A house divided? New tenants at BMO Field has TFC fans seeing red
Purists worry a pitch with leftover football yard lines will turn off soccer lovers
When CFL officials and Argos ownership held a news conference Wednesday to officially announce the football team’s move to BMO Field, “thank yous” flowed profusely. MLSE chairman Larry Tannenbaum, part of a group buying the Argos, thanked the city and the CFL. He thanked current owner David Braley, seated nearby on the dais at BMO Field’s Tunnel Club, and thanked Argo fans.
But nearly 30 minutes into the event nobody had thanked, or even mentioned, Toronto FC — strange given the soccer club is the stadium’s main tenant. TFC fans were already worried the Argos would damage the stadium’s playing surface and the CFL-centric news conference didn’t calm concerns the club had become an afterthought in a stadium originally built for soccer.
“It feels like a slap in the face,” says Ryerson student and TFC fan Mi- chael Norton. “This could be the first step of TFC being pushed out of its own stadium.”
Tension between the Argos and TFC fans began soon after original speculation that the CFL team would move to BMO Field when their lease at Rogers Centre expired. Over the last two years the “No Argos at BMO” movement has grown to include a blog, a Twitter account and a banner hanging in the stadium’s south end during home games.
The anti-Argos sentiment dovetails with Major League Soccer’s stated preference that teams play in soccerspecific stadiums. Of the league’s 20 teams only four play in football stadiums retrofitted for soccer, while New York City FC plays in Yankee Stadium.
TFC season ticket holder Chris Greidanus has been skeptical of the plan since he first heard the rumour, and worries Leiweke underestimates the importance soccer fans and players place on a pristine pitch. He says that soccer games played on fields with leftover football yard lines will turn off purists and discourage them from renewing season tickets.
“If it starts to affect the integrity of the game, that’s my concern,” Greidanus says. “When you have a playing surface that looks bush league, that’s not helping a league that’s trying to make headway in this market.”
While acknowledging the league’s desires, outgoing MLSE president Tim Leiweke stressed that stadiums can host multiple events without losing soccer-specificity.
“Every stadium that I’ve been a part of, they’re a multi-venue facility,” Leiweke said. “This is not unique. It is not new. It is not different. These are not new problems. There are other people that have solved these problems.”
He points to Houston’s BBVA Compass Stadium as an example of an MLS club, the Houston Dynamo, sharing construction costs and a playing field with a football team, the University of Houston Cougars, and co-existing happily.
“The Argos do deserve a field. But it probably shouldn’t be BMO.” CHRIS GREIDANUS TFC SEASON TICKET HOLDER
Leiweke said the ongoing $120-million renovation of BMO Field would include changes to accommodate the Argos.
He said MLSE, which manages the city-owned stadium, would spend about $3 million planting a sturdier hybrid grass. And seating at the north and south ends of the stadium will become retractable, coming out during soccer games and rolling back to make room for a CFL field that, including end zones, is 35 yards longer than TFC’s pitch.
“There are no compromises,” Tannenbaum said during the news con- ference. “That field will be equally good for both sports.”
Despite those assurances, fans remain concerned. If Argos games gouge grass from the middle of the field, the stadium becomes less appealing to star players and to European teams scheduling friendlies, Norton says.
And while Greidanus says the BMO move would improve the game-day experience for Argo fans, he says fans of the stadium’s main tenant should take precedence. “The Argos do deserve a field,” he says. “But it probably shouldn’t be BMO.”