On one side of the table is the dominant sports conglomerate in the country, owned by two companies so gigantic that any financial losses of the Toronto Blue Jays, for example, can amount to a rounding error. Those two companies have very different goals, by the way, and the conglomerate’s CEO has an expiration date. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, the colossus, is sitting over there.

On the other side of the table is the 73-year-old man with the 1950s haircut and a three-dimensional photographic memory and a CFL team burning a hole in his pocket, figuratively speaking. David Braley famously keeps his own counsel, and the only people who know even a significant part of what he’s thinking are across the table. Braley can be a famously dogged and frustrating negotiator, though, so they can’t know everything.

In the middle of the table is a clock, and it’s ticking. Back in September a high-ranking CFL source said Braley’s Toronto Argonauts had six months to get a stadium deal signed and completed, with an exit from the Rogers Centre looming.

Only the time remaining has changed. The only road left for the Argos is to get into BMO Field, whose Phase II renovation means the Argonauts have until the end of the month, more or less, to make a lease agreement. All that’s riding on it is a home for the team, profitability for the team, and maybe, in the worst case scenario, the CFL.

“If the Argos fold, the CFL TV deal would get hurt, sponsors would walk out,” said one source familiar with the league’s business arrangements. “It wouldn’t be a serious league anymore.”

And today, the deal isn’t done. Negotiations are ongoing, but they’re complicated by MLSE’s owners. Bell, which owns TSN, which broadcasts the CFL (and also pays me for some broadcasting services, full disclosure), clearly wants to make a deal. Larry Tanenbaum, the minority partner, is said to want to make a deal, though he isn’t perfectly in line with Bell. Rogers, which is Bell’s chief rival and owns Sportsnet, and which doesn’t care about the CFL, remains a moving target, day to day. The Rogers people are not fanatics about it, but their natural incentives make them more difficult to convince.

The gap between Braley and the conglomerate is the missing $10 million in funding for the next phase, which will expand BMO to a dual-use, 30,000-seat stadium, with the capacity to expand to 40,000 for special and lucrative occasions. That $10 million, along with what Rogers is willing to live with, is the trick.

And now both sides are playing chicken, with the CFL at stake. Braley has said he intends to make money on his ownership of the Argos and the B.C. Lions. He has been a titan in the league, has saved teams and been its most important member, and still, he always seems to find a way to pair altruism with money.

And at this stage, he is largely alone. The city is strongly in favour of the Argonauts getting into BMO, but there are significant rumblings of frustration emanating from Braley’s fellow CFL owners. He could make a deal, many say. Braley thought he had a deal early last year, and the team stalled in a number of ways while it fell apart.

So it’s coming down to money. According to officials throughout the CFL and MLSE, the Argos would be a profitable team with any kind of reasonable lease at BMO, and would finally become a saleable asset. One CFL source indicates Braley has the option on yet another Grey Cup in either 2016, 2017, or 2018 — the sixth Grey Cup for a Braley team since 2005, which is causing some grumbling around the CFL. But he is difficult to budge.

“David is the problem here,” said one CFL source.

Reached at his office in Hamilton, Braley refused comment on ongoing negotiations. MLSE CEO Tim Leiweke also declined to comment.

So, we’re down to the endgame. If you are MLSE, you know you are the last option left to save the league, whose appeal endures in all kinds of places that aren’t Toronto. If you are Rogers and Bell, you likely don’t want to be known as the people who killed the CFL. And if you can manage to make money on a second tenant at BMO Field, where you consider Toronto FC to be one of the few options left for substantial asset growth, all the better.

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Meanwhile, if you are Braley you have no other options other than spending at least $150 million of your own money on your own stadium. You can’t crash the Argos because if you did, you still own another CFL team that you are going to sell. Also, you love the league, deeply, and always have. David Braley has his quirks, like many geniuses. But he’s not crazy.

There are still wild-card scenarios, like the CFL owners helping pay the $10 million, but that’s not likely. In the worst-case scenario, we could come down to David Braley deciding between his beloved CFL and his beloved money. He’s an expert poker player, and he has a fortune, but the smart guess is a deal will be done because of this: MLSE only wants to do a deal, more or less. Braley, and the CFL, needs one.

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