NFL team in Mississauga a ‘dead’ deal, says mayor

Chances of a National Football League team calling Mississauga home in the near future are “dead,” the mayor of Canada’s seventh-largest city says.

A recent downturn in relations between Canada and the U.S. brought on by the implementation of tariffs — and U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated suggestion that Canada become that country’s 51st state — has quieted talks that could have led to Toronto getting an NFL team that, under one scenario, may have wound up playing its home games in Mississauga.

Though any notion an NFL club would suit up permanently in Mississauga (as a Toronto franchise) was far from fully developed, it was on Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish’s wish list when she spoke with INsauga.com earlier this year.

However, deteriorating relations between longtime allies Canada and the U.S. in the weeks since now have the mayor looking at any such thoughts through a different lens.

“Our relationship with the U.S.A. is not exactly conducive to such deals at this time,” Parrish told INsauga.com in a text on Friday afternoon, adding she considers any hopes of further NFL talks “dead.”

Mayor Carolyn Parrish says talks that may have led to an NFL team coming to Toronto/Mississauga are now dead.

Parrish told INsauga.com in a late January interview at city hall she had been approached “by some real big shooters” who want to bring an NFL franchise to Toronto/Mississauga.

The mayor said at the time she had received calls from both Larry Tanenbaum, chair of the board of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (which owns the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs and NBA Toronto Raptors, among other professional franchises), and Paul Godfrey, who’s worn a number of hats over the decades including those of politician, newspaperman (Toronto Sun president) and head of MLB’s Toronto Blue Jays.

Both men have for decades actively tried to bring an NFL franchise to Toronto. Tanenbaum is considered by many to be the most powerful person in Canadian sports.

Parrish said they were having difficulty finding space in Toronto for an NFL-size stadium, so they looked west to Mississauga in hopes that would strengthen any formal bid they’d put forward.

In response, the mayor said she envisioned land where such a venue could be built in Mississauga, but she didn’t reveal exactly where.

On Friday, she told INsauga.com she and the city now have other ideas for that space.

While the idea of an NFL club coming to Toronto has been floated several times over the decades, it has never come close to being reality.