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CFL governors dismiss NFL relocation
DAN RALPH
Canadian Press
October 11, 2007 at 7:30 PM EDT
Two CFL governors have dismissed the notion of Toronto Argonauts owners David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski purchasing an existing NFL franchise and moving it to Toronto in partnership with the other CFL owners.
On Thursday, The Globe and Mail reported Cynamon and Sokolowski have started looking into the idea and spoken to current CFL governors and commissioner Mark Cohon about it.
Cynamon and Sokolowski reportedly want to head off an NFL bid by another Toronto-based group that includes communications mogul Ted Rogers and Larry Tanenbaum, the chairman of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.
But two CFL governors, speaking on the condition of anonymity, downplayed the report.
"It was thrown around as a crazy concept, just a loose, crazy concept," said one.
"The Argos owners are very paranoid about it, and probably with good reason. But it's all very, very premature . . . I think everyone is getting way ahead of themselves."
Added the other governor: "Let me tell you, this is very, very, very premature."
Attempts to reach Cynamon, Sokolowski and Cohon were unsuccessful Thursday.
The governors spoke to The Canadian Press after the CFL told its member clubs not to comment publicly about the report. That included Bob Ackles, the B.C. Lions president and longtime NFL executive who last week said the NFL's arrival into Toronto would kill the CFL.
But Toronto Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey, the pointman for the Rogers-Tanenbaum group who has been chasing an NFL franchise for Toronto for decades, was more than willing to talk about a possible about-face in the CFL's lognstanding opposition to the arrival of an NFL team.
While he was skeptical about the report, he pointed out that any attempt to bring the NFL to Toronto would have come through his group.
"They don't quote anybody at all so my first impression is I don't know if it's a trial balloon or speculative story," Godfrey said. "But if you use the assumption that the CFL has embraced the idea of an NFL team in Toronto, I would sure love to sit down and speak to them on behalf of the Rogers-Tanenbaum group because I think our interests are totally in parallel.
"We all believe, and I'm speaking on everybody's behalf, that the Toronto NFL team and the Toronto CFL team could co-exist. I would go further and say a Toronto NFL team would do everything in its power to ensure that the CFL is stronger and healthier in every aspect than they have been.
"I would like to speak to them to show them that there are ways and means we can work closely together with the CFL to make it all happen."
And that would include ensuring a place for a Toronto-based NFL team to play because Rogers Communications Inc., also happens to own the Rogers Centre, which could serve as a short-term home for an NFL franchise.
"It sounds to me that if that's what they want, they want to play here, we should all be talking together," Godfrey said. "Obviously, they're going to have to speak to us at some point so why don't they speak to us now . . . if the substance of the story is true, we have the same goals."
In an e-mail, Brian McCarthy, the NFL's vice-president of communications, said: "We do not have any expansion plans and no teams have filed the necessary paperwork for relocation."
However, speculation has swirled for months about the future of the Buffalo Bills since 89-year-old owner Ralph Wilson said he wouldn't sell the club while he's alive and that the Bills will go to the highest bidder upon his death.
This marks the second time the Argos owners have explored options for their club. Last month, one report said they had started looking into moving to BMO Field, the home of the Toronto FC soccer team, despite having a lease agreement at Rogers Centre.
