Fans come out as Argos’ win home opener
Toron To • On the southbound train that pulled into Union Station at 6:04 p.m., there were perhaps a half-dozen men wearing Toronto Argonauts paraphernalia. They did not appear to be traveling together.
On the two blocks from the train station to Rogers Centre, where the Argos were an hour from opening the defence of their Grey Cup championship, a trickle of football fans were largely lost in a stream of straggling commuters. It was not until they reached the stadium doors that fans pooled in numbers.
Inside, a familiar scene was almost certainly waiting.
The Argos have spent years lost in their own city, maneuvering through the shadows cast by the Maple Leafs, the Raptors or the Blue Jays for any spare ray of light. There was no palpable build-up around the city for their home-opener on Friday night, and every reason to expect the stands would reflect that reality.
Except, they did not.
Fa n s fought through rush-hour traffic, avoided the lure of a Canada Day long weekend out of town and ignored the urge to watch from the comfort of home. The result was that the bot- tom two bowls of the stadium were full, with attendance announced as 29,852 for the game, against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the team’s largest home crowd in four years.
They were rewarded with a wild, 39-34 victory over the Ticats.
“It’s very gratifying,” Argos chairman Chris Rudge said.
On Friday, the Grey Cup preceded the two teams onto the field, escorted by two members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The championship banner, earned in a 35-22 win over the Calgary Stampeders at home last fall, in the 100th Grey Cup game, was unfurled.
The team had been urging fans to arrive early. One team official said employees had been deluged with phone calls for tickets in the days leading up to kickoff. Advertising, getting the word out, had become something like hand-to-hand combat.
Rogers Communications Inc., which owns both the stadium and its main tenant, the Blue Jays, is researching the possibility of installing a natural grass field. The Argos are in the middle of negotiating a new lease, likely for five years. There is a good chance it will be their last lease in the building.
And, assuming they can find a new home, that might not be the worst thing.
Even with the crowd — Rudge attached a number to the volume of calls, saying the team fielded more than 1,000 ticket calls a day this week — the upper bowl was still empty. It was intentionally empty, too, closed by the team in order to fill the lower two bowls and force a feeling of intimacy into the place.
It was intimate, but still loud. Toronto and Hamilton combined to fire 56 points onto the scoreboard in the first half. Argos quarterback Ricky Ray and Ticats counterpart Henry Burris combined for five touchdown passes, and almost 400 passing yards.
With the vast ocean of empty blue seats in the upper level, the stadium still felt too big for the Argos, like a child wearing a parent’s sweater. But it felt like something; it felt like something upon which to build.
“It’s not a ‘ eureka’ activity,” Rudge said. “You build on it, one game after another.”