We're finally getting a real football team

For several years, National Football League fans in the Greater Toronto Area have been fighting for an NFL expansion team. Although it seems any expansion plans are on the backburner due to a possible lockout this coming season, sports fans are getting a different kind of football team.

The LFL announced Wednesday that it is branching out to Canada and expanding its teams from 10 to 15, according to the Toronto Sun. Toronto will be one of the five cities to get a team this autumn and will play against Eastern Conference teams Baltimore Charm, Cleveland Crush, Orlando Fantasy, Philadelphia Passion and Tampa Breeze.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/305619#ixzz1JRtikjQh


Did they purposely lace the descriptions with suggestive terms or is it just me? Is a "punishing blow" a good thing or bad? Will they someday compile a video of the LFL's Greatest Hits? Say the last two words three times fast.

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A Toronto tid bit

It seems that just about everything done in Toronto is special. That's easy to say given that I've spent virtually my whole life here, but the city just keeps proving itself over and over again. Few projects are poorly executed. Everyone involved in a major way in this city from the mayor to city planners to large businesses seem dedicated to not being satisfied with the mediocre.

I'm a little late in writing about this, but truth be told, I hadn't really seen the subject of this posting in the three years or so it's been in existence. I'm talking about BMO field--the home of the Toronto FC Major League soccer team.

Here are a few photos that I found impressive:

On one side of the stadium, the seats are colour-coordinated to display the symbol and flag of Canada, the maple leaf. The MLS soccer franchise also happens to be owned by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, owners of the Toronto Maple Leafs NHL team. Downtown Toronto is in the background, dominated by the CN Tower, which for some 40 years until recently was the tallest building in the world.



On the opposite side of the stadium, the seats spell out "TORONTO".


Background is Lake Ontario and Toronto island.





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Historic event...pffft.

I let an important(?) event slip by without mention. This past Sunday, a regular season NFL game was held outside of American soil. The Buffalo Bills played host to the visiting Miami Dolphins in a muchly hyped game here in Toronto this past Sunday. I am not and never have been a football fan, but it was difficult not to hear of this "spectacle".

I use quotes because unlike the excitement inherent in most any NFL game, from all accounts, this one was fairly dull. For one, there were few real fans. Not only because neither combatants brought many of their supporters, but because not enough interested Canadian fans could be found to fill the 54,000 seats. Apparently, I'm not the only non-fan--there were seats available at game time. I wonder how much it had to do with the fact that the Rogers family figured $575 a ticket was a fair price for the best seats.

Did I mention that the action on the field was even worse than the attendance? It turned out to be a field goal fest with the Bills on the losing end of a 16-3 final score.

The high point of the day came before the game even started when the girl singing the Canadian national anthem was singing too slowly and the entire stadium sang out loudly and at the right tempo completely drowning out the singer.

Canada set to win the World Cup of Soccer 2010

Well, you'd think so if you listened to some of the current crop of players. Let's have some perspective, guys. Canada has only once even qualified for World Cup play. Ever. So, where's all the optimism coming from?

In preliminary qualifying, the "Super Canucks" positively destroyed their opponent, outscoring them 7-1 in two games. Who was this formidable opponent that succumbed to the mighty Canadians? St. Vincent. Yes, you read correctly. But let's not forgot that St. Vincent also includes The Sardines--I mean The Grenadines. For those unfamiliar with the soccer powerhouse, St. Vincent and the Grenadines is an island nation of 118,000 inhabitants situated in the Caribbean.

With high unemployment and people emigrating away, it's impressive that they can even put eleven players together. At last count, there were about 22,000 telephone lines. Dollars to doughnuts says the coach couldn't get in touch with some of the players to inform them of the upcoming games. The second largest country in the world has good reason to strut like the cock of the walk.

Go Canada!

Note: Canada's next game is in two days time against an equally considerable opponent--Jamaica. Team Canada should have an easy go of it as long as the Jamaicans have a good, healthy dose of the local herbal elixir before the game.

Paying the Bills

As a cable customer, Rogers Cable, owner of the "Dome Formerly Known as Skydome" and host of baseball's American League Blue Jays, wishes to offer me a chance to win a pair of tickets to "see the NFL's Buffalo Bills lock horns with the Pittsburgh Steelers" in a pre-season contest. The scheme is part of a multi-year deal bringing NFL teams here to show Canadians what real football is like (not Canadian football with its silly three-downs rule). I imagine its real purpose is to see if Toronto would support an NFL team of our own...and, of course, make oodles of money for Rogers.

Lord knows Ted Rogers needs money desperately. His company is the largest cable operator in Canada. He runs TV networks, wireless communication services, phone services internet service and the list goes on. For years, now, he's been begging me through endless mailings, flyers and ads to buy more services from him. Oh, and did I mention he owns the Blue Jays along with their fancy digs?--a facility he paid approximately $21 million for in 2004. Now, I don't begrudge a man trying to eke out a living in these rough times of revenue sharing that virtually ensures that no billionaire owner ever assumes any risk of losing money, but what about the poor Toronto taxpayers who were fleeced out of their hard-earned tax money to pay for the dome in the first place?

Teddy paid less than five cents on the dollar for the magnificent house that Art built and his first order of business was to rename the structure to "Rogers Centre". Shrewd thinking. Nobody could ever accuse him of practically stealing the Skydome because you see it's the Rogers Centre. Under then Toronto Mayor Art Eggleton's watchful eye, the retractable roof Skydome was constructed at a cost of a whopping $487 million--almost half a billion dollars! You could invade a small country for a price tag like that, couldn't you? Hell, we could have annexed Alaska when the Americans weren't looking. Who would notice?

Getting back to Roger's offer...he wants me to see the Bills and the Steelers live. I'm not sure why, though. You see, even if I watch them on the tube, there's a good chance that I would be watching them on his TV network. Of course! He wants me to buy his beer!

Note: Rogers bought Skydome from Chicago-based investors group Sportsco International who had purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1999 for about $92 million. But this doesn't make nearly as interesting a story.