You ask why I would have a fan club for a team that does not exist?
Well my answer is the same for the Baltimore Stalions fan club only opposite. They are fans of the past, We will be fans of the future. Neither Baltimore nor Milwaukee has a team, but with Milwaukee, the possibilities are endless.
Wait until you see the website then you can comment some more.
If the CFL does not accept the Beer Barons name of anal reason then no big deal, we can change the name. Milwaukee is known for many other historic things as well.
And no I do not have a inside with the CFL, I am just a die hard fan who will watch any CFL team play another CFL team.
Why the hell would anyone want to put a CFL team in Wisconsin? Milwaukee is right between Chicago and Green Bay. Yeah good luck drawing from their crowds! Then you have Minnesota, Kansas City, St Louis, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland and the list can go on for other prime NFL cities all around there within 8-10 hours or so. If the CFL even wants to be taken serious about trying to go back to the US again, why not look at places like Montana, North Dakota, Oregon or hell even Idaho. Go along the border area where there is little to no chance the NFL would ever place a team cause the cities are not big enough for their egos. I strongly think if the idea was well thought out, well prepared and put in place that YES the CFL could expand to some US places. How wicked would a rivalry be between Edmonton/Calgary and Billings Montana. Or Winnipeg/Regina and Bismarck North Dakota. People could drive across and see their teams play with great ease. Plus the tv coverage would be easy to manage that close. People in Las Vagas and Louisiana couldn't care less about the CFL or Canadians. Those were just piss poor placements before. Having teams close would make for great tickets sales as well. There are many people who travel between Toronto/Hamiton and Montreal, Winnipeg and Regina, or the Albertans and BC. I think more teams would rock if it were done right. Scout the cities. Try an exhibition game in each place. And don't bring back the North vs South crap. Make it West, Central and East. 4 or so teams in each Division would be great. Later you could even add say an Atlantic Division with Halifax, Quebec City, maybe even in team in Maine or Vermont. As long as they are close to the border, almost all US cities have college or University stadiums plenty big enough for CFL. 20-30,000 seats and your good to go. There is plenty of Canadian talent to go around as well as American players who don't get drafted by the NFL. I couldn't care less about import rules. I just wanna watch great football, drink beer and watch the cheerleaders bounce around!
GO BOMBERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I couldn't care less about import rules. I just wanna watch great football, drink beer and watch the cheerleaders bounce around!
GO BOMBERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Capt, those are the best words I've heard all year long and echo my exact sentiments!!!!! Nice wording, except of course we need to replace Bombers with TiCats. 
Baltimore fans only have a 40 minute drive to RFK Stadium and the Stallions could still average over 30,000. Wilwaukee is 2hrs by car to either Green Bay or Chicago.
BeerBarons, did this meeting consist of three (me, myself and I) 
But go for it by all means I love the enthusiasm. I don’t think those for or against US expansion will have any factor on the B of G’s deciding on any expansion plans. They will decide on the bottom line $$$ and a stable owner in a market that they feel will support CFL football. They call it “getting it right”.
Al’s owner Bob Wetenhall has publicly stated he was in favour of US expansion and has mentioned Rochcester, NY. Maybe he would like to sell the Al’s and start a franchise there, who knows. But if he’s telling this to the media you can bet he’s talking to his fellow owners to get a majority support.
I won’t cancel my season tickets if it does or doesn’t happen but would consider it if they try to change the game in any way.(Unless its to allow more blocking on punt returns) lol
So BeerBarons (I don’t think that name will fly)start you fan club I(for what its worth)don’t mind.
I wanna ask my Canadian friends something here: is the thought that if a city has a major league sports team, that a team in another sport is a draw-off? Because I really don’t see that here in the States…Milwaukee has the NBA(Bucks), MLB (Brewers), NCAA-BB(Marquette and UW-Milwaukee), indoor Soccer (Wave),and minor league hockey (Admirals)-but I can pretty much guarantee that football fans don’t really care about all them, they wanna watch FOOTBALL! You can’t tell a US football fan, “Well, I know you don’t have a football team here, but it’s okay-you have a baseball team.” The fan would say, “So freakin’ what?” Casual sports fans are going to go to a game here and there in various sports, true-but a CFL team could get a piece of that pie if -like any successful business- they put forth a quality product at a resonable price; it’s called value…and I can assure you of one thing: we Milwaukeeans are quite adept at recognizing value-and our football fans are loyal.
