Jenn Writes

Writing my way through life, one word at a time.

Solo Travel #JennDoesTheCapital (Part I)

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I don’t live all that far from Ottawa – about 5 hours driving, depending on the route. I’ve been to Ottawa a few times – grade 8 trip, grade 11 music trip, with Argonotes for Grey Cup and playoff games, and then in grad school for research. I thought I’d seen all the highlights already – I’d done the Parliament tour, been to the museums (but only on the school trips), toured the Byward market, and explored the National Archives (for research in grad school). It turns out I’d barely scratched the surface of what the Capitol Region has to offer, and even after a 5 day solo trip, I still have a lot more on my Ottawa bucket list.  Solo travel is great because it gives you the flexibility to see what you want, linger if you choose, and change plans as needed. I had a few things I really wanted to do, one being a REDBLACKS game since I hadn’t been in Lansdowne since the Argos’ 2004 Grey Cup victory and it’s been redone quite nicely since then, but otherwise my plan was to meet up with friends, tour some museums, and drink good beer.

One thing with solo travel is that if you’re driving, you need to remember to stop and stretch your legs, and give yourself a break during the drive otherwise it gets monotonous. I stopped for lunch on my way into Ottawa, and then some severe weather made me make an unplanned stop that turned out to be an awesome experience.  I took Highway 7 instead of the 401 because I knew there would be more places to stop on the way and I figured it would be a nicer drive all around. I was right – the leaves were just starting to turn, there are some really neat small towns, and the scenery is pretty great too. The weather was quite nice for the first 3.5 hours of the drive, but then it took a turn for the worse, and I got caught in a downpour so severe I felt it was best to pull off the road and wait it out. Luckily, I happened to pull off the road in Perth, Ontario, across the street from the Perth Brewery.  Since one of the goals of my trip was to drink good beer, I took where I was stopped as a sign and headed into the brewery for a peek and a sample or two.

The Perth Brewery looks pretty standard from the outside, and if you’re not paying attention and don’t know it’s there would be easy to miss as you drive down Highway 7, but once inside you can see the beer being brewed, there is a gorgeous bar with all of their beers on tap, and a nice seating area where you can sit and have a pint. I was impressed with the variety of beers on tap – naturally I tried the amber since they’re my go-to beer style. The Easy Amber was quite nice but surprisingly wasn’t my favourite beer at the brewery. That honour went to the Bonfire Black Lager. The person manning the taps was extremely knowledgable about all the beer styles and told me how the black lager is made (since lagers are tradtionally much lighter colour-wise). She asked me about beer tastes and recommended a few other beers that I might enjoy. Since I was driving, I limited my samples to three, and bought the variety pack to take home.

The beer board at Perth Brewery
The options at Perth Brewery were plentiful

Beer safely stowed in a cooler in my hatch, and the rain having slowed down considerably, I continued on my way to my Air BnB in Gatineau.  I was originally going to get a hotel in Ottawa, but I left it a bit late and there were almost no rooms available anywhere for the first two nights of my stay (at least none under $450/night and I wasn’t going to pay that for a room I was going to be in for at most 9 hours a day). I ended up finding a cute little apartment, about 40 minutes walking time to the Ottawa side of the river. An apartment ended up being the best option since the beer had to be kept in a fridge and I was planning on buying a 2kg bag of cheese curds at Costco which would need refrigeration. It was my first Air BnB experience and while I liked it, I do quite enjoy the amenities hotels have – like coffee shops, transit information, and pools or gyms – so I won’t be abandoning hotel stays any time soon.

