Ex Board approves 1249 future empty seats

As expected, the Exhibition Place board approved MLSE's proposal to expand the north end of BMO Field by 1200 or so seats. The plan will now proceed to Toronto City Council in the New Year for a final checkmark which will probably be met with little resistance. A short while ago this would have been joyous news for TFC fans. However, thanks to the Toronto Argonauts, it is just insult to injury.

The CFL team is pursuing a move to BMO Field with an aggression that increases by the day. They are now openly telling their season ticket holders that they can get refunds or relocation if and when it happens - possibly as soon as the 2010 season. The fact that TFC, the Canadian Soccer Association and a grass pitch are the main tenants is merely an afterthought.

The CFL meanwhile is rapidly pushing through a feasibility study regarding Argos-to-BMO. While terms like "tentative" and "far from certain" are thrown about, many TFC fans can feel the CFL's desperation to save the floundering Boatmen. Even if it means making a mockery of the standard CFL surface, you can't help but feel that the league will shoehorn the Argos into BMO in a lame attempt to "save" the team.

TFC supporters can expect no help from the municipal government as they will take whatever option gets them a quick buck. Sadly, this is very short-sighted. The day the Argos and their turf-tearing cleats attached to 300 pound linebackers show up at BMO, the soccer set in Toronto can kiss all of the massive strides the sport has taken here good-bye.

There will be no future World Cup Qualifiers or international friendlies, no more big time Real Madrid-esque matches and worst of all Toronto FC will enter a slide that it may never come out of. Why? Because the CFL will destroy the pitch both physically and visually to the point where real football can no longer co-exist at an elite level.

The international teams and high level club teams will refuse to play on a ripped up, crater-filled pitch and it won't be long before MLS players opt not to play for TFC because of the risk of injury. The fans meanwhile will leave bit by bit. Purist fans will not watch any club play on gridiron lines with giant Wendy's and Rona ads emblazoned across the field. And before you think that they will scrub out the lines - think again. The close schedules of TFC and the Argos but mainly the cost attached will see that this doesn't ever happen.

In the end, the city may well agree to allow the north end to be expanded but it is what is on the field that will inevitably decide the success of the young stadium. We just hope that these decision makers have to face the music in a few years time when TFC are drawing tiny crowds as they play on gridiron and the Argos eventually start talking of moving to a bigger stadium.

Meanwhile, the revenue from a host of FIFA matches will have disappeared to Montreal and Edmonton and as TFC slides into oblivion, right-wing meatheads will cackle "see, soccer just can't work here". We can wish that this is a "far from certain" nightmare scenario but barring major protests or MLSE flexing some serious muscle it suddenly feels very imminent.