Actually, Syracuse, with it’s metro area population in the 750K range, does have football; the Syracuse U Orange-a fellow named Donovan McNabb came out of there, and has done pretty well for himself in the NFL :lol: Unlike in Canada -from what I can tell from reading this forum- college football is HUGE here; a Division 1 college team is as big a draw as an NFL team. Milwaukee, on the other hand, with it’s nearly two million metro-area residents, is the largest city in the USA without Pro or D-1 college football. These 2M area residents are concentrated in a 40 mile radius of downtown Milwaukee-this is more than 1/3 more people than the entire state of Maine…and more than 3 times the population of North Dakota. As far as Oregon goes-Portland is the closest city to Canada, but really is no closer than Milwaukee-and the two cities there outside of Portland that are over 100K population, buth have D-1 college teams: Salem has Oregon State, nearby in Corvallis; and Eugene has the U of Oregon-both are in the Pac-10; Portland would actually be a better fit.
North Dakota? Idaho? MONTANA?!? Good lord, Capt., if the CFL wants to be taken seriously PERIOD, there couldn’t be any worse places to set up shop! North Dakota has only 633,000 people; the largest metro area is Fargo/Moorhead, MN; with just over 100,000…Idaho only has one city -Boise-with more than 55,000 people; while the Boise metro area is close to a quarter million, it’s pretty far south in the state-four times as far from Canada as from Nevada. I’ve been to Boise-nice little city, but it get’s FREAKIN’ HOT in the summertime! Plus, Boise State U is D-1 (they’re the only other undefeated college team right now, besides Ohio State). And Montana? Oh, please! That state is so poor, they can hardly pay attention-you want them to pay for game tickets? Billings is the largest city-metro area probably about 120,000…and if you drive two hours from Billings in any direction, the closest city is-still Billings!
I’ve said it before, and I suppose I’ll keep saying it: bigger cities like Milwaukee and Rochester WILL support the CFL, but it has to be presented as a quality product…you start setting up teams in Bismarck, Bozeman, Butte, Bangor, Bemidji, Billings, and Bellingham, the rest of the world is gonna think the CFL is pretty much the “b-league!” Okay, pun sorta intended…but if you’re gonna go that small in the US, you might as well stay in Canada and expand into Prince George, Lethbridge, Red Deer, St. Johns, etc.
I am still wondering why a guy from Manitoba would be pushing so hard for a team in Milwaukee.
As for who cares about the import rule. Baltimore won the Grey Cup in its second year of existance because the rule didnt apply to them.
I agree about the import rule-it would need to be addressed somehow; and should be done BEFORE any possible US expansion is considered-during the nineties, the “writing on the wall” to me was this: the US teams-not being bound by the ratios-would begin to completely dominate the CFL; which would drive away the Canadian fans-and as a restaurant manager, one thing I know: ya DON’T p***-off your regulars! Without Canadian fans, it’s not the Canadian Football league anymore…and before any proud Canadians -and God bless you all- get indignant about what I just implied, look at it this way:
Assuming that the players coming up from the Canadian high schools and colleges has the same level of experience and talent as they do in the US, the ratios still wouldn’t work out, as they call for 51% of a Canadian teams players to be Canadian-and Canada does not have 51% of the population of the continent that lives north of the Rio Grande…so if the US teams are free to sign anybody, while the Canadian teams are not, well…there it is.
As far as why someone from Manitoba would be so obsessed with Milwaukee: Ro, there is no scientific explanation, other than Milwaukee is simply the best city on Earth.
okay, I’m not exactly an unbiased judge of this…
I'm sorry, man, but I don't understand this whole "CFL in Milwaukee" thing. If this is a joke, it's getting old and it's not even funny. The CFL = Canadian Football League. Sorry...
You guys are really leaning on this ratio law which does not really hold any argument because when you look back to the US teams, their stars were already in the CFL befor these US teams even existed.
The success of Baltimore had nothing to do with a US/Canadian ratio, instead it had to do with the already existing CFL stars that their coach Don Matthews put together.
Matthews then brought in experienced players like QB Tracy Ham (pictured here on the right), RB Mike Pringle (the CFL's leading rusher in 1994), LB O.J. Brigance, DT Jearld Bayliss, and DE Elfrid Payton. They appeared in the Grey Cup in both seasons they existed.
I can say the same thing for all the success of the US teams.
Birmingham had Matt Dunigan as quaterback.
Las Vegas had Anthony Calvillo
Memphis had Damon Allen
,ect, ect,ect
The success of the US teams had to do with what CFL free agents were available and who was coaching them at the time.
Everyone else on those teams were mostly fillers and the ratios had no bearings to any of those teams success.
There is no difference in the CFL today.
