Fire a NFL Team in Toronto

This is as close as Toronto will get to the NFL.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug, a city councilor, said that they would love to have a NFL team in Toronto and that they don't think that franchise would hurt Toronto's CFL team, the Argonauts. These absurd ideas should be fired.

Rob said a NFL team wouldn't kill the Argos because "there are a lot of football fans here,” and Doug said: “We’re huge supporters of the CFL. Rob goes down to the games all the time. He’s passionate about the CFL. The Greater Toronto Area is over five million people so I think there are more than enough people to support both teams.”

Two issues here. First, the track record of American sports leagues putting teams in Canada isn't real good. The Vancouver Grizzlies lasted only 6 years before moving to Memphis; the Montreal Expos expired after 35 years and 1 playoff appearance; and despite Canada's obvious hockey obsession, there are now only 6 NHL teams north of the border with two having relocated to the U.S. Among the remaining non-hockey teams in Canada, the Toronto Raptors and Toronto Blue Jays have become afterthoughts in their respective leagues.

The NFL has even experimented with moving a team to Toronto, allowing the Bills to play a total of 8 "home" games there between 2008 and 2012. The Bills played only 1 game at the Rogers Centre in 2010, but they were 3,500 shy of selling out the 54,000-seat stadium.

Second, despite what the Fords seem to think, it is totally implausible that a NFL franchise would not wreck minor-league football in Toronto. Historically, cities with a minor-league team that then get a major-league one don't have two teams in the same sport for very long. Minor league baseball thrived in cities like San Diego, Los Angeles and Oakland for more than 40 years until they each got major league teams, which spelled the end of lower-level baseball in those places. Beyond that, the CFL season runs June through November and it's safe to say that very few football fans would choose to see the Argos over the NFL in the fall.

Doug Ford asked: “How can the NFL keep ignoring one of the largest markets in North America?” The NFL has much bigger things to consider than moving a team to Toronto. Even after the labor dispute is settled, the NFL is going to focus on moving a team to Los Angeles. America's #2 media market is and has been for years the NFL's top expansion (or relocation) priority. The Fords can wish, hope and pray all they want, but other than a couple Bills games here and there, Toronto will not (and should not) see NFL action.