Neat interview over at the Sports Business Journal last week with a large player in the Canadian (Toronto) sports world, Paul Godfrey.
It's not often you get an executive talking about things like this, publicly. Especially one that's right there in the middle of it in the bizarre world of Toronto sports. The quote above could relate directly to Toronto FC.
Godfrey is on the outside of the Bell / Rogers / MLSE deal that has reshaped Canada's media world. Elsewhere in the article he would talk about how they messed up the NFL in Toronto (really... how could you mess up the NFL?).
The piece doesn't directly mention Toronto FC but Godfrey does talk about Tim Leiweke's potential replacement.
It's odd as hell that Toronto has snapped up two of the best US players in the world today, but here we are. We might not ever know exactly how that has happened but Godfrey's comments do shed some light on the sports situation.
Toronto is drenched with sports money. You can trace most of it to hockey but really it's just the fact that the big media guys have decided that working together on the TV side of things gets them the big bucks.
Major League Soccer's roll in all of this is mostly that of semi-passive participant. Toronto FC will sell a decent amount of tickets regardless but struggle on the road. Adding Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley solve the traveling road show problem (for the league, anyway).
After sitting down with this for a bit, I've decided that Toronto is one strange sports town. It'd be okay if they stuck to hockey, but the don't. Godfrey seems like a good guy but the insight he provides, paints a troubling picture of too much money and not enough talent. One that MLS shouldn't be so willing to trust.