Sober Second Thoughts: Fair is not always equal

The Toronto Argonauts are 136 years old. Established in 1873 they are older than Liverpool FC, Australia, basketball and Toronto's Union Station (the new one. Old Union Station has the Argos by 15 years) to name but a few things. It's the oldest professional gridiron football team in the world. Actually, it's one of the oldest professional sports teams in the word, period.

And it's never owned its own stadium. Not from 1874 to 1897 when they were at the Rosedale Golf Club's Rosedale Field. Not from 1898 to 1907 when they were at the University of Toronto's Varsity Stadium. They didn't buy the place when they went back to Rosedale Field from 1908 to 1915, nor did U of T give up ownership of Varsity from 1916 to 1958.

It was the city that bought Exhibition Stadium -- the mistake by the lake, Canadian style -- in 1959. The Argos played there until 1988. Then, the city, province and federal government bought the Toronto Blue Jays a new play toy in SkyDome. Like an annoying little brother that mom forced you to play road hockey with, the Argos got a new stadium out of the deal too.

Now 20-years later everyone, Argos included, hates the former SkyDome (now Rogers Centre). The Blue Jays are making due. The Argos are complaining about the rent, the size and pretty much everything else. What they aren't doing is offering up any money of their own to build a stadium that suits their needs. Instead, they are now angling to get into another stadium that is owned by the city and managed by MLSE (who put some of its own money into it and has paid for renovations to it so that it better suites its primary tenant, Toronto FC).

Only this time the Argos are getting a fight. It comes from the "uppity soccer people" who support a "joke of a league" in MLS according to many of the Argos fans. Legitimate points, such as the fact that having 400-lbs lineman tearing the crap out of the turf three days before TFC tries to play on it will fundamentally impact the integrity of the game of soccer, are ignored in favour of cries of "it's unfair that they have a stadium and we don’t"

Fair is not always equal.

The Argos were involved in two previous stadium proposals prior to the building of BMO Field. When a plan to renovate Varsity Stadium was put together the Argos were initially there. However, when U of T decided to pull the plug because of raising construction cost projections, no one with the Argos spoke up to suggest that they could throw a little money behind the project -- maybe as a thank you for all those years the university gave them favourable rents at old Varsity.

So the project died (in fairness, MLSE pulled out of the Varsity deal too).

And then there was the York University deal. After Varsity fell through the Argos, along with the CSA and other soccer interests, were set to build a stadium up at York University. The Argos agreed to invest $20 million to the project (through a charitable donation) and cover any cost overruns. Then, when it looked like they might have to pony up another $10 million and the Rogers Centre decided to give them a sweetheart deal to stay (no rent) the Argos' guys said "see ya" to the soccer folks and decided to stay at the stadium that is supposedly holding them back from becoming the institution they claim to be in this city.

That little stunt came damn close to killing the 2007 FIFA u-20 tournament bid by Canada. If it wasn't for the last minute approval for BMO Field to be built, we are looking at a very different soccer landscape in this city today.

So you can understand why empathy in soccer circles is not high to the Argos' plight.

The CFL community continues to play the fair card when talking about their "right" to move into BMO Field. They hold the investment by government at BMO over the heads of soccer fans as a weapon at every opportunity. That it was the first significant investment by government into the sport pretty much ever is lost on the CFL crowd.

Various governments have either pledged to spend or actually have spent about $500 million in upgrades to CFL facilities during the past decade. Soccer fans have nothing to feel guilty about in regards to the $40 million or so that was spent on BMO Field.

If the Argos want a new stadium, it's time they opened their wallets and paid for one of their own.

After 136 years it's about time.