Oversised Red Muskoka Chair
Gatineau was very welcoming, though you couldn’t sit on the chair at MosaïCanada150

The storm that I had been forced off the road for in Perth had made its way to Ottawa, and there were trees down along the roads I was driving, a little unusual for September storms but nothing that I haven’t seen before. I had my GPS helping me navigate, and was driving along – when I noticed the trees almost swirling. “Uh oh, here’s round two” I thought. Turns out it was a downburst associated with the thunderstorm and the sudden wind knocked over some trees that had been damaged in the earlier storm – including one that was maybe 25 feet in front of me. Thankfully I was going slowly because it was an unfamiliar area and there were a lot of branches down so I was able to stop in time (as was the person behind me). I was more than a little shaken up, but the police and city workers were very close by and had the road cleared within minutes. While I was waiting, I messaged both my friend who I was supposed to meet for dinner and my Air BnB host, telling them I was going to be a little late because of the storm and a tree almost falling on my car. My friend agreed to pick me up at the Air BnB to save me walking to the restaurant which was awesome. Once I navigated over the bridge and into Gatineau, it was a really quick drive to the apartment. I got the keys and a brief tour of the apartment, grabbed my purse out of my car, and went off to Les Brasseurs du Temps for dinner and a well deserved beer.

The atmosphere at Les Brasseurs du Temps is pretty special. It’s not like a lot of brew pubs where either the food or the beer takes a back seat, both are equally important. The restaurant also has a beer museum within it, and it was a joy to wander through and learn about the 160 year old history of brewing in the region. We started off with the deep fried cheese curds. There wasn’t even much debate – as soon as I saw that on the menu, I knew I was going to try them. They were served piping hot, and while they certainly won’t qualify as health food, they were delicious.  A little firmer than a mozzarella stick, but with a similar breading. I’m still drooling over them two weeks later, they were that good. I decided to go with beer battered fish and chips for dinner – they use their own beer in the batter and fish and chips is a good, allergy safe option for me. Again, it was delicious. I could taste the beer in the batter but it wasn’t overpowering the way some are.  I started with a glass of water, and checked out the fully bilingual beer menu trying to decide which one to try. When I couldn’t decide on one beer, my dining companion helpfully suggested trying the clock. I have awesome friends.

Beer sampler glasses on a round platter
The Beer Clock at Les Brasseurs du Temps

The clock is exactly as it sounds – a sampler tray of 12 beers, arranged in a clock pattern. The beer menu is in the order of the clock so the first beer listed is at one o’clock and so on. The samples are 3oz each, so it was a good thing I wasn’t driving anymore. I tried every one, and finished all but three. The three o’clock beer had lavender and chamomile and my throat started to get itchy after my second sip so I abandoned it even though I did quite like the beer.  The seven and twelve o’clock beers were both stouts and while I can appreciate a good stout, I don’t generally enjoy drinking more than a sip or two of them. Of the rest of the beers on the clock, I quite enjoyed L’allumante – a nut brown ale that was very smooth and had a hint of caramel in the aftertaste – and though I’m not generally a pumpkin spice kind of girl, La Scie Trouillarde pumpkin ale is the kind of pumpkin flavour I can get behind.  Truth be told though, any of the beers on the clock would have gone well with the food and the wait staff were certainly knowledgeable about both the food and the beer list and happy to help. I suspect that Les Brasseurs du Temps is going to be a must visit every time I’m in the Ottawa area because it’s just that good.

Full of good food, great conversation, and delicious beer, my friend dropped me off at my Air BnB and I unloaded my stuff from the car, chilled out in the apartment, and went to bed happy, but exhausted. In my next post I’ll talk a little less about beer and more about my first taste of poutine and exploring in and around the Ottawa area.

Football Friday – it’s What We’re Made Of

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Two weeks ago, the town of Charlottesville Virginia was the location of a rally by members of the so called “white nationalist” movement (really a white supremacist movement) over the proposed removal of a Confederate statue. A peaceful counter protest was organized for the next day as the alt, and one of the people from the white supremacist / alt-right (I’m going to use those words interchangeably because the members of the alt-right who protested in Charlottesville were definitely white supremacists based on the Nazi flags and racist chants) got in his car and drove into the crowd at the counter protest, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others.  This happened on August 12th. On August 13th, there was a CFL game scheduled between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the British Columbia Lions and as I tuned in, I noticed something different about the sideline apparel being worn by players and coaches on both sides.

