I'd organise a huge rally at FCS to protest the suspension of the Gades and show that Ottawa is a worth market for the CFL. It's too late to save the 2006 season, but not too late to save the Gades. This is it, Ottawa, show me what you got!!!!
BTW, seems ever since the NHL came back into town, Football has gone down the drain in Ottawa. When the NHL wouldn't put a team there for 60 years, the CFL was the only league that stepped up to the plate and gave you guys a pro team, and since the NHL came back, they have been cased aside. Now more than ever, Ottawa needs to show the CFL that they care and want a team in 2007!!!
All the Renegade fans in Ottawa should cram into a phone booth and hold a rally to raise awareness to the other 1.7 million jack@sses that justfied ignoring the team.
17,000 fans is "not supporting the team".
22,000 fans with a winning record and running for first place in the east is not "supporting the team".
2000 season tickets sold - regardless of when the cutoff date is/was, is not "supporting the team"
standing by wayside and watching your team systematically fall apart for over 2 months and not saying/doing a thing about it - is not "supporting the team".
They deserved to lose the franchise - because there wasen't a single stable piece in the entire organization - from owners, to the city, to the fans, to the players ... nothing was prepared for a 2006 season.
you haven't read the stories of Washington's MLB and Chicago's NBA sagas then apparently.
CFL can work in Ottawa, needs better marketing and ownership, period.
and you act like the team is dead, newsflash, the papers say HIATOS not FOLD! Gades may not be kicking, but they are alive and well, better now w/o the debt they had.
2000 tickets sale in the frist few days is pretty good, don't know y Lonnie G cut it off, maybe cuz the others waited him gone by that time. guess he was hoping for 5,000, which is a miracle at best.
BTW 17,000 or 18,000+ in a 28,000 stadium isn't bad at all, better than half. and that's pretty go for the East and Ottawa.
Once too many times, if you ask me - doubt CFL will ever recover from this,
Recover you say? For me, and I'm a season ticket holder for the Cats, the issue of any CFL 'recovery' doesn't exist. However I will say I doubt that football in Ottawa will ever recover from this.
using the word 'recover' suggests that they were once in good health. As an expansion franchise, going through a couple of owners in only a few years suggests they were not a healthy bunch ...
"if I were an Ottawa fan right now ... I'd pick my favorite Renegade player, and become a fan of whatever team he is drafted to today" ... cuz Ottawa football ain't comin back ... (again).
Yes Statik and the Grandgalop's out there will now tell us they didn't know anyone who attended games, no one cares etc. Yes, they have to save face, I'd probably do the same.
But Statik, you are dead on, I also don't believe for the life of me we will see a CFL team in Ottawa in a very long time, probably ever.
Ottawa is done, like Statik said, "Where are they going to hold the rally???In a phone booth." There were only a few die-hard fans. The climate in Ottawa tells me this "Suspension" is going to be longer than one year.
Lets let the 8 strong teams continue on. Down the road when Halifax is READY with a new Stadium and an Owner with deep pockets, then we can talk about a nine team league.
...but we wanted ten Sport...for balance....I say someone should also be looking at the Quebec City market....I know the entusiasm is there and could prove to be a CFL entry in the future.. :idea:
Some one PM'd me a message about Quebec City. Apparently the Mayor and Council think along the same lines of the Ottawa Council. Also this person (My apologies to whoever it was...Old age causes me to forget..) Quebec City has a lot of older retired folk who don't have a football interest.
The Universities are supported well, but they wouldn't support CFL attendance requirements.
.......Third/Ten had reported the current Mayor of QC is staunchly against supporting sports teams and would rather sink taxpayer money into supporting fat opera singers and guys who can paint a canvas one colour....
........it's a bit odd there Gades, that you would want to know if Statik76 ever stops speaking, when it is probably the typing that is bothering you.....