Will Mississauga get an NFL team?

If Mayor Carolyn Parrish has her way, a National Football League team will call Mississauga home sometime in the near future.

Though it would be based in Canada’s seventh-largest city, playing out of a stadium that would hold as many as 80,000 spectators at a yet-to-be-determined location, any NFL club that would materialize north of the U.S. border in such a scenario would carry the name of Toronto.

While she’s not yet prepared to divulge where, exactly, in the city the team would play its home games, Parrish told INsauga.com in a recent interview she’s been approached “by some real big shooters” who want to bring an NFL franchise to Toronto/Mississauga.

The mayor said she’s 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.

“I’m trying to find land (for a stadium),” Parrish said, peering out the window of her upper floor office at city hall. “Tanenbaum has called me, wants to meet, Godfrey has called me and wants to meet. They want to (get) a team, but they need space and they can’t put it anywhere in Toronto.”

Mayor Carolyn Parrish says she’s serious about pursuing a bid for an NFL team alongside two prominent Toronto sports management officials.

INsauga.com sent three emails to MLSE seeking comment from or on behalf of Tanenbaum, but has not yet received a response.

Parrish added an NFL club would require about 100 acres of land on which to construct an 80,000-or-so-seat stadium in addition to large parking areas.

“Where would we put it?” she asked rhetorically. “I have an idea…”

Parrish said she still has more work to do before identifying a potential site, but added the notion of bringing an NFL club to Toronto that would play its home games in Mississauga is an exciting and serious proposition.

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.

In Toronto and Mississauga’s favour, perhaps, is that the 32-team NFL has in recent years taken a keen interest in bringing its game to numerous international locations.

Over the years, dozens of National Football League contests have been played outside the U.S. including several (both regular season and pre-season) in Toronto. The Buffalo Bills several times have made the trip up the QEW to play games in Canada’s largest city.

Toronto could acquire an NFL club one of two ways — either via league expansion or the relocation of an existing team. It’s not known when the NFL next plans to expand and all 32 clubs seem firmly rooted in their current locations.

While Parrish awaits further discussions about a potential NFL bid, she has her sights firmly set on sprucing up Mississauga’s downtown core.

INsauga.com has reported on several projects the mayor says are at or near the top of her priority list:

• a new hotel and convention centre to be built next to the Living Arts Centre
• 560 new seats added to the Main Auditorium in the Living Arts Centre in an effort to bring bigger and better acts to downtown Mississauga
• a 7,500-seat soccer stadium — at an estimated cost of $32 million — in the downtown core
• an urban school that would house kindergarten-to-Grade 8 students, which would also take shape in the downtown area