You see, normally on a CFL sideline you’ll see coaches, training staff, and injured players decked out in golf shirts (or in cooler weather sweatshirts or jackets) emblazoned with the team’s logo on it. Sometimes you’ll see a t-shirt or two but they’re not as prevalent as the polo shirts or golf shirts. On August 13th, almost every player, coach, and staff member I could see was sporting a grey shirt with a very simple yet poignant message: Diversity is Strength. The back of the shirts had the names of 32 CFL players representing the diverse nature of the league. Some of the names I recognized immediately, they were the legends of the game I’d heard tales about growing up. Others were players or coaches that I’ve been fortunate enough to get to see or meet during my lifetime of being a CFL fan.

grey shirt with diversity is strength written on the front
The front of the shirt is beautiful and simple.

Naturally, I headed over to Twitter to find out what these shirts were all about and how I could get one. I wasn’t the only one judging by the replies to the tweet by the CFL official handle that introduced the shirts.  It turns out that the shirts were slated to debut in the fall, as part of the celebration of Canada’s 150th Birthday this year, but after the events in Charlottesville, the league felt they should be brought out early. They talked to both teams involved in the game on August 13th, received positive feedback from everyone and flew them out so that everyone who wanted to could wear them on the sidelines. The shirts were a joint effort between the CFL Alumni Association and the league itself. Originally they weren’t going to be available for fan purchase but when the reaction to the shirts was so overwhelmingly positive, the league made them available and I ordered one without a second thought. My twitter feed was full of fans who felt the same way as I did – “please let me buy this shirt”:

The names on the shirt tell the tale of the CFL – a league where the colour of your skin didn’t affect your chance of starting (though the country of your birth might due to the import rule).  I grew up idolizing quarterbacks like Tracy Ham, Warren Moon, and Damon Allen – amazing quarterbacks who happen to be black and didn’t think anything of it until an American friend commented about the CFL having “a lot” of black quarterbacks.  I knew about Bernie Custis – the first black man to play quarterback in Canadian professional football. Custis played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the 1950s, at a time when the colour of his skin made him ineligible to play his chosen profession in the NFL (he was drafted by Cleveland and they told him he had to play safety instead of quarterback, not due to skill, but due to his race, Custis declined and came north of the border to play).  Tom Casey was the stuff of legend on and off the football field. He was the first black player to be inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1964, but that’s not what impressed me at first. What made him a legend in my eyes was that the man was going through medical school while playing professional football for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. As if being a professional football player or medical doctor wasn’t time consuming enough, Dr. Tom Casey did both – while playing on both sides of the ball as was common in the 1950s.  He’s basically superman in my mind.

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The back of the Diversity is Strength Shirt.

Then there was Normie Kwong – born in Alberta to Chinese parents, he was the first CFL player of Chinese heritage. Zenon Andrusyshyn was a legend to me growing up – he was born in Germany but grew up in Ontario and became a punter for the Toronto Argonauts. He still holds the record for the longest punt in football history – 108 yards. There’s also Bobby Singh who was born in Fiji to parents of Indian heritage, he’s the only player to have won a Grey Cup, a Super Bowl, and an XFL championship.

Seeing the names on this shirt made me so incredibly proud to be a fan of the CFL. Many of the names made me smile – Noel Prefontaine and Troy Westwood were more of my place kicking idols, Ron Lancaster and Wally Buono are coaching legends, and Angelo Mosca is one of the greatest characters in CFL history – he was also a professional wrestler and there was a now legendary fight between him and Joe Kapp at the 2011 CFL Alumni Luncheon over a hit in the 1963 Grey Cup game.

Today, I wore my shirt proudly as I drove up to the cottage for a weekend away with friends. I made two stops on the trip, and both times people came up to me to tell me how awesome my shirt was or offer an anecdote about one of the names on the back. The stories behind the names on the shirt are ones of inclusion, strength, and what makes the CFL so awesome. The current league slogan fits perfectly with the theme of the shirt – because diversity and inclusion are What We’re Made Of.

