The Long Offseason of Our Idealess Content

Starbucks Update

It has been an abnormally good run of Starbucks visits as of late. Although, full credit to the Starbucks at the Target in Steelyard Plaza in Cleveland, OH; They managed to run out of lids for both Medium and Large sized lids on a Friday. That's some quality supply management they have going on there.

The Argos and Skydome

When it first opened, the Skydome was one of North America's premier stadium venues. One of the last multi-purpose arenas built (and I would encourage you to read this on why that wasn't and isn't a bad thing), it's secondary goal was to serve as the destination that would help Torontonians bridge the gap between the downtown core and the waterfront.

That process took another 15 years, but condominium developments, and parkland gradually replaced the gravel tailgating lots and driving ranges that used to permeate the area. At this point, the neighborhood around Skydome actually looks like a pretty neat place to live. 

But while it's cool to watch the roof open and close, which it used to do during Argos games, the Dome itself never turned out to be the destination it was intended to be. Certainly the CN Tower is still a tourism magnet, but the McDonalds on the lower concourse staggered and died, and the Hard Rock Cafe that had served as a restaurant anchor closed in 2011.

Apparently, the solution to the problems of the Skydome, the bad sightlines, the lack of attendance, the lack of neighborhood foot traffic and the lack of leasable commercial space,is grass.

No, seriously. Kick the Argos out, put a grass field in, and all of the other problems with the stadium itself will be solved. 

Baseball fans are delusional on their best day. Their sport is a distant second to professional football in popularity in the US, second in Canada to hockey and barely out draws professional football on television, and yet Blue Jays fans will assert, with a straight face, that what keeps fans away from Skydome (we don't do corporate name changes here), is the lack of a grass field. And, as one commenter suggests, seats that should be colored green and not blue.  As if the Argos are holding the Blue Jays back, for some reason.

Let's set aside the idea that the Skydome has other uses, including convention/trade (it serves as the overflow floor space for the Toronto Auto Show) and concerts. The suggestion is that the Argos would be too tough on a natural grass surface, but those other items wouldn't, is laughable. And oh, by the way, the NFL can still come up and play games on this grass surface whenever they would like. It's just the CFL team that has to go.

The arrogance of this type of thinking is akin to the arrogance of the NFL fanboys, now mostly aging baby boomers, that can't understand why the NFL doesn't come running. As any woman will tell you, you aren't likely to snag a husband when you put out on the first date. Plus, the Skydome is not an NFL caliber facility. Blue Jay fans, convinced that fans would come running if only there was a natural grass surface, and the Argos stand in the way of that, are no different than these fanboys, convinced that the NFL would come running if only those pesky Argos would go away.

It's nonsense, of course. there are a myriad of reasons why the NFL is in no hurry to go into Toronto. And Toronto demonstrably proves it doesn't give two shits about the Argos (or any other sports franchise other than the Leafs) unless they're winners. That never changes, and its never going to, regardless of the playing surface of the field.

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Having said all of that, if there was a suitable alternate facility, at least as good as Molson Stadium in Montreal (which is a beautiful place to see a football game as well as get a contact buzz from the crowd) in the GTA, I'm all for the Argos moving. The Argos can now consistently draw a crowd size about on par with Montreal, yet the Skydome looks mostly empty, whereas Molson looks and feels like an event.

The issues, as always, are logistical with either the Varsity site (which would need to be expanded) or the York site, which needs to be built and would need to incorporate club and suite seats for revenue generation.

Either way, the Argos, though they are durable, and have improved their presence in the Toronto marketplace considerably since they were rendered afterthought status in the post Doug Flutie years, will have to find a home, take their shots from the arrogance of Blue Jays fans who will have plenty of room to spread out in the mostly empty stands and talk hockey as they admire the grass.

Some Odds and Ends for the Week That Was

It's been an unusually perfect run of Starbucks competence recently. I'd have to do the math, but I think the good to incompetent visit ratio is about 15:2.

Some other odds and ends from the week, leading to a Super Bowl prediction.

Organics/Vegan Shopping
Giant Eagle charges different prices for different NuGo protein bars. The dark chocolate and mint chocolate chip bars are 4/$5, the rest are 5/$5. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to this that anyone could identify, unless those two types of protein bars are vegan friendly and the remainder are not.

Other Random Items
The Columbia Journalism Review has gone live with an online app. This, along with The Walrus and The Atlantic, are the three magazines to which I subscribe, and it officially brings to a close the era of the printed magazine in my life. Of course, it means I'll now have to haul my iPad into the washroom with me, so not all progress is progress.

But it begs the question, when was the last time you bought a CD? And if you're still buying them, when will you stop?

Along the same lines, I had to buy a new DVD/surround sound player for the first time in six years. Not only is it an actual DVD player, but it comes with integrated Vudu and Netflix access. With that in mind, and coupled with movie access on portable devices, cable/satellite On Demand and Redbox, it's not hard to understand why Blockbuster and it's ilk are now virtually extinct. (Though I think that Family Video fills a nice niche and will hold on awhile longer).

Consider that, just a decade ago, you subscribed to a paper newspaper (already then on borrowed time), bought paper books, bought hard CDs and rented movies on a physical medium from a bricks and mortar store. All four of those activites have been replaced by one or more devices with network access.

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I personally find this weekend's Super Bowl strangely uninspiring, and I attribute that to my general lack of enthusiasm about the Baltimore Ravens. The offense is a deep pass, all or nothing game and Joe Flacco has all the charisma of Eli Manning painting a room beige. Ray Lewis' act is tiresome, the defense is old overall and it's Baltimore. Stop downtown, have some crabs and head down to Washington DC, someplace considerably more interesting where you're marginally less likely to get killed (says the man who works in Detroit for a living).

The 49ers, on the other hand, are a considerably more interesting team. They're well constructed, they run an innovative (for the NFL, at least) offense and are generally well built. Roster management has been phenominal.  San Francisco proper is a lovely town (the suburbs are utterly uninspiring aside from Half Moon Bay, which is gorgeous), and well, here's the deal: Baltimore's defense is a bad matchup for San Francisco's offense. They run well, and Vernon Davis should be able to exploit Baltimore's old linebacking corps. San Francisco 31, Baltimore 21.
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It's a bare notebook overall for a bare time of year. Some thoughts next week on the Argos situation in Toronto as I get the chance to do some thinking on the first love of my life, the CFL.