National Post

TFC may be Florida-bound to start season

- STEVE BUFFERY

With quarantine clouds continuing to blot the horizon, Toronto FC may be joining the raptors in the Sunshine State.

TFC president bill Manning said Tampa — where the Toronto raptors train and play this season (Amalie Arena) — is one of the areas the club is considerin­g to relocate for at least the start of the 2021 Major League Soccer regular season. because of COVID-19 border restrictio­ns and government quarantine rules in Canada, it’s likely the three Canadian clubs in the MLS will have to start the season in the u.s. TFC, Montreal and Vancouver all ended the MLS 2020 season playing and training in the u.s. For the reds that was in east Hartford, Conn.

“(Tampa) is one of the areas we’re looking at, certainly,” Manning told Postmedia News. “I spoke to (raptors president) Masai ujiri (on Tuesday) just to see he how he was doing down in Tampa and what they (the raptors) have been experienci­ng and what they’ve been doing. His people and my people are actually connecting and they’ve done a few different things with the team, which has been really cool in terms of some functions outside of training and so on. We’re going to take some notes on what they’re doing and that’s the cool thing about MLSE, we can lean on each other.”

Manning said whatever facility and city TFC selects, there has to be a provision place that allows the reds to vacate the place with 48 hours’ notice. In other words, if TFC gets permission to return to Toronto and play home games at BMO Field, they’ll be able to do so on short notice and not face any fines or other consequenc­es. He said the club is looking at various options, including locations in the u.s. south and in the u.s. northeast. The problem with returning to rentschler Field in east Hartford is the late winter/early spring weather in the area.

Manning also said almost certainly the reds will hold pre-season camp at the BMO Training Ground this year, outside on the heated field and also inside the bubble.

The Major League Soccer regular season is scheduled to begin on April 17.

 ??  ?? Bill Manning
Bill Manning

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