Talks between U of T and the now ownerless Toronto Argonauts have taken place as recently as a month ago says an inside university source. The university and the bankrupt football club are both looking for a new place to play football, however to date, negotiations have been unsuccessful and a new stadium at U of T remains hypothetical. The Blues will instead spend the 2003 season playing at a Varsity field outfitted with temporary bleachers, portables and port-o-potties. The Argos, now the financial burden of the CFL, will continue playing to a sparsely attended SkyDome.
Partnership with the Argos would mean the construction of a large stadium, with a capacity of 20,000 to 25,000, and the swallowing of Devonshire Place, the small street that runs north/south along the western wall of the former Varsity Stadium. Bruce Kidd, dean of the Faculty of Physical Education and Health, does not foresee such plans in the near future. “I regret to say, I think that option [partnership with the Argos] is closed to U of T.”
Instead, the faculty is focusing on what the university, not the Argos, needs. That, according to the Dean, is a small, intimate stadium that would seat approximately 5,000 and would be, in Kidd’s words, “an ornament to the campus and very student friendly.”
Student accessibility is a prime concern for the dean and the entire faculty. “We have limited land, and we need to privilege our own people to that land,” he reasons. There is a lingering worry that with any outside investor, the Argos included, student access to a new facility would be severely hampered.
Which is why the Dean is purportedly putting his support behind a proposal for the Varsity site that adopts a phased-in approach. Phase one being the construction of a small stadium with an all-weather field, eight lane track, strength and conditioning rooms, and student and teacher areas. Next would most likely come renovations to the arena and the building of a second rink. “A small stadium that you control offers far more opportunities,” he adds.
This proposal is still in its early stages, and other options have not been entirely ruled out. The faculty is currently conducting talks with municipal officials. Kidd is not holding his breath, however, acknowledging that the city is only interested in building a large stadium – one with a capacity of 20,000 to 25,000. And after the series of crises that rocked the GTA, the city’s coffers are rapidly dwindling.
The major sticking point so far is purely financial. While a deal with the Argos seems logical, as Liz Hoffman, director of athletics, points out “it’s all about dollars. Financially, it has to be a win, win situation.”
From U of T’s perspective, the Argos are not a safe financial bet. “At no time did they [the Argos] make any offer to us with real money,” claims Kidd. “Had the Argos approached us ten years ago maybe things would have been different, but concrete doesn’t last forever and the stadium was falling down.”
With a leveled playing field, the stakes are higher. The university is forced to start from scratch, and financial backers aren’t exactly knocking down the door. “Nobody, repeat, nobody, has come forward with the money,” laments the dean.
A similar situation has recently played itself out in Montreal, to opposite effect. Molson Stadium, in the heart of the McGill campus, is the home to both the intercollegiate Redmen teams, and the Grey Cup champion Montreal Alouettes. And the stadium has just been completely refurbished, with new turf, new lights, new washrooms, and a new scoreboard – all to the tune of $14 million.
“The stadium has had a major refurbishing…and it is all because of Alouette involvement,” says Bob Dubeau, director of athletics for McGill University. He’s referring to the $4.2 million that was donated by each level of government – federal, provincial, municipal – as part of a government infrastructure program. Had the Alouettes not been involved, however, McGill would have received $3 million at most from government subsidizers, “the same as other Quebec schools,” adds Dubeau.
McGill administrators aren’t the only ones laughing. When a U2 concert bumped the CFL team from their home turf Olympic Stadium back in 1997, the McGill playing field became a quick stand-in. Since that chance coupling, the Alouettes have bounced back from the brink of bankruptcy winning the Grey Cup last year and selling out 44 straight games at their new crib.
Louis-Philippe Dorais, the director of communications for the Alouettes, admits that with a capacity of just over 20,000, Molson Stadium is still a couple of thousand seats shy of generating profit for the CFL club, but “there’s no other solution. This is where our fans want to be so this is where we want to be…it’s not a secret that Olympic Stadium is not an ideal place to play football in the city.”
The resuscitation of Varsity Stadium has not seen such a charmed life. Although Varsity Arena was funded in large part by the province of Ontario, Queen’s Park has been unreceptive to U of T’s current stadium woes. As part of the Superbuild program, the province will match university money to build facilities on campus, but only academic ones, not athletic. And without provincial backing, federal money is off-limits.
On the Argo side of the coin, the now-defunct ownership no longer exists and was therefore unable to comment. However, director of football media for the CFL Shawn Lackie regretfully acknowledged that after all “the political twirlings and swirlings” of the past two years, partnership with U of T is no longer an option for the franchise. Instead he predicts that after finding an owner, the Argonauts will look to strike a deal with the Canadian Soccer Association.
For now, the phys. ed faculty has their fingers crossed that a permanent stadium will be completed by the fall of 2004, but with no official plans in the works, this optimism may be premature.
In the meantime, the faculty, athletes, and coaches are making the most of a tough situation. Come September 6, the first Blues home game, Hoffman expects the place to be packed to the metaphorical rafters. “We’ll be turning people away…there just won’t be enough room.”
