merged)Found this on 13thman.com:[url]13th Man
At the bottom of this thread is a link to a lunch with the commissioner where, among other things, he states that the corporate community in the maritimes is insufficient to support a CFL team.
I agree that there isn't the population or a large enough business community in Moncton,and have said so before on this site. I believe Halifax is different. The example he gives to support his argument is the business support for the major junior Mooseheads, which runs at about $500 000 per year. That is pretty good for junior hockey, which really has nothing more than local coverage. There are 5 other major junior hockey teams in the maritimes.
I have always said that a Halifax team would have to market throughout the maritimes like the Alouettes do in the province of Quebec. Fans in Halifax and central Nova Scotia would buy the tickets, while businesses throughout the maritimes would sponsor the team.
I've had a feeling that Cohon preferred Quebec City over Halifax ever since I saw him on The Hour on CBC about a week before the 2007 Grey Cup downplay Halifax (stating a crowd of 8000 at the 2005 Atlantic Bowl, which in fact was attended by over 11000) and turn his answer to bragging up Quebec City.
Yes QC is the only possibility.
It truly makes the most sense!
the rivalry with the Alouettes makes so much sense!
can you imagine? Montreal vs Quebec.. the Canada Day Massacre! 
Just like the Nords vs Habs, think of the possibilities?
Quebec City will be the tenth team. Put the money on it! Cohon has never seemed too interested in Moncton in respect to having an expansion team there. And if I'm a owner, I need to have a team in Quebec City. It is the best university football market in the country. Has the population base, is part of a football "hotbed" and let's face it...this is a league of rivalries and instantly Quebec-Montreal would be a hit.
With all due respect, I don't think Moncton can rally offer this.
Moncton had their chance, but they couldn't put together a professional stadium.
If you build it .... they will come.
Obviously there needs to be a stadium... but QC is ready now. Halifax in 5 to 10 years.
Some might even argue that QC should be the ninth team considering how many times Ottawa has had their shot and failed.
True.
However, I believe that either way both cities would be in about the same timeline. I don’t know what’s the timeline with the Stadium in Ottawa, but I would assume that they could be ready in 2011. I know Marc Bellemare (part of the Quebec group) is aiming for 2012.
The Maritimes has too much going agains't it, population and long distance for travel. QC is a much more attractive potential CFL city. That being said, I think there might be more of a football mindset in the Maritimes than QC but that is questionable and maybe not that important as people who haven't followed football might get involved under the right circumstances, depending. The key is that going to a football game isn't just that, it's an sporting outing that just happens to be football played at a fairly high level in a league with a long and storied history playing for a Canadian iconic trophy etc.
The CFL to further expand their TV numbers and popularity has to move into Quebec City and one other city. Its doing okay with 8 teams, but going to 10, especially if it expands the league from coast to coast, will be huge. I predict you will see Hockey Night in Canada TV numbers, and a much bigger TV deal, if they can pull this off. I think Cohon should be talking up expansion more then he does.
No question the CFL needs to become a 10 team league. Although I live 1 hour from Halifax and would love to attend the games it's easy for me to conceed that the CFL should aim for Quebec City as the 10'th franchise after Ottawa returns. The natural rivalry with Montreal alone would be great for the league. At any rate there at least seems to be some interest from Quebec City in joining the CFL where here in Halifax I never hear as much as a peep about a new stadium or an interested potential owner. If somewhere down the road an owner could be found and a stadium built I have no doubt the fans would support a team here.
If we can go to 12 teams, that would be an ideal number. The league could have three divisions of 4 teams. Lets say
Edmonton, Calgary, BC and Saskatchwan in the west. Winnipeg, Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa in the Central. And Montreal, Quebec, Moncton and Halifax in the East. I don't undrestand why Cohon isn't talking up expansion more? The US idea back in the 90's was dumb. CFL should have looked at hockey's failures and said no thanks. But we're talking Canada here, where the game is popular already. He should be out there getting expansion talk in the fore front. Not as dumb as Bettman was, but to me the fans are there waiting for a team. Its okay to be prudent, but Cohon has to speed things up.
berezin, difficult to really talk seriously about expansion unless there are no serious plans in the works for suitable stadiums. Don't you think? Cohon has put feelers out in many cities I'm sure but getting a stadium built is no easy task, there are only about 10-11 home dates for football a year.
I know Earl. Hard to beleive nobody can build anything in this country. Amazes me how these little American cities can build stadiums for their highshcool teams that are more modern than CFL stadiums? How do they do it?
They do it like we do for all the hockey arenas in this country, it's important to them, high school football and university football is a religion of sorts there, like hockey is here. But Canada has missed the mark building too many hockey arenas, they cater to people with money to put their kids in programs. I'd rather see more money into athletic fields and bubbles for winter, running type sports rather than expensive hockey programs. We've concentrated on hockey way, way too much in this country I think.
Remember back in the early 1980s when the Halifax Schooners were to join the league, where were they going to play?
Regina is smaller than Halifax and Vancouver is just as isolated from the rest of the league as Halifax would be. And it isn’t exactly like Regina is close to anything.
I agree Quebec is an attractive potential CFL city. I think Quebec and Halifax (and Ottawa of course) are really the only realistic potential markets for the CFL, but right now the only difference between HFX and QC is some talk and empty racetrack.
Imagine if the CFL started out as an arena league. There would be no problem with facilities then! 
I believe they were supposed to secure financing to build a stadium and it never happened.