The Rogers Centre, née Skydome, was built in 1989 for the Toronto Blue Jays and the Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. But now the Argos want a new stadium because the old one is too big:
If you build it, they will want another one in 20 years
The Toronto Argonauts need to have their own, smaller stadium in the long term, CFL commissioner Mark Cohon said Friday as he fielded questions following his annual state of the union address.
“They want to make the Rogers Centre work and you will see on Sunday when that stadium is full that it’s exciting,” Cohon said. “But I think long term, when you look at the size of the new Tiger-Cats stadium and the size of the new stadium in Ottawa, all around 24,000 seats, that’s perfect for CFL football.
“I think a long-term plan should incorporate a strategy around potentially a new stadium in the Toronto region.”
For those of you who don’t speak Grifter, that translates to, “The taxpayers of Canada are about to pay for a second Argonauts stadium in 25 years.”
Before the good people of Canada built Rogers Centre/Skydome, the Argonauts and Blue Jays played their games in Exhibition Stadium. Five years ago, a new 20,000-seat stadium was built on the site of old Exhibition Stadium for Toronto’s MLS team, Toronto FC. Maybe the Argonauts could play there?
The fact is [the Argonauts] don’t control their venue, they don’t have a sense of home.
Oh, nevermind. That was a terrible idea. I’m sorry I brought it up. That is so sad. Did it just get dusty in here, by the way?
So what’s the baseball hook? I’ll leave that to the great Neil deMause of Field of Schemes to explain:
Any prospect of a new Argos stadium is a long way off just yet, but if it picks up steam, you have to wonder if the Blue Jays owners will begin agitating for a baseball-only facility as well. In fact, really shouldn’t every sports team have one stadium for well-attended games, and a smaller one for games where tickets are hard to come by?
Is two enough? Shouldn’t every team have a third stadium, for playoff games and Bruce Springsteen concerts? Before you say “we can’t possibly afford that,” let me ask you this: Can [insert your town here] afford to fall behind other major league cities? Why should your favorite team have to play in an antiquated 10-year old stadium with an obsolete non-HD scoreboard? What is this, Mexico?
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