Exploring TO - Sports: Toronto Argonauts

I went to my first CFL game on Friday night, and it was a fun Canadian experience!  The Toronto Argonauts were playing the Montreal Alouettes.  Do you know what an Argonaut is?  Check out Wikipedia's definition.  How about an alouette (skylark) for that matter  - I'm sure you learned the song growing up?  The Argos play at the Rogers Centre, and we went dressed for the roof to be open in the middle of a cold snap.  But, luckily the roof was closed - which would have been nice to know ahead of time!  The arena is also the baseball stadium so the set-up of the field works, but they get a bit creative. We had good seats, on the 30 yard line, and they only cost about $55 compared to the arm and leg you'll pay to go to an NFL game.

Exploring TO - Sports: Toronto FC

We went to see the Toronto FC play the San Jose Earthquakes at Bank of Montreal Field (BMO – pronounced “bee – mo”) right when I first started writing the blog.  It didn’t feel like it fit in on those first couple posts, but I wanted to comment on it before their season is over.  The last game is this weekend though the season started at the end of March.  It’s a good thing it is ending soon, because it can get cold in Toronto now (imagine March, ouch!) - even when we went to the game a few weeks back,  it was uncomfortably cold.  Our seats were in the second row from the top of the lower level so the wind was strong (don't worry they sell scarves and there is a lot of beer!).

Canadian Sports

Do you know what the national sport of Canada is?  If you guessed hockey, and I bet 90% of you did, you’d be partially right.  Canada actually has two national sports - lacrosse in the summer and hockey in the winter.  They just want to be different!

Exploring TO - Sports: Blue Jays

I decided to switch gears today and provide some input on things to do in Toronto.  As I try a new restaurant or event or store, I’ll write about it when it is fresh.  Then I can jump back to the other key Toronto learnings in between.

Last night I went to my first Blue Jays game (vs the NY Yankees!) at the Rogers Centre (formerly the SkyDome).  I bought the tickets on Stub Hub for $40, while the Blue Jays website wanted $52 for essentially the same tickets.  Keep in mind when buying tickets some games are more expensive than others depending on the opponent.  I think this type of pricing is pretty common now.  

When we first arrived, we went to gate 5 because that is what our tickets said, but the line to get into gate 5 was incredibly long!  We didn’t think it could possibly be people waiting to get into the game because it stretched so far down Bremner Blvd, but it was.  So we just went in gate 6 next door because there wasn’t really a line.  I have no idea why so many people just sat in line waiting to get into the game (at game time) when there were other open gates.  Maybe this is another example of “peace and order”.  Definitely don’t do that; go to a gate that isn’t as busy and you can get in just fine!

Turns out we picked the perfect game.  I’ve heard there can be very low attendance at Blue Jays games, but that was not the case last night.  The crowd was great.  The stadium was packed because it was the last home game of the season and Cito Gaston’s last home game as Manager.  They did a nice ceremony for him and then the game started pretty late.  The weather was perfect so the roof was open.  Blue Jays won so depending on who you were rooting for, that could be a good thing!

Some of the reviews on Yelp said that the food was terrible and the lines were long.  After my experience last night my question to them was “Have you ever been to a baseball stadium besides Rogers Centre before?”  I’m no stadium connoisseur, but it was pretty much just like every other one I’ve been too on those two fronts.  Yes we had to wait in line a little for food, beer, bathrooms but that is normal.  And no, the food isn’t top chef, but for stadium food it was fine.  In fact, I thought they had a good selection of different foods available (stir fry, gyros, sushi, chicken fingers, sweet potato fries).  In true Canadian style, the beer selection is really great – Bud, Bud Light, Bud Light Lime, Stella, Alexander Keith’s, Labatt).  Plus have you seen the beer cups they have?  Lids are fantastic!

We were on the first baseline just past first base, and I thought our seats were awesome.  We could see everything.  But, I think it would have been cool to be on the 3^rd baseline instead because I’m pretty sure you could see the CN Tower above the stadium.  We couldn’t see it from our seats, but I did get a great picture of the sunset (above).  There is a hotel in the Rogers Centre that has some hotel rooms that overlook the stadium.  Sounds pretty cool as long as it isn’t another Standard Hotel situation (people behind us said it is actually illegal here).

Only negative is many of the beer stands ran out of beer around the 6^th inning.  I found that odd, but maybe they weren’t prepared for such a large crowd?  I’d definitely recommend checking out a game if you’re a baseball fan.  And, maybe next year they’ll even be contenders for the playoffs!