Word Wednesday – All Good Things Must (Eventually) End

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It’s no secret that change is hard for me. I like the familiar, I find comfort in routine. I’m an introvert by every definition of the word so I don’t like big groups of new people so once I’ve joined a social activity, I’m likely to stick to it because the initial investment was so high – I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to join. That said, sticking with something for almost two decades isn’t just the comfort of the familiar – it’s something I genuinely enjoy. There are a few things I’ve been a part of for more than 20 years. One of them is Girl Guiding – I’ve been in it for 30 years now, I started as a Brownie then went through Guides, Pathfinders, Junior Leaders (Senior Branches), and went straight into being a leader.  I love Guiding and can’t see my participation in it ending anytime soon. I’d miss the girls and the adventures, but most of all I would miss the fabulous women I’ve worked with in Guiding.

Rally Day for the 100th anniversary of Guiding in Canada
Rally Day in 2014 at Canada’s Wonderland – Look at all the girls and women there!

Another thing I’ve been involved with for longer than I want to admit (but pushing 20 years) is Argonotes – the Toronto Argonauts’ Band. At least we were the Toronto Argonaut’s Band until 2017. As much as I don’t like change, I’m usually okay with it when it’s a choice I have made, less so when it’s something forced on me. I’ve been in the band since my last year of high school, throughout multiple degrees, some really tough personal times, and some absolutely horrific football teams.  For me, it wasn’t just about football or just about music – it was a combination of the two along with some amazing people. Some of the best friendships I’ve made started in Argonotes and some of my favourite memories are with the band. Now, with your indulgence, I’m going to go through some of my favourite memories with the band.

In 1998 the Argos made it to the Eastern Semi-Final in Montreal – the team invited us to share their via train to Montreal. It was a last minute scramble to make it but I had such a blast. My roommate Ingrid and I weren’t old enough to drink in Ontario but were old enough to drink in Quebec so our beloved Dictator, Steve, told us we couldn’t go into the hotel bar for any reason. We got bored and decided to explore rue Sainte-Catherine, where our hotel was located but Steve was in the hotel bar with other members of the band so we couldn’t let him know where we were going. In retrospect, leaving him a note to say “exploring Ste. Catherine Street, back by morning” probably wasn’t the best choice of words to make him not panic. In our defense, we did not go drinking and were back in our room by 11pm.  Now, I can’t say we didn’t try the special hot chocolate that the vendor near Molson Stadium used to sell spiked with brandy, but when in Rome right?  I was with the band at SkyDome (it will *always* be SkyDome to me) when Pinball took his last run on September 15. 2000 – we played Pinball Wizard for him, and after he retired he became a friend of the band and even played kazoo and drums on occasion. Pinball was the only thing or person that could make us feel safe in Ivor Wynne Stadium – even the Ticats fans loved him enough not to throw stuff at us when he was near.  I went to a number of Labour Day Classic games with Argonotes – and we’d always hear the same refrain from the fans “Argos Suck but we love the Argonotes”.  Inevitably, we’d be asked to play the Ticat Marching song, although we were often the only ones in the crowd who knew the words to our arch-rival’s theme song.

Band jumping in air
Pregame Shenanigans

We played at lots of Argos related events over the years, and more than a few non-Argos related ones. I loved doing Fan Day – it was always a great time and inevitably we’d have a player or player’s kid (or six) come and “join” the band and play. Usually that meant giving them a “hitty stick” and letting them bash on the bass drum or a cowbell. We never played for more than about half an hour but we had a great time and helped make sure everybody else had a great time too. In 2011, we were even asked to be in a TSN commercial celebrating the CFL. We had a ton of fun that day, and many of us took the day off work to be there. We went to as many Grey Cup and Playoff Road games as possible, for a band that is all volunteers and pay their own way to events including hotel and food. In 2010, we traveled to Moncton, New Brunswick for a game. I had the pleasure of driving out with Steve and the equipment you can’t easily put on a plane – namely the bass drum. I don’t remember who won the game but I remember how much fun the whole experience was. We had some players from the Mount Allison University Pep band join us.

