Toronto Lamport Stadium

Quote: yorksguy1865 "Anyway, Lamport, I agree with others, the pitch markings are not good. It makes the place look quite amateurish, like the fake pitch we had at my school. Don't particularly have a problem with the rest of the ground though. There seems to be room around it for expansion if a new stand was built on the end that ate into the car park a bit, easy enough to add roofs at some point. Do have a couple of questions, if Toronto were to get into Super League, then would they get more say over the running of the ground. Management of council owned stadiums could be different over their of course. Kcom is a council owned stadium but it is run by a different company which answers to the council. Also, just out of interest, seen as the rent on BMO is too high, what would the next option for a ground be to play in other than Lamport??'"

Wolfpack management have said consistently that they want to stay at Lamport Stadium and would rather work with the city to make improvements than attempt to move elsewhere. And there really is no elsewhere, without taking the team miles out of town. Lamport is bang in the middle of a growing part of the city, surrounded by good pubs and close to two streetcar (tram) lines and a commuter train station. And Wolfpack fans LOVE Lamport. We're close to the pitch and the team and the atmosphere is just fantastic.

I don't think BMO Field is an option at any price as it's already home to Toronto FC and the Toronto Argonauts - and Wolfpack say they prefer to pack out a small stadium rather than have 7000 - 10000 fans rattle round in a 25000+ seat stadium. Plus we couldn't bring in our craft beer suppliers as BMO is all sewn up with Budweiser and other swill.

Lamport is an amateur pitch when it's not home to the Wolfpack - that's just the way it is right now so I've no idea about the future of the pitch markings. Elstone was over here and he's seen them, so it will be an issue if Super League say it's an issue. Nevertheless, we fully expect another outbreak of anti-pitch-marking digs after the MPG.

I'd predict that Wolfpack will negotiate something with the city. You're right, there is room to expand at the south end and build some cover. Toronto FC owners MLSE have done two stages of expansion at BMO Field working with the city so far, so there is precedent.