{"id":762432,"date":"2026-07-14T13:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/762432\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T13:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:35:10","slug":"chad-kelly-blames-toronto-argonauts-struggles-on-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/762432\/","title":{"rendered":"Chad Kelly blames Toronto Argonauts struggles on World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

FIFA\u2019s takeover of 11 NFL stadiums (in which 13 teams play) has created various complications and annoyances, including the displacement of the New York Giants to West Virginia for training camp. It\u2019s had a more pronounced impact on the CFL, which had started its season before the first World Cup game was played.<\/p>\n

Toronto quarterback Chad Kelly attributes his team\u2019s early-season struggles to the fact that the commandeering of its stadium, BMO Field, for World Cup games will result in a seven-game road trip to open the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is obviously something unprecedented<\/a>,\u201d Kelly said after Toronto\u2019s 30-21 loss at Winnipeg, via JC Abbott of 3DownNation.com. \u201cNo professional team has had to do what we\u2019re doing right now with five straight away games, back-to-back-to-back leaving the East to go West, and it\u2019s not easy. It\u2019s definitely not easy. I think we\u2019ve got to dig down. We\u2019ve got Hamilton next; that\u2019s close by. We have to just make it happen. We\u2019ve got to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the last of six World Cup games at BMO Field in Toronto was played on July 2, the stadium remains unavailable as temporary stands for the World Cup are removed.<\/p>\n

And the inconvenience extends beyond the games. BMO Field also serves as the Argonauts\u2019 practice field and main offices. Their temporary home base is more than 50 miles away from Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re traveling so much every single day,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cSome guys are living in Toronto and driving an hour. This is something that\u2019s very hard. It\u2019s very hard from top to bottom, and we\u2019re dealing with it, trying to make it the best we can work. It\u2019s just what it is right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as if the Argonauts will make up for their absence from home with a long stretch of Toronto games. Three of their home games will have been played on the road, against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and Hamilton Tiger-Cats.<\/p>\n

Toronto has played five games on the road, winning two of them, with two more road games to come. Toronto won\u2019t play its first true home game on August 6, with six of the final 11 games at BMO Field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FIFA\u2019s takeover of 11 NFL stadiums (in which 13 teams play) has created various complications and annoyances, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-762432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}