The most of the top players in the CFL are mostly from the US anyway with a few Canadian exceptions.
As said befor, these laws can be worked around as in other sports.
I seem to remember when the Winnipeg Jets, a Canadian team was nicked named "Team United nations"
Thomas Steen from Sweden
Teemu Selane and Teppo Numminen from Finland
Keith Tkachuk from the USA
Alexei Zhamnov and all those other Russians.
Gee that Canadian Team does not sound all that Canadian after all.
NHL may or may not be a different ball game, but the point is still clear that in the year 2006 I think its time to realize that the tv shows we are watching are American, the products we buy are American, the music we listen to is american, and a ton of Canaidans are already watching American Football.
Hey, like I said, if Ottawa, Halifax, and Quebec City get CFL teams then great. I will support them with all my heart, but realistically most of you all know that those 3 cities wont last very long in the CFL.
Milwaukee however will last. And the reason why is because they love football.
Americans buy over 80% of all our exported goods, I say lets sell Milwaukee CFL football.
re -stevemac wrote-- college football is HUGE here; a Division 1 college team is as big a draw as an NFL team. Milwaukee, on the other hand, with it's nearly two million metro-area residents, is the largest city in the USA without Pro or D-1 college football. These 2M area residents are concentrated in a 40 mile radius of downtown Milwaukee WOW no team? cfl could fill the void :thup: Call the fans HOP Heads EH BB?
If you are looking to put a team into an NFL city without a team, how about Detroit? 
Windsor is on the list!
The old ratio problem has never been that most of the starting Canadians are not as good as their Americans brothers. Its the backups and depth that are either not ready for pime time or just not good enough except for special teams.
The US teams with unlimited resources could interchange players without loss of performance. The good teams just need one weak link to exploit to make the difference in winning and losing in close games.
If a team from Milwaukee had to use 20 Wisconsin players, or Portland 20 from Oregon those teams would have to beat the bushes the same as the Canadian teams to find enough good "non-imports".
Check the Div 1 teams in Oregon rosters, most of their players are from California.
Most of the Oregon born players play on the OL, fullback and TE...sound familar?
But another BIG problem would be finding stadiums in the US centers that would accomodate the CFL field. With 150 yards needed just for the field dimensions it would be a tight fit in Miller field in Milwaukee. If you have about 60 feet from home plate to the backstop and 400 feet from home plate to center field the 460 total feet would be just 10 feet more then the 450 feet needed for a CFL field. Not much of a buffer zone. So a lot of things have to align to make expansion work in all these figments of imaginations. Ottawa is still the only place with a CFL stadium IMO.
This is a great idea Doubleblue, have a rule that any US team could only use players from the state that they are located in once they met their quota.
As far as stadiums are concerned we are still trying to cover that one.
Steve had a great idea of sharing a stadium with the MLS league if they would allow it.
In addition to that I have also found a couple more possible stadium ideas.
I also feel that Milwaukee would support building a new multi sport stadium as well once they had a team.
After all, Wisconsin does dump alot of money into football because they are the biggest football fans in the world.
I would offer that with a Milwaukee team, you would want to allow players from Wisconsin AND Illinois, only because you’d want to draw fans up from Chicago; same as with Portland-allow players from both Oregon AND Washington State.
The dimensions you’ve described are bigger than Miller Park’s field; one of the concepts of the stadium (vs. the previous one, County Stadium) is that it was “more intimate.” I’ve heard other’s describe it as a Hitters paradise…the official website shows the official distance to CF is 400’, but only for a short section; it tapers down to between 379-386; LF 370’; RF 374’.
You are right about Ottawa-the CFL should do whatever it can to get a stable franchise up and running in Ottawa before considering anywhere else. Not that I don’t think that the CFL wouldn’t work in the US; and I would dearly love to have a team here in the Cream City-but the Capital of Canada should be a priority for the Canadian Football League.
Steve...Steve...Steve...everyone knows the Capital of Canada is Toronto,lol
No group will be interested in bringing the CFL to Milwaukee, and the CFL will not be interested in expanding to Milwaukee. I assure you of this. This is getting a bit out of line.
So Beer Barons uses a forum to discuss his ideas, and he’s out of line? I’m really trying to understand this mentality that if someone wants to discuss something that some don’t agree with, they should go away. Sure, this probably won’t go anywhere -the wheels of progress can turn rather slowly in Milwaukee- but so what? Maybe it gets some new ideas out there…maybe Beer Baron’s website results in some more Americans getting some exposure to the CFL, out of curiosity…what’s the harm in that? Why do some of y’all get so threatened by it?