I hope we never expand to the US again
They’re just don’t get CFL football
I miss John Candy though even though he wasn’t Argos owner
He was a decent man even nice to Hamilton fans when he came to Hamilton
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John Candy wasn’t sole owner but he was an owner.
The purchase of the Toronto Argonauts in 1991 by millionaire Bruce McNall, actor John Candy, and hockey great Wayne Gretzky marked the most conspicuous effort to produce first-class football with highly paid U.S. stars, but the experiment failed, and McNall and Gretzky sold the club in 1994 after Candy died.
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We won’t because they don’t want it. They have enough football, NCAA, NFL and after the NFL season there is the UFL.
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I hated that era of CFL football. Watching the Baltimore Stallions play the Hamilton Tiger-Cats just seemed so wrong.
To me the league was “selling out” it’s uniquely Canadian brand and ultimately it backfired. For the better I might add.
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The US expansion was an interesting time for sure. Our all star quarterbacks magically migrated to teams south of the border. Two Grey Cups with a lot in the line. I doubt we’ll see those days again.
We got the Alouettes back in the end.
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I have a slightly different take. It happened during my teen years and I didn’t come from a football family. To me it was a great thing to watch, especially when BC played Baltimore in 1994. A bunch of us watched the Grey Cup on a huge wall screen TV at a friend’s house.
As far as what the league does in the future is concerned. I wouldn’t want a repeat of what they did in the 90’s. Sacramento as your first team in the league was insane. Having teams bow out at the last second wasn’t a good look either. They should have looked at WLAF data as far as attendance goes. If you compare Sacramento Surge and Goldminers, they have similar numbers. The two teams that did well in that league were Montreal Machine and Ohio Glory. What the CFL did made absolutely zero sense strategically for the long term.
If they compared all data as far as viewership goes Quebec City vs an American area and the American area had higher ratings (average) and a willing owner I’d be okay with going there. However, it looks like the league is focusing on Quebec for now.
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Amen!..
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The expansion fees saved the league. Commissioner Larry Smith was explicit in this. HAM, TOR, SSK weren’t going to make payroll without help which no longer existed.
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That’s true, but the whole need for expanding in the first place was just a form of damage control.
The league suffered many self-inflicted wounds in the 80’s that ultimately led to that financial crisis. The key one being home game Blackouts. They lost a lot of young Gen-Xers at the time that only watched the much better promoted NFL broadcasts.
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HAM was arguably the worst off. The Michaluk/ Yachetti group begged Smith to front them HAM’s share Sacramento’s fee early just for day to day survival (so they claimed). Rest of league cried foul as the rest of the teams had to wait.
But HAM then blows much of the money on Tim Rosenbaugh, angering the BoG . Late in '94 Michaluk tries again for an early payment and is promptly told to get bent.
It was only the influx of expansion fee money from the rest of the US owners that made HAM attractive to buyers Grant and MacDonald in 1995. Who bankrolled our last GC win.
So when we thank Young for saving the team take the time to thank the silly US owners who rolled the dice to invest because they saved the TiCats and league.
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Sacramento: ??
Memphis: Fedx’s Fred Smith.
Shreveport: The Gliebermans
Baltimore: Restaurant tycoon Jim Speros.
Birmingham: Insurance tycoon Art Williams.
San Antonio: ?
Orlando Stingrays/ Miami Manatees. One was only a proposal. The other scheme literally collapsed within hours before being announced. Can’t recall which.
Expansion fees were reportedly 3M US.
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If I’m not mistaken, Fred Smith never paid a cent for his franchise…
Fred Anderson owned the Sacramento team and then moved them to San Antonio. So he was the owner of both teams.
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Yes, that expansion money helped keep the lights on for a bit. The CFL was bailed out by the NFL after the 1996 season…Thanks to Albertan and NFL owner Pat Bowlen.
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At least they got Montreal back in the CFL. The Ohio Glory played at Ohio State. Their attendance started at 40k but soon dropped by half to 20k…Would be even less if the WLAF played in the Fall when the Buckeyes were back. Their 1-9 record didn’t help.
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All true but going to Montreal first instead of going to Sacramento would have made more sense if they were doing things intelligently is my main point.
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Sacramento was supposed to field a team in 1993. Obviously it was delayed a year.
Not sure what you’re saying, Dr.
In '93, Sacramento did field a team which was the first and only, that season, American CFL team.
'94 was a second season for the team in the California Capital and three other American teams were added in Baltimore, Vegas, and Shreveport.
'95, the CFL’s final year with U.S. teams, saw the Gold Miners move to San Antonio with the new name Texans, the Las Vegas Posse did not return, for a second season, and new teams were added in Birmingham and Memphis.
Summary: 3 seasons, 6 teams, 7 cities, 1 team payed all 3 years but not in the same state, 2 teams lasted for 2 years in the U.S. with one of them playing in back-to-back Grey Cups, winning the second, and continuing to play, since '96 in Canada, as the Alouettes, and the 3 other teams each existing for only 1 season.
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I was with the Ticats equipment staff during the US seasons and those guys didn’t operate like a startup.
The Sacramento Gold Miners came direct into Hamilton on a plane that was painted up with their logo on the tail and their colors on the wings.
Most Canadian teams would give me a hat or t-shirt and $25 for helping them pack/unpack their truck, set up their locker room, do some laundry after walk thru, etc. The US teams were giving me hat, t-shirt, sometimes sweatshirt, and usually $200-300 for helping.
One of Birmigham or Memphis (can’t remember which) had a sideline printer that was giving them still photo images from the press box of pre-snap formations after every play.
None of these things are huge dollars (except the plane, but I don’t think it was more advertising than exclusive), but all of these things were things the rest of the CFL teams weren’t spending money on.
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