Band on track in Moncton
The Argonotes and Mount Allison University Pep Band joined forces. Photo Courtesy Steve Hayman

I think the times when the band felt most appreciated by the team were the years with Keith Pelley as CEO of the team – he loved the band and what we brought to the game day experience. We had a stage in the endzone for a few years – it led to all sorts of fun like the tuba / sousaphones attempting to “catch” balls in the bells of their instrument, the band needing to pay more attention to the game because of wayward balls and players, and seeing players chuckle at some of our musical jokes. We all used to groan at Steve’s jokes, but I think those are one of the things I’m going to miss most. Playing “Hold that Tiger” when the Argos got a holding penalty against the Ticats, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” when we played BC, “Green Acres” when Saskatchewan was in town, “Alouette” for Montreal, and “Winnipeg the Pooh” (AKA the Winnie the Pooh theme song) when the Blue Bomber’s players were being introduced. It wasn’t just the opposing teams we took aim at – when a challenge flag was thrown, we’d launch into the theme from Jeopardy. Whenever Keith Pelley walked by we’d show him our appreciation by playing “Sharp Dressed Man” by ZZ Top. When the Argos’ kicker was Noel Prefontaine, we’d play “The First Noel” in his honour whenever he kicked a single. We even attempted to learn Hawaii 5-0 for Chad Owens. If there was a musical gag or pun possible, we’d go for it with gusto.

What a lot of fans, and assuredly the current Argos management, don’t realize was that we were a dedicated group of volunteers. Many of us drove hours to get to the games, regularly coming from as far west as Kitchener-Waterloo, as far east as Oshawa, and as far north as northern York Region. We all paid dues to cover the expenses but Steve kicked in his own money more often than he should have. We bought our own jerseys and jackets.  Steve bought us some wonderfully underappreciated bucket hats one year. I still have mine. On game days, the band would meet 1.5-2 hours before kick off, play around the stadium (at the Dome that meant going from our meeting spot at Front and Simcoe to a few bars and restaurants along Front street, then doing a circuit around the stadium before going in), interact with fans, let any kids around look at / test our instruments (especially the drums), and head into the stadium. We’d play during breaks in play for the fans in and around us, play once or twice for the in-stadium cameras, and wander around the stadium playing for different groups of fans. We had fans who would always request the same tunes from us and would seek us out to come and play for a birthday or other special occasion. Immediately after the game, we’d head out and play at gate 2 for 20ish minutes and amassed pretty good crowds, win or lose. Year after year we’d see the same fans in our gate 2 postgame concerts, and I lost count of how many times I heard after a particularly bad loss “Well the game sucked but thank goodness for Argonotes”. When we won, we would often play (and sing) “Argos Rule the CFL”,”You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”, and “Go Toronto Argos Go  Go Go”.  For the first few years of my Argonotes experience, when we lost we’d break out “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” by Monty Python but that was replaced by “Heartbreak Hotel” later on (providing we had enough saxaphones).  We had choreography for some numbers in our post-game shows – it didn’t always work, but we always tried to be as entertaining as possible for everyone. Especially if it was a stinker of a game, we’d go out of our way to make sure people left with a good memory. Steve would step aside and let anyone who wanted to conduct the band. You’d think it would screw us up to have random people waving their hands at us, but we generally didn’t pay that much attention to Steve so having someone different waving their hands at us didn’t throw us off at all. We were a part of thousands of fans’ gameday experiences – but not a part of the team’s plans anymore.

