WATCH ABOVE: The double blue will share BMO Field with Toronto FC “Reds” starting next year. Mark Carcasole reports.
TORONTO — Big changes are coming for the Toronto Argonauts: the football club has been sold to Bell and MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum.
The sale was confirmed Wednesday with an announcement at BMO Field.
BMO Field, which just revealed an expansion, will be the Argos new home beginning in 2016 — if necessary renovations for the move can be done in time. The Canadian Football League team currently plays at the Rogers Centre, along with the Toronto Blue Jays. The Rogers Centre essentially wants to kick out the cleats-wearing football team so it can install a grass playing surface for the MLB team.
Tanenbaum noted the team played at the old Exhibition Stadium for 30 years, and said the Argos returning to the grounds is a fitting new home.
WATCH ABOVE: Bell and MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum announced Wednesday that they have purchased the CFL team and will relocate it to BMO Field. The team can start play at the lakefront soccer stadium as early as next season, pending renovations to accommodate football.
“We believe that this new chapter in Argos history will only strengthen what is a very positive CFL story right now,” he said.
He thanked the fans for support over the years.
“You deserve the right stadium, you deserve long term, stable ownership and you deserve a winning team,” said Tanenbaum. “We plan to deliver all of that to you.”
Toronto Mayor John Tory said at the announcement the Argos are “the most venerable franchise in Canadian sports.”
“Both the Argos and the CFL are Canadian institutions well worth preserving,” said Tory, who pledged to do whatever he can to help the team. “I want Larry and George to know they have my full support.”
WATCH ABOVE: Mayor John Tory shares his fondest memories of the Argos
He said it was a goal of his while commissioner of the CFL to improve the health of the football club, and said that missed chance has now come.
Tory said the “heroic stewardship of David Braley” kept the team afloat, and said all Argos fans owe Braley their thanks. He said the new owners “will make this team a success.”
The Argos were previously owned by businessman David Braley, who owns the B.C. Lions.
“I’m thrilled with today’s announcement,” said Braley. “This is a very important day in the history of the Argonauts franchise.”
Braley said the agreement is what’s best for the team, fans and city of Toronto, and under its new ownership the Argos have a “very bright future.”
Vijay Setlur, an Argos season ticket holder since 1994 said the sale is a “turning point” for the franchise.
“This sale and the resulting move here to BMO Field is a great opportunity for the team to really reinvent itself, and to really restore a lot of the lustre on the brand that’s been lost over the last few years.”
BMO Field is also home base for the Toronto FC, located just south of Liberty Village. There have been flags raised in the past by residents over the Argos move to an already condensed area.
“It certainly adds strain,” said Todd Hofley from the Liberty Village Residents Association. He said while the swarm of people who attend events and games in the area is great for local businesses, he wants to see infrastructure improvements by the city so the additional people in the area aren’t a problem.
“We love having the sports teams and that kind of stuff; we accept that we moved into a dense urban environment and there are going to be these types of things,” said Hofley. “I think we need to be thinking a little more strategically about how we support the environments in which all of these things are happening at the same time.”
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