Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home seems to be a phrase that I am not quite familiar with in my 30 years. I think ever since I started there was always talk of having to move out of one facility to another.

Lets start but talking about Exhibition Stadium. It was a great place to call home and was not only the site of where we played games but had our practices. We used to practice on the stadium turf for some time. It was great to be able to step right outside our back door to our field. Although we were the first there, we were very happy to share it with the Toronto Blue Jays. Even when we were doing our practice on a field set up for baseball we had a decent relationship with our roommates. After all it was a SHARED facility.

We would practice at the now site of Medieval Times and would only have to practice elsewhere during the Indy of CNE. hoping on a bus seemed like a big task at the time but we got used to it I suppose.

When the talk started about the construction of the SkyDome we knew that we would be playing our games in a multi-purpose facility and there would be some sacrifices but never what would come later. We knew that we would move in and move out each home Argo game. From 1989-1997 we had the luxury of having our day before the game practice at the SkyDome. The locker room would never really be our home while we paid rent at the SkyDome.

When we moved to a new practice facility, we were had some stability. University of Toronto Mississauga was a place we would call home from 1996-2014. Our relationship was best with our roommates when we were owned by the same owner. We shared resources and the facility from 1995-1999. There were some changes once we changed ownership but it all came tumbling down in 2000 when Rogers purchased the Toronto Blue Jays and the President was Paul Godfrey. Who was known as one of the main ringleaders to try and bring NFL to Toronto and demolish the historic Boatmen. In 2004, Rogers bought the SkyDome and made it the Rogers Centre. That's when the relationship changed dramatically. It was almost as though we were the kids on the playground that they wanted away. The faster they can make us unsuccessful, the better it would be for them. They brought the Bills Series which they believed to be the beginning of NFL to Toronto and the death of the Double Blue. Then the facility branding was Toronto Blue Jays from February to October and then Bills from November-December even when we hosted an East Final.

We are now in our last year of existence at the Rogers Centre and off to what was our original home back in the 70's and 80's. The last few years of schedule assignments for the Argos were signals as to how poorly we were viewed by the landlords.This past season we have had to play our first 5 games on the road and then we would play a large chunk of games in October. That's not ideal but its something we would make work for this last year. However with the Toronto Blue Jays success we are forced to likely look for a new venue to play our remaining season games. We could end up playing a total of only 5 home games at the Rogers Centre this season. Not exactly the way I imagined our farewell tour to end. This "Move Out" takes the cake on the biggest move out I've experienced in my 30 years with the club. So for the winningest team in Toronto, the first team to wear blue, the oldest franchise with the same name in North America and the team that has the most players staying in town to do community appearances, we'll just have to grin and bear it.

I won't let that take away from the joy I have of seeing the Jays successful, but I can still be saddened by the way we are treated. Aside from some fans at BMO field that don't want us returning to our original home, I am looking forward to sharing the facility with TFC and sharing in their success on the field. Hopefully, we will finally call somewhere "Home Sweet Home".

2015 Kickoff to the Farewell Tour

It's been way too long since my last post and its likely because I've been writing my book. The team has been on the road since June 26th and are finally back to play in Hamilton and then home to play the Green Riders. This home opener, my 31st is different than any other because it is the last one at the Rogers Centre. That made me reflect and think about all my years at the big round retractable stadium. I still remember in a 1987 Grey Cup promotional video seeing a special segment at the end that talked about the concept of the first multi-purpose retractable domed stadium where the Argos will play. This was all done in a cartoon sketch. It looked pretty neat and we were all pretty excited for the new stadium we would move into where weather would no longer be a factor. I know that many of the players couldn't wait to play indoors. We would still practice on the CNE grounds and have our locker room still at the Exhibition Stadium until the city determined what would happen to the "mistake by the lake." As the stadium was being built we all had great expectations. It would be ready a little later than first assumed but the wait would be worth it. As it neared completion, people began to anticipate the 1989 opening. As if to foreshadow why this stadium was needed our last game at the EX in 1988 was a rainy East Final where we couldn't hold onto the ball, catch the ball or keep from slipping on the watery field.

I'm not 100 percent sure what was so exciting. I think it was the idea of Big City Football in a Big stadium where we wouldn't be affected by weather. After a decline in attendance in the Skydome now known as The Rogers Centre, I can start to say that the excitement was the idea of going to a new stadium because with us now moving to BMO field in 2016, I'm excited. We are going back to that potential for rainy games but despite that I think the feeling of a new beginning has us all equally excited as we were in 1989. I think my next blog will talk about the various reflections of our days at our home from 1989-2015.