Stefan Caunter

I am a TFC fan. I go to all the games. I cannot believe the collective response to this video. The media have all got in a huff, asserting that they have the right to have nice people saying nice things on camera, or else they will show what they didn’t like, and those people will get fired from their jobs.
I’ve attended sporting events in Toronto for 43 years. This has never happened. People need to get a grip. The media do not have an unquestioned right to have urban street scenes play out like a Disney parade. Yes, people say hurtful things, during, before and after Toronto sports games. That does not give media the right to stalk in with TV cameras, and then complain about what happens when you are in the middle of that unhappy bunch of people.
This was not covering a major earthquake, this was a journalist seeking reactions to a local sport team’s loss. If that reaction isn’t to your liking, don’t use it. No one shot at you, or took your equipment away, or took you hostage. That’s actually what happens when you are a journalist who is in danger. No one who pays to go to a TFC game owes the media anything. It will be a sad day for freedom of speech when the commercial power of the media suppresses that freedom.
Freedom of the press is closely tied to freedom of speech. Toronto media forget this at their peril. The Toronto media benefits massively from Toronto FC and this seems like an unnecessary cheap shot at a loyal and attractive fan base and demographic who provide lovely backdrops for your sports news segment advertisers. Who is going to talk to CP24 now? Why would anyone, given the potential consequences? Today it is vulgarity. Tomorrow, what can I not say? I get interviewed and anything I say can be held against me now? If I say “I think the team sucks” will I get banned by MLSE? If I say, “I don’t want to talk to you” will I get fired for not cooperating with the media? Sorry CP24, it’s “no comment” next time I think.

If you look at any reasonably planned and executed metro system in any world city, the underground rail gets people around the downtown. There are subway stops everywhere, at the major intersections. Toronto is a lovely little city but only because you can walk most of it. Its leaders have failed its people for generations since the original subway and expressways went in. There should be lines under King, Queen, Dundas, College, Bathurst (going to the Island Airport), Spadina and Church. There should have been an extension to York, and to Pearson, years ago.
But there’s no local representation in Ontario. There are arbitrary boundaries built for convenience 20 years ago. This stuff will happen for as long as this is true. A specific area will pull ridiculous attention as a swing riding/ward and get all kinds of promises. That’s what happens. That’s why Lastman got his idiotic Sheppard line through his friend’s neighbourhoods. It’s why there is consensus funding for another colossal mistake of a subway to nowhere, right in the middle of a (largely sane) debate about what to do about transit.
Scarborough is 30 km away from downtown. It’s not the “city” in anyone’s mind except election boundary drawings. But it’s not this that makes you think. There are current subway projects, and none of them are downtown.
Apparently, one is mostly done to York University, although it’s years from opening. There is one going up to Vaughan I think. I don’t really know, as it’s about as relevant to me as one in Scarborough will be to anyone who ever visits Toronto.
Apart from the obvious places downtown that should have subway stops, a quick look at a map shows that Downsview Park makes more sense for a subway. Pearson Airport. Annette and the Junction, which is a terrible area in which to get around. The Beach Kingston road would be perfect for another horrible area for transit. Subway to the Islands (Berlin is doing this). Dufferin. Jane. Pape.
For the past 50 years, leaders that people elect have failed to do this. It’s the people’s fault for putting up with it. Those leaders were failures. David Crombie. John Sewell. David Miller. Bill Davis. David Peterson. Easier to get elected than to actually build something for the people.

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So, once again, more loud whining about the Argos. The owner of the
Argos is an old, rich man. You don’t get old and rich if you’re
stupid. Mr. David Braley is hopefully talking up the possibility of a
solution to an issue that is entirely of his own making.
The Argos “play” in a “stadium” called the Rogers Centre. To those of
us who actually paid for the thing, it is Skydome. When I say paid, I
mean $600 million 1980s dollars of taxpayer money went into it. It was
expensive and awesome in 1989. It was awesome until about 1994. It
started getting handed down for pennies on the dollar to various local
corporate interests (remember “Sportsco”?), until Rogers
Communications got it in 2004 for $25 millon. Rogers was desperate to
not have the Argos leave the dome, which they were going to do, to the
new stadium being built (that would be BMO Field, although the
location had not been determined), and so they offered them free rent.
This deal was renewed under Braley.
So the notion that something needs to be “solved” it a bit more
complex than we are being led to believe here. Rogers now realizes
that extending free to the Argos was a mistake. Their actual content
producer Blue Jay baseball team, that fills the stadium and their TV
properties, wants the Argos out so they can put in a real grass field.
Very interesting. For the very reason that Rogers wants the Argos out,
we hear the reason TFC fans do not want the Argos in, at BMO Field.
Grass field is incompatible with Canadian Football.
TFC fans, and the people of Toronto, should be very wary of what is
going on. Rogers wants something. They can promote any point of view
they want, and freeze out dissent completely on their media
properties. Braley wants something that is basically consistent with
what Rogers wants. The large media companies in Toronto get what they
want. Rogers got a friendly write-up about the Argo situation on the CBC
website as well as the Star today. They get this because they pay
the Star and the CBC millions of dollars a year in advertising buys.
You will not hear any mainstream opposition to the Argo move to BMO
for this reason.
Essentially, no one wants the Argos in their facility, which should be
a giant red flag for everyone involved. It will be very interesting to
see Rogers and MLSE trying to deal with this. As TFC’s owners, MLSE
have little to gain and will assume much risk if they take them in. I
was left shaking my head when the Argos did not come to the soccer
stadium when they had the chance. They had their chance, and instead
took the free rent at the Dome. That is where they should stay. Rogers
offered it, and only a fool would help either of them out of their
stupidity.

So, there’s an article on the Toronto Sun website. I won’t make it a link, but here’s the url – http://www.torontosun.com/2015/04/24/live-leiweke-updates-bmo-field-argos-talks

Understandably, they won’t publish my comment, which appears below. Spam and pointless bickering is fine, apparently. Sigh.

Here is my take.

Rogers Communications and the Jays situation in the dome is driving the debate about BMO Field. It has nothing to do with the Argos or TFC. The CFL at the dome is simply a problem for Rogers.

This is being discussed because CFL is incompatible with grass in the Dome, just like it is incompatible with grass at BMO. Any serious observer can understand this. The Dome was built to accomodate both the Jays and the Argos. That is why the sections move. The Argos declined to go to BMO field, because Rogers didn’t want them to leave the Dome, and offered to let them stay for free years ago. Now, they desperately want to put a natural grass field in the Dome to improve things for the Jays. Rogers owns the Jays and the Dome. The Argos are in the way for all of their plans for these major assets. Rogers is just trying to make this someone else’s problem, and it’s really amazing to me that they are getting a free ride here. The media seems happy to make this TFC versus Argos. It’s not. This is Rogers not wanting to deal with a problem they created. They won’t pay to relocate the Argos. They won’t do anything for the owner of the Argos (I wouldn’t either, but that’s another side of this). 

QMI won’t say anything because they are afraid Rogers will pull its advertising. Same with every other news outlet. So, the story becomes, the poor Argos, why won’t anyone help them? News to everyone: Rogers can afford to deal with this. Make them pay for a stadium for the Jays, or for the Argos, or both. This should never be allowed to be a problem for the people of Toronto, and it’s a real shame it’s being put in a TFC versus Argos context. It’s Rogers versus the people of Toronto.