The passion that David Braley has for the Canadian Football League comes by its roots honestly.
“When I was young boy, around eight-, nine-, 10-years-old, my neighbour a couple of doors down, Mr. Richardson, used to take me to football games at Civic Stadium (known now as Ivor Wynne Stadium),” Braley said on Wednesday.
“We used to sit at the 45-yard line, about four rows up. That’s where it started.”
Braley couldn’t have known then he would one day own two CFL teams. But that’s the reality in February 2010, as David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski, who bought the Argos in 2003 with help from Braley, couldn’t take the financial losses any more.
Braley refused to discuss the details, but said the pair approached him about taking over, not the other way around.
“I didn’t make the request,” Braley said. “They asked me. It was their decision. I listened.
“These gentlemen had every opportunity to find another partner, but let’s get on with the job. We have to make the Argos strong.”
A 68-year-old automotive magnate who owned the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 20 years ago, Braley bought the B.C. Lions in 1997 and helped restore a high level of respectability for the franchise in Vancouver.
He plans to do the same in Toronto, but realizes there’s no magic wand to wave.
And it’s understood that Braley, who lives in Burlington, didn’t buy the Argos to make money. The club didn’t make a cent in any year under Cynamon and Sokolowski except for 2007, when Toronto played host to the Grey Cup.
It’s clear that fixing the Argos in a general sense is something that Braley is ready to put his heart into.
“Off the field, there will be a five-year plan put in place to connect with the community,” Braley said. “We have to work hard with regard to children, try to build outreach programs.
“Right now, we don’t have enough fans to pay the bills. You need 25,000 paying fans a game to pay the bills.”
Braley prefers taking long walks over anything else when he wants to relax, and if he has some TV time, usually will watch anything sports-related. When it comes to sitting down with a good book, Braley would rather not — most of his reading time is spent poring over, as he said, “data” that relates to either the football or automotive industry. He’s a no-nonsense man who always looks like he has just come from the barber.
The Argos are close to signing a new lease with the Rogers Centre and Braley has no plan to look for a smaller, more intimate stadium.
Cynamon and Sokolowski investigated various options, including the University of Toronto, York University and BMO Field, but came up empty, and their inability to get the Argos out of the Rogers Centre helped convince them they had to sell.
CFL observers who think the league is tarnished because one man owns two teams are being “a little shortsighted” Braley said.
“The teams will be operated independently,” he said. “All football-related transactions will require written consent from the league.”
Scott Ackles, who recently resigned his post as president of the Calgary Stampeders to become the general manager of the 2011 Grey Cup Festival Committee in Vancouver, said the talk of terrible optics is misguided.
“David’s commitment is unwavering, not only to the Lions and the Argos but to the league as a whole,” Ackles said. “His track record speaks for itself. He helped the Hamilton Tiger-Cats get back on their feet and did the same with the Lions. He has been one of the league’s great supporters, builders and custodians.”
And Braley has a message for those who have trouble wrapping their heads around the fact he will sign the pay cheques in cities at opposite ends of the country: You better get used to it.
“I’ll own both for the next two years for sure and perhaps keep both longer,” Braley said. “I’m 68 now and by the time I turn 75, I won’t own either.”
Braley knows the days leading up to July 23, when the Argos and Lions meet for the first time in the 2010 regular season, might be strange.
Who will he cheer for?
“I don’t know yet,” Braley said. “It hasn’t crossed my mind.
“I bleed orange and I’ll have to get some blue dye now.”
