BMO Field will play host to 2016 Grey Cup
CFL will hold championship in Argos’ first season sharing space with Toronto FC
Toronto’s 2016 sports calendar just added another high-profile event.
Sources at the CFL confirmed the league plans to host the 104th Grey Cup game at BMO Field on Nov. 27, 2016. Thursday afternoon, CFL president Jeffrey Orridge, along with Mayor John Tory and Argos ownership, will reveal details at a news conference at the Thompson Hotel.
The event marks the 48th time Toronto will host the Grey Cup but the first outdoor game here since 1982, when the Edmonton Eskimos defeated the Argonauts32-16 in front of 54,741 fans at Exhibition Stadium.
It also caps a huge year in local sports, starting with the 2016 NBA All-Star Game at the Air Canada Centre in February.
The last time Toronto hosted the Grey Cup — in 2012 on the game’s 100th anniversary — the Argos defeated the Calgary Stampeders 3522. More importantly, according to research from the Canadian Sports Tourism Alliance, the 2012 Grey Cup Festival generated $133 million in economic activity in Ontario and $94.7 million in Toronto.
The game also brings to a close the first season of CFL football at BMO Field, a prospect that still raises both questions and tempers.
When Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment chairman Larry Tanenbaum announced in May that he had teamed with Bell to buy the Argonauts, the group also confirmed plans to move the team’s home games from Rogers Centre, where the club’s lease expires after this season, to BMO Field. But accommodating the Argos means installing a new playing surface, one durable enough to withstand 17 Toronto FC regular-season games and a full Argos schedule. And making room for a CFL field in a stadium designed for soccer means making seats at the north and south ends of BMO Field retractable. The entire process is expected to cost $20 million. Moving the Argos to BMO runs counter to Major League Soccer’s policy of using soccer-specific stadiums. Only four of the league’s 20 teams share stadiums with football teams, while New York City FC plays at Yankee Stadium.
Meanwhile, the MLS Cup typically takes place at the end of November. If Toronto FC qualifies for the final with home field advantage, a scheduling conflict at BMO is possible — as optimistic TFC diehards on Twitter pointed out.
Though the league source confirmed the 2016 Grey Cup to Toronto on Wednesday, word of the event trickled out in January when Tory inadvertently mentioned during a radio appearance the city would host the event.
Tory later said he “misspoke” and the league said it hadn’t yet decided which city would play host to the championship.