Ryan Johnston

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BMO Field.

The immediate painting of the Argos as the enemy ended its plight to play in a public place.

The Toronto Argonauts short-lived attempt to play its home games at BMO Field never stood a chance. Not because of the reported dimensional shortcomings, but rather because the CFL club was unfairly painted as the enemy.

The Argos were presented with -- and subsequently bungled -- a chance to share accommodations with the incoming MLS club when it was still a twinkle in the MLSE eye. That was three-plus years ago; a time when the financial risk and uncertainty surrounding both the CFL and the incoming MLS was too deep to risk the free ride promised at Uncle Ted's place.

Since then the CFL has gone through a renaissance of sorts in Southern Ontario and the success of soccer in the city is undeniable. So why not use one to help the other? However, and much to the chagrin of great venue enthusiasts like myself, professional camaraderie was never an option. Somehow the Argos interest in creating a unique atmosphere for its own fans was misconstrued as a hostile takeover. It became a case of Us vs. Them; with the smaller -- yet more vocal -- Us making it known that desperate times will call for desperate measures.

But let's face it; BMO is a cool venue 15-20 times per year and the remainder of the time it is a plastic-seated reminder of how hastily it was built in the frantic run-up to the FIFA Youth Cup. Even Onward! soccer took a big gulp and eloquently sketched what I no longer need to in this space, and got it bang on.

The scheduling conflicts, field compatibility and torn-up turf are convenient and truthful excuses to keep the Argos out of BMO. But it is hard to believe that even if BMO Field was equipped to house North American football, the game would never be played on its surface. Why? The unusual sense of ownership is incredibly powerful. But how?!

In the spirit of good journalism I consulted one of my favourite individuals, who despite his devotion to the CFL is always quick to chat/question my allegiance to soccer with me.

"The Argos are back in a stadium built by taxpayers that is no longer suitable for football from an intimacy standpoint and can't move into an alternative publicly-built stadium that was never built to include the necessary room for football," Perry Lefko BlackBerry'd back. "The question is how come taxpayers are paying for facilities that ultimately lack long-term and long-range usefulness?"

Makes sense; taxpayers are an apathetic bunch who do not like to march, stamp their feet and sing for change.

A hard lesson in geography

Last summer I had the opportunity to eat lunch with Declan Hill, the brave author who risked his reputation (and life) to expose corruption in the game of football. I read The Fix and admitted to Hill that for all the truth it contains the geographic space between myself and where the alleged corruption runs rampant makes me forgot about the game's seedy underside as soon as Saturday morning rolls around. Hill was quick to retort that all it took was one player on the take to influence an entire game.

It wasn't until I read that the recent four-PK affair between Canada and Macedonia was being investigated for possible match-fixing that I thought of Hill's retort again. If a match official can be swayed so can a player, even a Canadian one. The concern of match-fixing will not go away until it is taken seriously, even if that means questioning our own.