My View From The "Cheap" Seats

Well, there it is.

A ticket from the "first" game for the Bills in Toronto (and by first, of course I mean third).

Please note the price.

Well, we all have, haven't we. The biggest complaint going into the Bills in Toronto experiment was the outrageous pricing Rogers put on seats to these games.

100 level seats are $575, and nosebleed 500 level seats like the one in the picture were almost $200 each.

And yet...48,000 people were in the Rogers Centre with me last night.

And yes, I know the stories. Scalpers unable to unload their plethora of tickets. Thousands given away by Rogers in the past week to show the NFL that this wasn't a colossal mistake. The Rogers tickets, by the way, were how I was able to get this seat, because, honestly, I wouldn't pay $10 for a pre-season game in any sport, let alone $200.

But throughout all the negative stories and frustrated CFL fans, one thing remained true about the game: it was entertaining. An opening drive deflected interception, a kickoff return for a touchdown and several exciting catch and runs. Was it worth $200-$575? I guess that depends on your disposable income.

The one thing I do know, though, is that the crowd at the game was evenly split between Bills fans and Steelers fans, who were only outnumbered by general NFL fans. When the Dolphins come here in December for Canada's first regular season NFL game, it will not seem like a home game for the Bills, regardless of the signs and cheerleaders on the field.

Until the Bills move here permanently, and build a new football-friendly stadium along with it, Toronto will just be a city where the Bills play, and not their home.

As for the CFL fans worried about the state of their preferred league...the only reason to be concerned would be if more people went to see the Bills in Toronto than the Argos or the Tiger-Cats. And if that happens, your preferred league wouldn't have stood a chance anyway.

Time for a New Obsession

Well, another hockey season is in the books, and, for once, the best team in the regular season was the best team in the playoffs, and, as a result, no one can deny that the Detroit Red Wings were the NHL's best in 2007-2008. As much as everyone wanted to pick Pittsburgh, Montreal, or (gulp!) San Jose, the better team won. And we can't even complain that they rode a hot goalie or bullied their way to the Cup (ah, the Ducks): Detroit played smart, classy hockey and deserved to win.

But there is no hockey until training camp starts in September (yes, only 3 months from now), so now we must focus our attention on other sports.

First, the NBA.

Crap. Their final (heretofor referred to as "Finals") begins tonight and as I write this the Celtics lead by 5 with 5 minutes left in the first half. I guess that means I can turn the channel back in 90 minutes and very little will change. Any sport that has a referee with gambling and Mafia connections and another who was openly hostile against one particular player one year - Tim Duncan last year - then suspended for such hostility, then referees a series featuring that exact player the following year has some serious issues with fair play. Forget the SpyGate and steroid hearings, U.S. Congress; get your attention towards the unfair competition at hand in the NBA. Maybe that's why the league got their dream Finals match-up...

Okay, well, there's always baseball. But it's June, and virtually nothing is decided now. Oh, except that the Blue Jays are an average team and will likely stay that way throughout the rest of the year. Next.

The NFL season is still 3 months away, and hockey is 4. Maybe it's time I brush up on my CFL knowledge.

Or I could just stop watching sports...

Hmm...

How many teams are in the CFL again?

The Definition Of Insanity

It was reported today in The Globe and Mail that plans are in the works to bring a CFL franchise back to the nation's capital by the 2010 season.

For a league presumably concerned with its long-term survival with the likely arrival of the big, bad NFL soon, expansion seems like the last good option for Canada's football league, and expansion to Ottawa, a city where football failed twice before, appears to be an idea conceived out of idiocy.

Albert Einstein's definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. The CFL's decision to move back to Ottawa after 2 failed attempts fits the category.

Argos, Bills can reap mutual benefit

For the published version of this column, please go here.

The original posting of this column can be found here.

If The Jets and Giants Can Do It...

It was reported yesterday that the Buffalo Bills want to play a pre-season game in Toronto next year and at least one regular season game there by 2009. There are some in the CFL that feel threatened by the idea, and rightfully so. When an Argonauts game is compared to a Bills game, the Canadian game looks more like American high school football teams playing than professional athletes.

Argos linebacker Mike O'Shea says Canadians are fans of the CFL game and not the NFL game. While that may be true in places like Regina, Winnipeg and Edmonton, where the CFL does extremely well, it is not the case here in T.O., where, as the Bills pointed out, many locals cross the border to watch Buffalo on Sundays rather than go to a half-empty Rogers Centre to watch the Argos.

Once this deal is approved, and there's no reason to think it won't, the Argos need to take a proactive approach with this. Work on a cross-promotion with the Bills to encourage those fans who focus on the NFL to embrace the Canadian game as well by implementing a deal on Argo tickets if fans buy Bills seats.

In the long run, if the Bills move to Toronto permanently, this type of relationship between the two franchises would go a long way to ensuring the Argos success against the NFL product. If a new stadium is needed for the Bills, move the Argos in with them, and market accordingly. If the price is the same, I guarantee the majority of Torontoians will watch the Bills instead of the Argos.

The Canadian game may be unique, but it is not in the same talent class as the NFL, and if this announcement is the first step in NFL expansion to Canada, the CFL, and especially the Argonauts, need to see it as an opportunity, not as a crisis.

First opportunity: how about a Bills v Argos pre-season game in August 2008 at the Rogers Centre, where the Bills are the "home" team? It would be a great chance to show Toronto a working relationship between these two teams. We always talk about how 2 hockey teams would work here, but what about 2 football teams from different leagues with different rules playing in the same stadium?

Besides, if the Jets and Giants can share a stadium and a city, why can't the Bills and Argonauts?

The Worst Day of the Year

In 2007, it is Wednesday July 11, and in most years, it is the second Wednesday in July.

This is the worst sports day of the year.

Between the middle of June and Labour Day weekend, the only major North American sport in operation is Major League Baseball, and its only competition in that time span in Canada is the CFL, and yesterday was the only day that there was no baseball anywhere across the continent, with their all star break concluding.

The NHL knew this, and took advantage of the media's free space to release their schedule for the upcoming season. On the Canadian sports news programs, this story was the focal point of their show.

The CFL, on the other hand, did not have a game on last night, instead sticking to their usual games on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday this week.

Sports news programs are an hour long and the sports section in the newspaper isn't any smaller on the worst sports day of the year. The CFL, already reduced to a minor league in the eyes of football fans, would have the full attention of Canada's sports media for a day, something any league that is not on top would relish.

A doubleheader on the Wednesday of baseball's all star break by the CFL makes a lot more sense than scheduling games on Sunday afternoons in September. But, maybe that's why the CFL is a minor league.

That and the lack of talented players.