CFL coming to London?

Alright, lets work it out.

9 home games in a season, plus one preseason game so ten games.

It makes sense to have two games in Toronto vs the Argos. You may as well capitalize on the rivalry. That’s 2

It makes sense to have at least two games in Moncton, one in the summer, one in the bitter cold to test the market. That’s 4

You want to build a regional product, but at the same time, you can’t overstay your welcome. That and the surrounding local stadiums lack capacity, so you may take a hit at the box office. Preseason in Waterloo or Guelph and 2 games in London. That’s 7

It makes sense to see if we can test Quebec City in a game vs the Als and see if we can drum up CFL support in Quebec. It’s an untested market though, so you can’t put too much into it. That’s 8.

The remaining two, well…Mr. Young is probably going to take a hit with temp seating by McMaster or Bernie Arbour with temp seats may be the best bet to round it out. That’s 10.

and that’s my thought on the subject.

Edit: One last though, if Frank Clair is ready by 2013, maybe giving Ottawa an appetizer vs the Als early might be considered as well?

London made a big mistake by building that awful and small high school like bleacher stadium with no room to expand.

Our know nothing mayor Anne Marie Desico built that monstrosity.
The girl didn't have a clue.
She obviously didn't look to the future when building that dump.

This same city council built the John Labatts Centre with not enough seats.
Because they figured the London Knights wouldn't get more then 3 or 4,000 a game!

Instead every game is capacity or close to it, with a waiting list for season tickets!
Now to expand the place will cost millions more then if they had done it right the first time!

London.
What a small time little burg this is.
Lets hope our new mayer Fontana is a bit smarter.

You guys are right, TD Waterhouse was a short sighted blunder. It's little more than a tin hole. Although when it's full for Mustang games the atmosphere is pretty good.

An update: it looks like Western is going to actively pursue a game. And this sounds promising.

Western U. to pursue one Ticats game

FIRST POSTED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2011 08:04 AM MDT | UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2011 08:07 AM MDT

LONDON, ONT. - While the odds are long that the Hamilton Tiger-Cats will play a full schedule at TD Waterhouse Stadium, discussions will take place about playing some games in London, Ont.

Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton is being rebuilt and the Ticats have to find a place to play their 2013 CFL season. Last month, team president Scott Mitchell said he’ll look at what’s best for their fan base.

“Whatever the best solution is, we’re going to exhaust it,” he said. “Beyond that, we have a very important mandate in this organization to regionalize the team and grow the team west to London, north to Guelph and south to St. Catharines.”

Mitchell and Western athletics director Therese Quigley have spoken several times on the phone. She said they plan a face-to-face meeting and she’ll do whatever she can to bring at least one game here.

“I’m pretty sure they are going to land with multiple venues, not just a single one,” Quigley said. "They will want to keep as many of their games as possible in Hamilton.

“Scott wouldn’t be meeting us at all if he didn’t think we couldn’t do something here in London. He wouldn’t be stringing us along.”

While Quigley said it wouldn’t be an issue holding all the games here, she believes there would be significant problems for the Ticats if they didn’t play most of their games at home.

“I haven’t sat down eye-to-eye with Scott yet but I know what’s going on in Hamilton and with them,” she said.

"There would be significant pressure from people involved in the city, and the CFL, not to take the whole season away from the Golden Horseshoe.

“I think they’ll probably be looking at Rogers Centre for some of the Toronto games.”

Quigley is intimately familiar with Ron Joyce Stadium, the new facility on the McMaster University campus. She was athletic director at McMaster and initiated the project.

It seats about 6,000.

“I started that plan before Greg (current Mustang and former McMaster coach Greg Marshall) was even the head coach,” she said. "I had four head coaches’ input into that facility. The thought in mind when it was built was it could be ramped up for 18,000 for the Commonwealth Games (and) the Pan Am Games. We bid for the under-20 World Cup when that was up.

“They can construct temporary stands for a given period of time that could put an additional 10,000 seats in and if they went into the end zone they could put in a significant number of additional seats in that venue.”

Quigley will be pro-active when it comes to convincing Mitchell to bring at least one game here.

"I’ve had some preliminary discussion with other people on campus, (and Tourism London general manager) John Winston will meet with us.

