Thread: Corporate captains talk merger to pursue NFL team

Corporate captains talk merger to pursue NFL team
ROBERT MACLEOD
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

Two of Canada's most influential sports entrepreneurs continue to chase the dream of bringing a National Football League franchise to Toronto.

Larry Tanenbaum, a minority shareholder of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd., and Ted Rogers, chief executive officer of Rogers Communications Inc., the company that owns the Toronto Blue Jays, said yesterday that they hope to join forces to bring four-down football to Canada.

"We're working together on a lot of initiatives and we'll continue to do so," Tanenbaum said. "The NFL may be one that Ted and I might work on."

"I second the motion," Rogers added.

Both Tanenbaum and Rogers were attending a news conference at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto at which Rogers Communications was welcomed as the newest corporate partner in the MLSE fold.

Under a new six-year agreement with the company that owns the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League and the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association, Rogers Communications will be MLSE's preferred supplier for telecom services, including wireless voice and data, landline telephone, cable television, Internet access as well as telecommunications business solutions.

"Truly the best is yet to come," Rogers said of the new business arrangement.

That could include Tanenbaum and Rogers combining forces, not to mention fortunes, to try to bring the NFL to Toronto. That has long been a dream of Tanenbaum and Paul Godfrey, the president of the Blue Jays.

A year ago, Tanenbaum was part of a contingent of Toronto executives to fly, on Tanenbaum's private plane, to Mexico City for the NFL's first regular-season game played outside the United States. The group included Godfrey and Phil Lind, the vice-chairman of Rogers Communications.

The group had a meeting with Paul Tagliabue, at that time the commissioner of the NFL, about the possibility of Toronto landing a regular-season game, which would be a big first step toward securing an NFL franchise for the city.

"We hope to pursue [a franchise] vigorously as soon as the NFL gives us the word [on expansion]," Tanenbaum said.

One of the major hurdles would be the construction of a new stadium to suit NFL needs.

"We're looking at all those issues for sure," Tanenbaum said. "Either a new stadium has to be in the works or modify the Rogers Centre."

Think of the strippers available there. It will be a love boat every night.

bad idea. this is the last sport we have thats American.

keep the NFL in america, besides the occasional exhibition game of course since that seems like it will be a tradition - with a preseason game going to china now.

however.. would be kind of funny to work out a NFL vs CFL game lol..