The report comes a day after Major League Baseball approved Rogers' purchase of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Unnamed sources told the Sun that the first phase of the Rogers plan would be purchasing the SkyDome, where the Blue Jays and the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL currently play their home games, from Sportsco. The venue's name would be changed to Rogers Stadium, and the Rogers logo would be displayed outside the Dome.
The next phase would involve gutting the Renaissance Hotel, which is part of the SkyDome complex, to create space to add more seats to get up to the NFL standard of at least 60,000 capacity.
Rogers would offer part ownership of the Dome to any NFL owner willing to relocate a franchise to Toronto, while the communications kingpin would offer Sportsco part ownership of the Blue Jays.
According to the Sun, Rogers plans to employ two people dedicated to bringing an NFL franchise to Toronto. Paul Godfrey, who was installed as Blue Jays president and CEO after the Rogers takeover in September, has long been a vocal advocate of having the NFL open shop in Toronto.
The Cardinals are a logical target for such a relocation. Owner Bill Bidwell has for some time been rumoured to be looking for a new home for his Cardinals out of frustration with the lack of funding to replace the outmoded Sun Devil Stadium.
Those rumours got quieter after the November U.S. election, in which Arizona voters approved a proposal to publicly fund the construction of a new venue with an estimated cost of $331-million. But a location for the facility has yet to be finalized, which has fuelled speculation that the team could still pull up stakes.