the band plays outside gate 2
Gate 2 postgame

One last favourite memory, although I haven’t come anywhere close to describing all of the amazing times I’ve had with Argonotes. In 2004 the Argos made it to the Grey Cup. We didn’t have tickets for the game but somehow Steve found out that there was a room in the recesses of the stadium where we could watch the game. We were having a blast at the event – Grey Cups are always a ton of fun – we love the Spirit of Edmonton room and they love us even if Steve has to remind us not to drink the “orange juice” when we play at the breakfast on Saturday morning (mostly because we always have a full day of playing ahead and the orange juice is never just orange juice there). Midway through the 4th quarter, Steve notices the Mounties are gathering at the front of our little room with the Grey Cup. Of course we all crowded around to get a better look – which was allowed providing we didn’t touch the shiny trophy and get our fingerprints all over it. As the time ran out, the Mounties prepared to take the trophy on the field and it was then that Argonotes taught a very important lesson. If you look and act like you belong somewhere, nobody will question you. And that, my friends, is how the Argonotes came to be on the field celebrating the 2004 Grey Cup victory much to everybody involved with the team’s surprise.

 

Which brings me to my Word Wednesday word. I’m trying very hard to get to the “Don’t cry because it’s over, Smile because it happened” stage but I’m not there yet. I’m mourning the loss of this extension of myself. It is an end, but not necessarily the end.  I’m not 100% sure what is coming next for myself or the Argonotes other than we’re reuniting for one game on July 24th to celebrate the 1996 and 1997 Argonaut teams that won the Grey Cup. Back then, Argonotes was in its infancy; now it’s at an end.  To all of the people I’ve met through the band (especially Steve Hayman who gave Argonotes so much of his time, energy, money, and passion), from the bottom of my heart THANK YOU. There’s nobody I’d rather play 15B while watching a game with.

 

END

End (end) noun

  1. A final part of something, especially a period of time, an activity, or a story.
  2. The furthest or most extreme part or point of something.
  3. Something incomplete, fragmentary, or undersized.

 

 

Outdoor Football in Toronto – Thoughts at Midseason

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I’ve been an Argos fan since I was born. I’m old enough to remember watching games at the old Exhibition Stadium on the CNE grounds, and of course the Skydome era.  I’m the first to admit that the Skydome wasn’t a great place to watch football. There were some seats where you got a good view of the game but others that were definitely not as good. I’ve heard purists say that there are no good indoor football stadiums. Those people have obviously never visited Ford Field in Detroit. Ford Field was built for football. Yes it also hosts concerts and other events but its primary reason for existence is football. I’ve sat in the cheapest seats available and still had a great view of the field. So it can be done, but wasn’t done at Skydome (and no, I won’t call it Rogers Centre). Interestingly, my Dad had seasons tickets with a large group of people at Exhibition Stadium, but when the team moved to Skydome for the 1989 season, the great tickets he’d had at Exhibition Stadium turned into obstructed by players seats because of the shallow slant of the seats and the habit football players have of spreading out along the sideline. They were also decidedly worse seats for more money – the tickets at Exhibition Stadium were on the 45 yard line, south (open) side, about 1/3 of the way up. These new ones were on the 25 yard line and only a couple of rows up. (For the following seasons there would be tarps over those seats because you couldn’t watch the game from them). He and other members of his section spent the better part of the season arguing with the team about the seats and eventually most of them just gave up their tickets, my dad included – his entire row gave them up at the same time and nobody at the Argos ever apologized or tried to get the fans back.

 

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Ignore the goalpost in the middle of the shot but those are the tarps covering where the tickets were

I managed to convince him to take me to at least a game a season after that, but he was never as into football as I was after that. I would have surpassed him eventually in my love of football, but it happened more quickly than expected because he felt that he (and all of the others in our section) got a raw deal. That said, that was a very different era for the CFL and goodness knows how many owners ago for the Argos. When moving to BMO field was first brought up, I first worried that other season ticketholders would be in the same predicament we were in in 1989, but then realized that the new Argos staff with their focus on customer service and fan enjoyment wouldn’t let that happen again; so then I started thinking about outside football.

