Toronto will invest $10 million in expanding city-owned BMO Field after council voted 39-3 Thursday in favour of the deal.

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the city’s tenant in the facility where Toronto FC plays, will put at least $90 million toward the $120-million expansion.

Voting against the deal were Mayor Rob Ford and Councillors Doug Ford and Mike Del Grande.

“We’re very grateful for the leadership and support of the City,” said MLSE president Tim Leiweke. “This is an important issue, not just for Toronto FC, but also the CFL, the Pan Am Games, our ability to host Winter Classics, Grey Cups, and the proposed 2026 World Cup bid for Canada.”

The CFL’s Toronto Argonauts team is looking for a new home, and the BMO Field project includes lengthening the field for football. The stadium is also expected to host 2015 Pan Am Games events.

Argos executive chair and CEO Chris Rudge said he was pleased by the near-unanimous vote and said the football team expects to be talking at length with MLSE about the plan.

“It provides a perfect-sized stadium for us, and with covered stands to keep people out of the inclement weather,” Rudge said. “It’s a masterful piece of public-private partnership, winning all around.”

CFL commissioner Mark Cohon said the league wants to see the Toronto franchise — now based at Rogers Centre — playing in a “smaller, more intimate stadium.”

MLSE’s Leiweke said MLSE will now work to obtain $10 million each from senior governments.

“For the province, the upside is the taxes and economic benefit,” Leiweke said. “For the feds, it’s obviously these big events like the Pan Am Games and the Winter Classic that we would be able to host.”

Ottawa doesn’t want to be seen as putting money directly into the stadium, but there should be a way to structure a transaction without setting a precedent, he said.

He warned the project won’t happen if the other governments don’t participate. “It’s part of our agreement with the city. If we don’t get the other sources (of funding), then the deal falls apart.”

The mayor didn’t speak during Thursday’s council debate. He was the sole opponent when the deal was endorsed 11-1 by council’s executive committee last month.

Ford didn’t speak at the executive committee either, but later told a newspaper he viewed it as “corporate welfare.”

City manager Joe Pennachetti told council Thursday morning that it was “a very good deal” in that the city will get its money back with interest over 20 years.

MLSE, in turn, gets a 10-year extension of its lease, to Dec. 31, 2037, rather than 2027.

Pennachetti was repeatedly pressed by Del Grande on why the city is putting up money for a project — proposed by MLSE — to increase seating to 30,000 from 21,566 and add a partial roof covering most of the seats.

MLSE wants more seating to handle expected higher attendance for soccer.

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“Why would we want to get involved with an organization that is extremely wealthy?” Del Grande wondered. “Just the cost of a player on their roster would be worth $10 million.”

Pennachetti responded that there’s virtually no risk that taxpayers could lose money on the venture.

“We’re enhancing our own asset and it’s costing us nothing at the end of the day,” he said. “I believe this is a significant enhancement to a city-owned asset that basically is something that rarely comes along …

“It’s something that I would say is one of our bigger city-building projects in the last term of council,” he added. “It’s not corporate welfare.”

Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly praised the transaction.

“We’re not giving any money to a private corporation; we are co-investing,” Kelly said. “We’re putting our money on the table as well as the private sector. I think this is a business model we should all be able to support because we’re co-investing in our own asset.”

Pennachetti noted that city council first became involved with MLSE to build the stadium back in 2005 under the former David Miller administration.

At that time, council approved the contribution of $10 million in land and $9.8 million in cash. The federal government kicked in $27 million, MLSE contributed $18 million and the provincial government put up $8 million.

Related:

BMO Field upgrade endorsed

MLSE boss Tim Leiweke calls Rob Ford out over BMO Field opposition

With files from Curtis Rush

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