RIGHT THE SHIP

 I grew up loving the Toronto Argonauts and the CFL generally. Back in the 60's and early 70's, the NHL and the CFL were the big leagues. Our TV's could only pull in a total of 12 channels and about half of them were from Buffalo, New York, so we could get a baseball game every Saturday afternoon ( usually featuring the Yankees or Cardinals as the home team ) and the NFL would provide maybe 2 games on a Sunday. So, the pickings were kind of slim when you were a kid who worshipped sports and athletes.

The Argonauts commanded my attention from July until late November, when hockey and the Leafs would take over until May. The Stanley Cup playoffs were not the marathon that they are today: a champion would be crowned in only two playoff rounds. So that meant that we could go outside and play with our friends in the good weather and dream of hitting home runs alongside Mickey Mantle, or scoring hat tricks with Dave Keon and Frank Mahovlich, or running into the end zone with Bill Symons or catching touchdown passes from Wally Gabler or Tom Wilkinson.

Recent years watching my beloved Argos have been painful. Not because they have necessarily been bad teams ( they have won at least 2 Grey Cups in this century ), but because they have become such an irrelevance in the Toronto sports universe. Nobody cares about them: they are often a page 3 afterthought in the sports pages. They get barely a ripple on TV sports reports. Radio treats them like Korean 3rd division soccer. And the fans have apparently deserted them as well. Crowds hover around 10,000 a home game: in the 70's and 80's, they routinely drew in excess of 40,000.

What happened ? 

There's no doubt that the competition from other teams and events like the Jays, Raptors, TFC, the Honda Indy and Rogers Cup tennis have all eroded the solid base the Argos enjoyed among Toronto sports fans. There's just too much entertainment to go around in the city. And there is also little doubt that Toronto has changed, grown and become very diverse, all good things. But, with the proliferation of people from all parts of the world, the truly "international" sports do very well, especially basketball and soccer. Argos fans are still mainly from the older, whiter, more traditional demographic and the Argos have not done particularly well trying to attract fans from the other demographics, despite some valiant efforts. 

The Argos are one of the best teams getting out into the community. The players visit hospitals and schools. They lead in programmes that promote anti-bullying and inclusion. They work in soup kitchens and other charitable activities. They are genuinely liked and respected by the people who benefit from their efforts, but, again, this doesn't translate into more fans in the seats of games.

There is a lingering perception that the CFL and the Argos are "small time", and this does not do well with the fans who want "big league" extravagant sports. Hockey is different and always will be because it's embedded into the cultural fabric of the nation. Football used to be that way, but, alas, no longer, not when kids can get a soccer ball and go play with not a lot of expense and risk. Football is a dangerous and expensive sport, the argument goes .... but then again, so is hockey.

Clearly, the Argos need to operate differently from the other CFL teams. The Argos were most successful when they spent money on high-profile players from the NFL or US college ball and became the "city slickers" that the rest of the country grew to hate. Stadiums were full when Joe Theissman, Eric Allen, Anthony Davis, Terry Metcalfe, Rocket Ismail and the like wore double blue and became the darlings of the Toronto "fair weather fans" who liked image and sizzle more than the grunt work and sweat and blood of real football. They also became the hated enemies of fans in Regina, Ottawa and especially Hamilton, who saw them as the glamour boys who needed to be taught a lesson in real football. It wasn't sustainable in the long term, of course, but it was great while it lasted.

But the Argos hang in there and keep trying. If ever there was an "A For Effort" award in sports, the Argos would win it. They loyally stick to the CFL's modest and realistic business plan, which ensures that most teams in small markets can survive with crowds of around 25,000 per game and a TV deal from TSN that is actually a bargain for the network. All of this means that the Argos are seen as just another team like the Riders, Als, Redblacks and (gasp) TigerCats.

Maybe the time has come for another sugar daddy to step up, buy the Argos and run them like the old days, CFL rules be damned. Time for the old buccaneering spirit that raided the NFL with a  bold swagger and a "who cares about the future, let's have a good time now" attitude. It could right the ship for the Argos, at least in the short term. It could also bankrupt the team.

But what have they got to lose ? Right now, they're alive but they're a great big yawn too. In entertainment, a yawn is as good as an obituary.