A little background: I’ve been a member of Argonotes (the official band of the Toronto Argonauts) for my entire adult life – joining while I was still in high school and continuing through University and Grad School and beyond. I mostly play piccolo though I’ve been increasingly pressed into service with the percussion section. Woodwind instruments aren’t a great mix with rain or snow and heat can throw them out of tune too so I was a little concerned with the proposed move. Also I’m a wuss and have a complexion that I can only describe as Irish meets Vampire. I don’t tan well, I burn easily, and I wear UPF 50+ clothing and sunscreen year round. So sitting in the sun watching the game could go anywhere from “this is the coolest thing ever” to “I’m going to spontaneously combust”.   I was hoping for the former, but got the latter at the first game. So I upped my sunscreen game and the next game went much better.

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BMO Field has some spectacular sunset views.

Almost bursting into flames aside, I LOVE outdoor football. BMO field is a truly enjoyable place to watch a game, I haven’t managed to find a bad seat yet (though I am intrigued by the blue squishy seats), and there’s actual tailgating again!  There was tailgating in Toronto once upon a time when there were parking lots near the Dome instead of the crop of condos that went up over the past decade, but those went the way of the dodo as the condo boom happened. Now, tailgating is back in Toronto. Most games have two separate tailgate locations – one in the Ontario Place Parking lot and one at the Shipyard that is close to the Princes’ Gates in front of the newly built (or still under construction) Hotel X. The one over at Ontario Place is restricted access but the Shipyard is open for all the fans when it’s running (which unfortunately it isn’t during the CNE games).  Both locations have food for sale, and cheap beer ($4 for an ice cold Ontario craft beer!) and in the Ontario Place location there are plenty of families with portable grills and people throwing around a football. Oh and you’ll see Argonotes at both tailgates (weather and energy permitting).

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Look at those Blue Seats – they look like they’re for a ride!

The atmosphere inside the game is different too- there’s a lot of energy, and a lot of noise – and not just from the band. My only complaint with the gameday experience is that the piped in music over the loudspeaker is unreasonably loud – to the point that you can’t carry on a conversation with the person sitting next to you over it. When the PA announcer asks the fans to get loud, the endzone (where the band sits) responds – they stomp on the metal risers and hit the back of the seat in front of them and generally make as much noise as possible. It’s a lively experience, and one that I’ve experienced in other CFL cities but felt was missing in Toronto.  Do they need to get more bodies in the seats? Yes, for sure, but that’s not something that’s going to happen immediately, especially with the Argos having such a tough time winning on home turf.

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How nice is that turf?  And the view?  Scoreboard deliberately not included

This season was complicated by an awkward schedule – hopefully the last of its kind, necessitated by the renovations at BMO field taking longer than planned and pushing the primary tenant (TFC) out for the first part of their season which has meant that there are some weird gamedays still (though I quite enjoyed the CFL’s version of Monday Night Football) which should be resolved next season. There are a few home games left this season to impress the hometown fans, and I hope the Argos take full advantage of them and that Torontonians come out and experience a game before dismissing the CFL as an entertainment option. Because that’s what it is – an affordable entertainment option. The ticket prices, unlike those of most of the other professional teams in the city allow for a family to go to a game without spending the equivalent of a car payment on tickets. Make no mistake, there ARE CFL fans in Toronto – there are enough of them to mostly fill BMO field most games. So long as the on-field product is worth going to see. The only team in this city that gets fans out consistently while not being competitive plays at the other MLSE-owned building in town.

Saying Goodbye to SkyDome

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Tonight is the end of an era, albeit one that many Toronto sports fans (particularly CFL fans) have struggled with over the last 27 years.  Tonight the Toronto Argonauts play their last game at the Rogers Centre (formerly – and forever to me –  known as SkyDome). I was at the first game at SkyDome on July 12, 1989, and I will be there tonight at the last game.  In between those dates I’ve seen around 70% of the Canadian football games played there (including Vanier Cups and Metro Bowl finals but not including the Bills in Toronto series or the NCAA games). I’ve been feeling nostalgic today and reading some of the articles about the best memories at SkyDome including this one by the very talented Andrew Bucholtz, Mike Hogan’s trip down memory lane, and this one from the Toronto Star that focuses on Michael “Pinball” Clemons’ memories of the stadium where he played his entire CFL career and still calls home as Vice Chairman of the Argos.

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