At a candid speech Tuesday night, Tim Leiweke — the MLSE CEO known for the kind of off-the-cuff comments that make communications staff nervous — may have hinted at a future deal between the company he directs and the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts.

Leiweke has said MLSE is interested in paying for an expansion of city-owned BMO Field, and soon, to include a partial roof and more seats.

At the TIFF Bell Lightbox on Tuesday — the same day TSN published a report that talks between MLSE and current Argos owner David Braley were “heating up” — Leiweke said he’d be willing to share the refurbished field with a CFL team.

“We’re going to spend $120 million to build an English Premier (League)-style stadium, with a roof that covers the seats,” Leiweke said.

“Yeah, there are rumours there may be a CFL solution, but we’ll do it in a way you’ll never know there’s a CFL team when you’re there for a soccer game, and you’ll never know there’s a soccer team when you’re there for a CFL game. It’s engineering and we can fix that.”

Later, he said giving football fans a chance to watch games in the new stadium would help not only the CFL, but an eventual push for an NFL team.

“I think giving fans an opportunity to go see an Argos game outdoors in a stadium with a roof that covers the seat, in a 30,000-seat environment, with real grass, is awesome, and it will help turn that franchise around.

“So we’re going to start with that. There’s no way the NFL comes here without the CFL being unbelievably successful first.”

MLSE communications staff declined to comment further Tuesday night, as did the CFL.

Toronto Argos chairman and CEO Chris Rudge said while he couldn’t comment on any deal between the team’s owner and MLSE, he’d be happy to play at BMO Field.

After their Rogers Centre lease runs out in 2017, the team will need a new place to play, and Rudge said he’d be happy to return to Exhibition Place, the Argos’ former home, even as a tenant.

“I’d be delighted to hear someone would like to build us a home,” he said.

“If something more were to happen, that will work itself out,” he said, deferring to Braley and MLSE.

Another tidbit Leiweke let slip — throwing in an “am I going to get in trouble for doing this?” directed at his PR team — was a new program starting next NHL season to give away a “couple hundred” Leafs tickets each regular season game.

The tickets will go to the members of Leafs Nation, those who have never been able to afford the high ticket prices, who will attend a game for the first time as a guest of MLSE.

“We’ve got to introduce a new noise level, a new culture and a whole new generation of fans into that building,” he said.

Other future plans include involving Raptors global ambassador and hip hop megastar Drake in more MLSE business. MLSE wants to create a nightclub at the Air Canada Centre and Drake “might be a partner in that,” Leiweke said.

What it adds up to, he hopes, is the creation of a new culture among MLSE’s sports teams, starting with BMO Field.

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“The city deserves it, our fans deserve it. And this is the message we’re sending all of our teams from this point on. We mean business. We want to win championships.”

Professional soccer will be as popular as the NHL in just a decade, Leiweke told the crowd of marketing professionals, which is partly why the company decided to shock the soccer world by spending tens of millions of dollars earlier this month to bring Jermain Defoe and Michael Bradley to TFC.

The deal with American midfielder Bradley, the “heart and soul of U.S. national team,” even came as a surprise to U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who had told Leiweke the deal would never happen — in the midst of negotiations and just days before the papers were signed.

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