“We’re going to explore with just not an open mind but a hopeful heart that we can bring something to London. If it doesn’t, it won’t be because of a lack of effort.”

Great news from London!
One question.
Where was the article you quoted.

[url=http://lmgtfy.com/?q=+Western+U.+to+pursue+one+Ticats+game+]http://lmgtfy.com/?q=+Western+U.+to+pur ... cats+game+[/url]

It would be great if the hometown I grew up in hosted a regular season CFL game. It's a must go for me. The problem is it will be sold out quickly I'm sure.

This game will sellout quickly.
Even the local media seems to be behind it this time.
Morris Delacosta, the main writer for the Free Press, is acutally covering it.
Hopefully when the CFL sees how great a CFL town we are, maybe it will lead to a CFL team in London.
My preferance would be they play out of Labatts Park.
That would be a great football stadium

It's a bit small benji but love it, we played some of our home games in HS at Labatt's and some at Gibbons and the odd one at JW Little at Western since our field at Catholic Central at the time was too small. Oh boy, those are memories big time for me. And remember watching the London Lords at Labatt's as well.

The Lords did play at Labatts in the 70's.
To big crowds I remember.
And about a CFL team playing there.
It holds about 8,000 for baseball.
Though they've never come close to filling the place.
I'm sure they could add expand the place to around 26,000 for the CFL.
There's lots of room for expansion of the stadium.
Only problem might be parking.
Although the 10,000 Knights fans at the JLC never seem to have a problem.

you can thank our previous mayor. glad she’s gone.
she put all the money into a baseball stadium which noone goes to.

i wish they’d remove the ballpark and build a football stadium in it’s place. great spot for a sporting event, but we’ve got baseball there instead…haha

Drummer god.
I read on Wikipedia that dopey Desico spent almost 2 million dollars in 2000 and 2001 upgrading Labatts Park for the London Werewolves.
Remember them?
They lasted what, two years?
After the London Tigers of double A lasted not much longer before that?

The DEsico builds that dump of a stadium at Western.
I've been there a few times and its a disgrace.

They put the fancy scoreboard in the end that faces the sun.
So during day games you can't see the numbers because the sun blots them out.

Desico had no vision for the future.
How she lasted 10 years in office is beyond me?
In just over a year Fontana has brought more business to London then Desico ever did.
Maybe he can get us a CFL team too!

i added a comment along those lines on his facebook page.

Did you guys know that Labatt Memorial Park is the oldest baseball park in the world? Opened in 1877. It's a beautiful and very historic ballpark. Show some love for it. Just 2 weeks ago or so it was voted Canada's Favourite Ballpark in a Baseball Canada contest.

And some people go there. The London Majors of the IBL drew pretty good crowds this season. (I have season tickets)

Oh please
Labatts Park is a waste of space.
The Majors draw nothing.
They can play at Dreamers on Exeter Rd and the few fans who show up can sit on lawn chairs.
They don't know a 7,000 seat stadium.
Why Desico spent a million bucks to upgrade that thing in early 2000's is a testemant to her reign of error.
Favorite ball park in Canada?
Big deal.
Take a picture of it and hang it in a museum.
At least it will be used for something then.

Just got back from London after watching Western and Ottawa. Great stadium TD Waterhouse for a stadium with a track, nice sightlines. Very basic but beats the Rogers Centre by miles. Gorgeous location on the UWO campus as well. :thup: :thup:

Was that your first Mustangs game at TD Waterhouse, Earl?

No, was at one other one years ago but couldn't remember the sightlines that well. Lots of leg room and the rows are angled well enough that even if a tall guy is sitting below you, you can still see. Nice to see Therese Quigley at Western get free parking across the street at the Faculty of Education as well, good on you Therese. :thup:

I'm not sure why people are complaining so much about it but then this has just been my experience, everyone is different. Dont get me wrong, it's quite basic but it sure works. All metal, the kids at the game were banging and I can just imagine what a stadium like BMO with so many people banging must sound like with the metal if they do that there for the soccer games.

Yeah it's not an awful stadium. My complaint is the track (Welcome to Canada) and just that they didn't build it with expansion in mind. Would be nice to see it go from 10,000 seats to 25,000 seats or so. We would be hosting Vanier Cup games and have a real shot at a CFL team.