If you compare the first 10 years of the Tiger-Cats (est. 1950 from two former teams) to the first 10 years of the new era Alouettes (est. 1996 from the 1995 Grey Cup Champion Baltimore Stallions):
The Cats first played in the Grey Cup in their 4th season. The Alouettes in their 5th.
The Cats appeared in the Grey Cup 4 times, winning twice. The Als 4 times, winning once.
If you compare the Als' current streak of dominance to the Cats' best years:
The Als are headed to the their 8th Grey Cup appearance in 11 seasons and looking for their 3rd win.
In their best years, the Cats played in 9 Grey Cups in 11 seasons ('57 - '67) and won 4.
ottawacat: You did not add that while the Als are headed to their 8th Grey Cup since 2000....we have not made a single appearance in that same time period.
That's the record we need to concentrate on...and ask ourselves if we are on the right track yet. Or are we headed for more of the same.
Let me mention, only for the sake of the comparison of the two 11-season records, that the Als, similarly, didn't make a single appearance in the Grey Cup during those years of Hamilton's dominance.
2EZ: I like your optimism.
However after watching this team for almost 50 years I have seen many ups and downs.
I often had a sense of when a team "had it" and not was surprised when they had success. I have also experienced the opposite....having an uneasy feeling they did not "have it". For one reason or another. Usually it was the coaching that told the tale.
Unfortunately I do not have the feeling that this team "has it". The coaching and execution on offence is not right yet. Why did Obie and Marcel allow the running game to become almost inconsequential? It's that kind of thing that great teams don't do. I have never really seen this team (as opposed to some individual players) fired up for a long time. That's another worry. So is the criticism that has been made by many that game planning and play calling was bad in so many games...causing inconsistency to prevail. Back to back .500 seasons don't help either.
I think the 2011 season will be a make or break season. Either we break out of these bad traits...or we continue with them and force some serious changes to be made again.
The worst part for me in all of this is that off the field, the team is in great shape. The marketing, technology and having Bob Young as the owner is as good, if not better than I can ever remember.
I wish I could have the same blind faith as you and some others have. But my sense is that we are not a solid team yet.....or one that is poised for a break-out anytime soon. It was reinforced today when I watched Montreal. I hope I am wrong.
Hard to say. Without an effective running game we would have had big problems. It would not have taken much for Montreal to shut down our passing game, based on what they did yesterday.
In addition, the game planning would have been a problem......something we have not been good at anyway.
Dwayne Ford said yesterday that Montreal was showing the blue team a completely different look on both sides of the ball.....something they do regularly.
Smart coaching like that is tough to surmount.
Next Sunday will be a good match-up though. My heart is with the Riders but my head says Montreal.
I believe the best ever stretch for any team was the Eskimos who ('73 - ''82) matched the Tiger-Cats with 9 appearances in the Grey Cup, but they did it in 10 seasons, not 11, and they also won 6 of them, including 5 in a row.
I think we need to hope for a rash of expansion -- that way we can be in the Central and the Als will be in the East division. We should be able to battle it out with Ottawa, Toronto and London.
Hopefully Moncton, Quebec and Halifax can soften up the Als by the time we meet them in the playoffs.
Rash of Expansion ?? come on, we are having terrible attendance problems in Hamilton and Toronto right now, the biggest market in Canada. Let's get these two teams healthy, hopefully with new facilities and then we can see if there are any other cities that could possibly support CFL football.
If Hamilton with a Metro poplulation of close to 6 to 8 Million people can't draw 20,000 fans what chance does Halifax have?
We had 9 teams 50 years ago - we will have 9 teams 50 years from now
"If Hamilton with a Metro poplulation of close to 6 to 8 Million people can't draw 20,000 fans what chance does Halifax have?"
mike: I think Halifax would have a good chance of drawing 20 thousand to a game.
In southern Ontario, the CFL and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats has been around for a long time. It's old hat to many people. They have seen the team as winners and losers before so they don't have that same exhuberance for it that they may have had many years ago. Especially when we have had a dismal last 10 years. So it's not that easy to get these folks back...other than the very hard core.
In Halifax the CFL would be something new. Something for them to get excited about. As long as they could field a competitive team and attract some wealthy advertisers and sponsors in the first few years I think they could be a success.
People down east are loyal...just like out west. The GTA and Golden Horseshoe has a different mindset. They take things for granted a lot more and have many other pro sports to choose from. When you see city councillors in Hamilton who seem not to care whether the team stays or goes and are willing to reject the history of football in the city, I'd say it's time to be worried.
Maybe a new stadium will help re-create interest in the CFL again. One encouraging sign is that in the past week the Blue team has got incredibly good coverage in the Toronto broadcast media. They have been the lead story on many radio and TV stations since they beat us and reached the eastern final. It's been a long time since that happened. Our loss and their gain for sure.
So that's why I think this team needs to come up with a winning formula pretty soon. I think the support is there....but people need to see this team come out of the wilderness before they give their support back.
The sooner Halifax or Moncton gets a CFL team the better as far as I am concerned. It would give the CFL a huge lift.
When you see city councillors in Hamilton who seem not to care whether the team stays or goes and are willing to reject the history of football in the city, I'd say it's time to be worried.
Yes, weird about Hamilton. This city, er certain city councillors take the TigerCats and CFL for granted ie. any joe blow millionaire can run the team and so who cares if it's a much bigger dude like Bob Young.
But the city is mistaken thinking like this. The Tigercats are on very shaky ground and thin ice because we have an owner who isn't just some joe blow millionaire. But I don't think guys like McHattie and Collins get this. Fred certainly didn't. They are in lala land thinking Hamilton is some 5 million pop city with such a "presence". Not. They probably think the NHL owes Hamilton a team. Honestly, I think these sorts have this mindset as stupid as that is.