The Golden Gate group has pulled out of the ownership bid as a result of one of the main financiers contracting intestinal cancer. Jeff Hunt was just on the Team 1200 here in Ottawa and broke the news. He found out about it last Thursday but just revealed it today.
Chris Stevenson of the Ottawa Sun is also reporting this on his blog. This is unfortunate news. I hope the fellow with cancer recovers. And I hope Jeff Hunt gets involved with the Palmer group.
http://www.blog.canoe.ca/ChrisStevensonThey were the favoured group, correct?
I believe so hw.
Jeff was honest in saying that he is disappointed, but then he soon realized that the bid was less important than the man's health.
He's hoping he can get on board with one of the other bidding groups, if they approach him.
Not good, for Ottawa or the CFL. I hope the guy recovers. Golden Gate had to be considered the front runners, with Jeff Hunt in the mix. Now we are left with the Palmer group and DeAngelo group. Palmer makes me nervous because of his son being in the CFL now. Living in Calgary, we saw that disaster here. Second, He wants the old Rough Rider name again. A league with only a few teams is a joke if two have the same name even if spelled differently.
The second group left wants to turn the team into walking, running and hitting advertising for his company.
Well, to be perfectly frank, you know, lay all your cards on the table - as Frank says with Ben on being perfectly frank :lol: - I hope that if Frank gets the team, they don't "a cheetah" to win :lol:
hilarious. When is this league and its fans going to give up on putting another failure team in Ottawa? Every attempt seems to fail; the most promising candidates back out now?? (for 'health reasons' - which i will chalk up to the same reason/excuse as Don Matthews, total (edit) trying to save face) ... plenty of indicators suggesting this is doomed for failure again - yet we keep on ignoring the signs ...
If D'Angelo ends up there .. it'll be the final sign.
StatiK76
GO BOMBERS!!!
....I'd agree this is bogus if D'Angelo winds up being the new Owner Statik but c/mon, a little sympathy for the main stakeholder who contracts cancer, participating in a football team operation when something like that is going on is hardly high priority....
statik your being a little harsh ona guy coming down with cancer. But i do agree that ottawa is a lost cause. teams continue to fail, ownership continues to fail. nothing good is coming out of ottawa cfl wise and i think we should move on to another place in the country that wants, and would support a CFl Franchise.
My thoughts exactly.
Lost cause eh? :x Easily said from Winnipeg! :x :x :x Give us a decent set of owners (i.e. Bob Young), give us a decent football team with smart coaches and some talent or at least the freedom/wherewithal to acquire it and then, only then, let’s pass judgement. It’s too easy to crap on Ottawa (for more reasons than just football!). My money is where my mouth is (season ticket holder since the Rens began) and I will continue to support this team and encourage my friends and neighbours to come out to the games. Just give us a chance and some support/oversight from the league and if it still doesn’t work out well turn off the lights and shut the door and give me my season ticket money back but until then…
Go Gades Go in 08!
classic Ottawa response. “give us” this, “give us” that … Since when do the other teams in the CFL owe Ottawa anything? If your own city is not capable of handling these issues of assembling a decent talent team, with decent coaches, and decent management, and a decent record … who’s fault is that?
you’ve been given opportunities, and they have failed. its time to move on to a city that is more capable. The league is being foolish, considering a location that has already failed twice.
StatiK76
GO AWAY OTTAWA!
what would people think if :
d'angelo bought the team, stayed the hell away from it and let jeff hunt run the team?
Well said. There wouldn’t be another city in Canada that wouldn’t be in the same boat as Ottawa if they had had the same kind of bumbling ownership over and over.
Calgary likes to point to the Feteriks but they weren’t there long enough to completely poison the fans.
I was in Ottawa on the weekend and sign going in says 784,000 population…and with Gatineau/Hull just over the bridge with another 250,000 there’s a great potential for someone with some where with all who knows how to market a team.
Anybody who says different, to put in politely, doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
Fine with me but not sure if he would be the type of owner that could stay away.
But one thing I like is that he uses retired NHL'ers in his commercials so he might bring back some Ottawa Rough Riders (man I love that name and wish they were still the name regardless if there is another 'riders in the league) for promo work. That would be super!!
you often hear about how one of the big problems is that the stadium is owned by the city and they charge too much. how about we assign hunt to president and make it community owned. call them the senators and assign a seat in the senate to the best canadian each year.
In Matt Sekeres article yesterday in the Ottawa Citizen there was the suggestion how everything was not exactly rosey with the GG group. Jeff Hunt aside, supposedly the group was under funded.
Plus and here we go again with a group with no money and pie in the sky plans like the Watters group, the franchise fee of $3.5M was to be paid off in 7 years. So, again they would no doubt use TV or other revenue money from HO and the league would deduct the amount of $500,000 per year.
Hopefully the guy recovers from the cancer, but aside maybe this is the best thing in withdrawing or possibly the cynic in me is suggesting the GG group and whats the guys name Anderson realized he had no cash. The very same guy who kicked the tires in the last year of the Gleiberguy regime and was afraid of the losses.
At least with Frank D'Angelo he has the cash behind him. I'm one of the few guys who likes Frank. He said yesterday he would talk to Jeff Hunt. If Frank would let Jeff be the Prez, this is the best case scenario.