to end the difficulty.
The first solution has been attempted and failed. The SkyDome aside, there simply isn't genuine interest in the Argos anymore. Attendance figures prove it, but moreso it is found away from the stadium: at lunch, at cocktail parties and in the bars at night.
Nobody is talking football in Toronto anymore.
The same people who sit out on their porch listening nightly to any one of 162 Blue Jays' games on radio aren't doing the same on football nights. The same people who will debate at length the relative merits of releasing Bob Brenly and promoting Francisco Cabrera don't sit around arguing which Argo contributes more, Mike Clemons of Lorenzo Graham.
When Tony Fernandez was hit by a pitch earlier this season and missed a Blue Jays' month, his health became a conversational focus in Toronto, a part of daily life.
When Gilbert Renfroe injured his finger and relinquished the quarterbacking job with the Argos just days ago, few even noticed.
The dilemma Toronto finds itself in is this: What is good for the CFL is bad for Toronto. And what is good for Toronto is bad for the CFL.
The very health of the league is in Toronto's hands, both from a franchise perspective and a television ratings game. Either way, the largest market in the country can have impact.
And what we propose here is flexing some of that muscle, advocating the beginning of the end. The mercy killing of the Canadian League.
In their state-of-the-art home, the Argos need to scratch, claw and pad attendance figures to come up with the 34,000 they're announcing these days. That's 11,000 less than the Blue Jays have drawn an any single night at the Dome.
An NFL franchise here tomorrow would sell out the SkyDome in hours - for a decade if it had to - by simply making the announcement it had arrived.
But for Toronto to have hope - and it should be stressed it is just that - of ever joining the NFL, the CFL must first expire.
Torontonians can play a part in this expiration. They can stop going to Argo games. They can stop buying tickets. The sooner the better.
Once the NFL straightens out its commissioner situation and comes to a solution on its collective bargaining arrangement, the league will expand. Probably by four teams. There are but two certainties with NFL expansion. Baltimore and St. Louis are in. Both will be granted franchises to make up for the teams already lost.
Which leaves two openings and no clear-cut favourites. If Toronto was included on the list of those applying, and considering the mighty attendance numbers the Blue Jays are flashing, it might vault past the Jacksonvilles, San Antonios, Oaklands and Montreals, to be in line with Memphis for the third and fourth slots. But with the CFL alive, not even a bid would be considered.
Some people will be angered by this stance. Some people will insist I am influenced by certain executives of this newspaper and their persuit of an NFL franchise. But that isn't true.
I grew up on the CFL. I vehemently debated the relative merits of Wally Gabler and Tom Wilkinson as quarterbacks.
I would like nothing better than to see a strong and vibrant CFL, but I am also realistic enough to know that is no longer possible. The argument of sound entertainment isn't enough to sell sport anymore: if it were, professional lacrosse would never have died.
Toronto wants big-league sport, presented in a big-league manner. The people will buy the NFL.
They will not buy the CFL anymore.
The time is right to make an investment in Toronto's football future: Tear up your Argo tickets.
Use them as wallpaper. Give them to the kids for crayoning. Just don't sit in the seats.
And if you're a member of the majority and don't have them anyway, don't go out and buy them.
These are troubled times for football in Toronto and there are but a few solutions to end the difficulty.
The first solution has been attempted and failed. The SkyDome aside, there simply isn't genuine interest in the Argos anymore. Attendance figures prove it, but moreso it is found away from the stadium: at lunch, at cocktail parties and in the bars at night.
Nobody is talking football in Toronto anymore.
The same people who sit out on their porch listening nightly to any one of 162 Blue Jays' games on radio aren't doing the same on football nights. The same people who will debate at length the relative merits of releasing Bob Brenly and promoting Francisco Cabrera don't sit around arguing which Argo contributes more, Mike Clemons of Lorenzo Graham.
When Tony Fernandez was hit by a pitch earlier this season and missed a Blue Jays' month, his health became a conversational focus in Toronto, a part of daily life.
When Gilbert Renfroe injured his finger and relinquished the quarterbacking job with the Argos just days ago, few even noticed.
The dilemma Toronto finds itself in is this: What is good for the CFL is bad for Toronto. And what is good for Toronto is bad for the CFL.
The very health of the league is in Toronto's hands, both from a franchise perspective and a television ratings game. Either way, the largest market in the country can have impact.
And what we propose here is flexing some of that muscle, advocating the beginning of the end. The mercy killing of the Canadian League.
In their state-of-the-art home, the Argos need to scratch, claw and pad attendance figures to come up with the 34,000 they're announcing these days. That's 11,000 less than the Blue Jays have drawn an any single night at the Dome.
An NFL franchise here tomorrow would sell out the SkyDome in hours - for a decade if it had to - by simply making the announcement it had arrived.
But for Toronto to have hope - and it should be stressed it is just that - of ever joining the NFL, the CFL must first expire.
Torontonians can play a part in this expiration. They can stop going to Argo games. They can stop buying tickets. The sooner the better.
Once the NFL straightens out its commissioner situation and comes to a solution on its collective bargaining arrangement, the league will expand. Probably by four teams. There are but two certainties with NFL expansion. Baltimore and St. Louis are in. Both will be granted franchises to make up for the teams already lost.
Which leaves two openings and no clear-cut favourites. If Toronto was included on the list of those applying, and considering the mighty attendance numbers the Blue Jays are flashing, it might vault past the Jacksonvilles, San Antonios, Oaklands and Montreals, to be in line with Memphis for the third and fourth slots. But with the CFL alive, not even a bid would be considered.
Some people will be angered by this stance. Some people will insist I am influenced by certain executives of this newspaper and their persuit of an NFL franchise. But that isn't true.
I grew up on the CFL. I vehemently debated the relative merits of Wally Gabler and Tom Wilkinson as quarterbacks.
I would like nothing better than to see a strong and vibrant CFL, but I am also realistic enough to know that is no longer possible. The argument of sound entertainment isn't enough to sell sport anymore: if it were, professional lacrosse would never have died.
Toronto wants big-league sport, presented in a big-league manner. The people will buy the NFL.
They will not buy the CFL anymore.