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A Blue Jays' playoff run could force the Argos to move numerous home games

andrew bucholtz
A Blue Jays' playoff run could force the Argos to move numerous home games

The uneasy relationship between the Toronto Argonauts and the Toronto Blue Jays is coming to an end after this season, but not without one last potentially-massive conflict. The Argonauts are being transferred to the new ownership team of Bell and Larry Tanenbaum after this season, and they'll be moving to BMO Field for 2016, but for this year, they're still owned by David Braley and are still sharing the Rogers Centre with the Rogers-owned Jays, who have first scheduling priority. (That, combined with the Pan Am Games, is why the Argonauts had to start this season on the road trip from hell, with a "home" game against Edmonton in Fort McMurray, Alberta, and then four road games before their Aug. 8 home opener.) The Jays are on a 13-of-15 hot streak since their deadline deals and in position to end their MLB-high 21-year playoff drought with their first postseason spot since 1993, and that could be bad for the Argonauts.As TSN reports, the MLB playoff dates released this week might overlap with Argos' games, forcing the team to find another venue. (As we'll detail below, rescheduling probably isn't possible.)

If the Blue Jays host a wild-card game, as they would if the season ended Wednesday, that would take place at the Rogers Centre on Tuesday, Oct. 6, the same night the Argonauts are supposed to host the Ottawa Redblacks. What about playing it at the Rogers Centre on a different night? Well, that game can't be moved any earlier, as Ottawa hosts Montreal the preceding Thursday (Oct. 1, so the Redblacks will already be on short rest), and it would be difficult to move it later. If the Jays won the wild-card game, they would move on to the American League Divisional Series. That's a best-of-five series, with the lower-seeded team (as the Jays would be if they were a wild-card winner) hosting games three and four, which would take place on Sunday, Oct. 11 and Monday, Oct. 12. Due to the time required to convert the field from football to baseball, a Saturday game would seem out of the question. A Friday game might be possible from a field standpoint (but the Jays would probably still be reluctant to allow it, and they have the final say here), but it wouldn't work well from a broadcast standpoint, as there's already an Eastern time zone game on TSN that Friday (Hamilton hosting Saskatchewan). So, this game likely would still have to be played on Oct. 6, but at a different venue.

There are also possible conflicts down the line. If the Blue Jays won the ALDS as the wild card and moved on to the best-of-seven American League Championship Series, they would again be the lower seed and host games three, four and five. Game Three would be on Monday, Oct. 19, two days after the Argonauts are supposed to host the Calgary Stampeders. Game Five would be on Wednesday, Oct. 21, which might not leave enough time to convert the field back for the Argonauts' game against the Montreal Alouettes Friday, Oct. 23. It's a similar story if the Jays went to the World Series; they would host games one and two on Tuesday, Oct. 27 and Wednesday, Oct. 28, which might not leave enough time to convert the field for Friday, Oct. 30's Argonauts game against the B.C. Lions. They would also host games six and seven if needed, which would be on Tuesday, Nov. 3 and Wednesday, Nov. 4. A seventh game could again create a field-conversion problem ahead of the Argonauts' final home game, Friday, Nov. 6 against Winnipeg.

What if the Jays aren't the wild-card team? They're currently just one-and-a-half games back of the New York Yankees, so if they were able to overcome that and win the AL East, they wouldn't need to play a wild-card game on Oct. 6. They would host ALDS games on Oct. 8, 9 and 14, though, and that Oct. 8 game could still force the movement of the Argos' Oct. 6 game. If they wound up as the higher ALCS seed (only possible if not the wild-card), they would host on Oct. 16, 17 (direct overlap with Stampeders-Argos), 23 (direct overlap with Alouettes-Argos) and 24. The World Series dates would be the same.

All of these Argonauts games are difficult to reschedule, given both TV and the schedules of the other teams involved, so other venues seem likely. Thus, it seems probable that if the Jays make the postseason, either as a wild-card team or a division champion, at least some Argos' games would have to move venues. Here's what Argonauts' CEO Chris Rudge told The Canadian Press about what they're considering there:

Rudge said in the event of a schedule conflict, the Argos have reached out to a number of venues to host their affected home games. They include Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, the University of Toronto, Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., York University in Toronto, the University of Guelph and the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., as well as the possibility of both Calgary and Montreal hosting Toronto.

But Rudge said Tim Hortons Field, which has a seating capacity of 24,000, remains the most likely venue.

"That is probably from a logistics perspective the easiest of the moves," Rudge told TSN Radio 1050. "We have been talking to the Ticats at great length."

Rudge hopes the Argos will be in position Sept. 11 when they host Hamilton at Rogers Centre to announce their contingency plans.

"That's not cast in stone yet . . . but that's kind of a target right now," he said.

Going to Tim Hortons Field would make a lot of sense, as it's a CFL-ready facility that's far bigger and far more set up for professional football (and for CFL TV broadcasts) than any of the university stadiums listed, and it's substantially closer than Kingston or London (and a little closer than Guelph). However, there could still be challenges there for some of these games, depending on how much time Tim Hortons Field needs between games. The Tiger-Cats host games of their own Oct. 9 (three days after Redblacks-Argos) and Nov. 1 (one day after Lions-Argos). If Tim Hortons Field isn't available on either Argos' date, they'd have to find a different venue, and that could be much worse.

Even Tim Hortons Field would be far from a perfect solution for the Argos, though. It's a long way from where most of their fans live, reducing both their financial take and their home-field advantage, and putting on a game at another team's stadium can also create plenty of issues with game operations. It might be the best solution out of those available, but it would still be a blow for the team.  It's one more reason why their forthcoming move away from the Rogers Centre and the Jays is so important. Despite Argos' GM Jim Barker's earlier comments about how the Blue Jays' success can get people excited about his team, success for the baseball team could have direct negative scheduling impacts on the football team. That won't be an issue after this season (although similar things might come up with Toronto FC games), but for now, it's one possible final kick in the teeth for the Argos from Rogers and the Jays.