Toronto NFL Team “Inevitable”: CFL Commissioner
Posted November 23, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
On the eve of Grey Cup weekend it may be the last thing you might expect to hear from the guy who runs the Canadian Football League. But commissioner Mark Cohon admits it’s almost inevitable that the NFL will one day field a team in Toronto.
Many football fans would love the opportunity to see the stars from down south play here on a regular basis, but others worry about the impact it would have on the Canadian game. But Cohon insists he’s just being realistic. He hopes there’s a way the two leagues can work together to make it happen, a sort of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” mentality.
“You have guys like Ted Rogers and Larry Tanenbaum and Phil Lind, very powerful Canadians who are interested, you have an owner in Ralph Wilson in Buffalo who has said, ‘When I die, my estate will sell the franchise,’ you have the Bills interested in marking Toronto as part of their territory, which I believe is indication that, ‘Hey this our territory, we don’t want another NFL team coming here,'” Cohon concludes.
He wants to partner with whoever finally gets the NFL nod here and make sure the league – and by extension the Argos – survive. “We have to figure out if there’s an opportunity there. Part of that is can we package ticket sales together with them? But it has to go beyond words of saying, yes, we want to help the CFL. And we will hold people to that. Any type of relationship we have has to make sure that the eight existing franchises are strong, are growing and healthy. So I think southern Ontario is critical to this league, and we’ll make sure that we protect it and grow it.”
Many will be surprised to hear Cohon openly speculating about sharing the city with his rivals. But he insists he’s just being practical. “I’m not sticking my head in the sand. That would be the worst thing for the CFL commissioner to do. So I think there’s a real potential.”
As for the Canadian game itself, Cohon admits he’d like to bring a franchise back to Ottawa and expand to either Quebec City or Halifax – providing they can work out a deal with the respective cities to build a stadium in each location.
