19 million Canadians watched some (if not all) of Super Bowl LVIII, making it the most-watched Super Bowl in Canada, and the most-watched broadcast of the year. Clearly, the appetite for NFL football is alive in Canada which is why Canadians deserve to have an NFL team of their own.
For over 100 years, Canadians have been forced to support American NFL teams like the Buffalo Bills, Seattle Seahawks, Green Bay Packers among others. While die-hard fans have developed fandom for their team down south, many Canadians would adore a team of their own, and Toronto would be the perfect place.
The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) houses over 6 million people, making it the largest market in the U.S. or Canada that does not have an NFL franchise.
Furthermore, the Toronto sports scene has been one that’s excelled for decades with both the Maple Leafs (NHL) and Raptors (NBA) selling out on a nightly basis, proving the admiration for professional sports in the city, which has gained the attention of many NFL owners.
“It’s a great market and a great sports city,” said Arthur Black, the owner of the Atlanta Falcons, in 2019. “I know that everybody (among owners) is interested in that market, the Toronto market,” said Robert McNair, then-Houston Texans owner in 2013.
And it’s a market that the NFL has had success in before.
The Bills Toronto Series at Rogers Centre – the home of the Blue Jays (MLB) – hosted six regular season games and two preseason games from 2008 to 2013. The first four regular season games drew a near capacity crowd of over 50,000 people, which shows Torontonians devotion to football.
Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, recognized Torontonians’ admiration for the sport, saying, “football is, and can be even more so, a very enthusiastically followed sport in Toronto.”
A 2014 study done by a blog owned by ABC News which analyzed Google trends, affirmed Jones’ claim by estimating that there are 990,000 NFL fans in the GTA, which according to the study, is more fans than 19 current NFL teams including the Seattle Seahawks who won Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014.
Clearly Toronto has the football fanatics needed in an expansion franchise, and there are many commercial opportunities too. Toronto is the corporate capital of Canada which presents opportunities to establish partnerships with the many large corporations that reside in Toronto and countrywide.
For the league itself it’s the perfect opportunity to branch into Canada by developing relationships with corporate partners up north, making Toronto a perfect blend of business opportunities and football enthusiasts.
However, the major pitfall of a team in Toronto is where they would play?
When asked about Toronto being a future NFL market, Commissioner Roger Goodell said that “a stadium up to NFL standards is going to be an important element.”
Both the Rogers Centre, which is now solely a baseball stadium after undergoing a $300 million renovation, and BMO Field, which has a capacity of 31,000 – well under the average 70,000 capacity among all 30 NFL stadiums – leaves Toronto in an infrastructure crisis, plaguing their hopes of housing an NFL team in the near future.
But with BMO Field being expanded when Toronto hosts the 2026 FIFA World Cup, it presents the perfect opportunity for the NFL and prospective owner(s) of the Toronto NFL team to jump on board and assist in the development of BMO Field from a field to a stadium.
Once the stadium situation is sorted out and with the NFL repeatedly hinting at expansion, there should be no reason why a team isn’t added in Toronto in the near future.
For more information on the NFL, head to nfl.com.