If you were an American free agent..knew very little about Canada..where would you want to play?
lets not get to serious about this..just wondering what your choices would be..
Scenerio
1.all teams offered you the same amount of money
2.toured all the cities before choosing..
3.Team record is irrelevant
My choices would be
1.Montreal
2.Vancouver
3.Calgary
4.Toronto
5.Edmonton
6.Regina
7.Winnipeg
8.Hamilton
Montreal 2nd. choice.
Forget the rest !! <!-- s:wink: -->:wink:<!-- s:wink: -->Hamilton would be my first choice.
It's a great area and it's closer to my home in Boston for example.
Vancouver
Regina
Edmonton
Hamilton
Toronto
Winnipeg
Calgary
Montreal
An Argo-Cat fan
Well, if I were an American free agent and had spent time reading this forum first, I sure wouldn't sign here! :lol:
Have to Agree
well, for me......
Calgary
Hamilton
Regina
Edmonton
Vancouver
Montreal
Toronto
Winnipeg
I'm not a huge fan of the big cities, but I would like to see Calgary, I have heard it's quite nice there.
Toronto
Hamilton
Montreal
Vancouver
Calgary
Winnipeg
Regina
(Many of these players from the Eastern US want to stay close enough to home to be able to drive, have their family and friends drive up to see them... they may not know where Hamilton is but when they find out its this close to Toronto we become a draw.)
I am from Windsor so I will do this "survey" as if I were a player from Detroit. Because if I was from Washington or Montana I'd probably have a different list... i.e. emphasis on Western Teams.
Now I'm going to fill this out as if it were me! Right here right now.
Winnipeg:
Sorry in advance if you are from Winnipeg but the city SUCKS! I would play there if it were my only option but if I was a free agent and had a choice... it would take a heck of a lot to get me to even think about going to Winterpeg.
Toronto:
Expensive to live there, nobody cares about the Argos so I'd be playing in front of sparse crowds inside of the concrete toilette bowl and I couldn't bear the shame that I would bring to my family by wearing that Blue Jeresy.
BC:
Like Toronto... nobody really cares about the Lions in Vancouver. Add to the fact that there would be a ton of travel to play the other teams in the West and that there is no natural rival to make any game really special. At least playing for the Blue Team you can take part in the Labour Day Classic. Vancouver is also very expensive and I hate hippie wanna bes.
Calgary is a very nice city. A few years ago I went to the Stampeders home opener against the Argo’s. The atmosphere of a Stamps game is alright but in all honesty it doesn’t even come close to Hamilton’s. The Stadium is really nice for watching a game though.
Vancouver
Edmonton
calgary
winnipeg
sask
hamilton
toronto
I just would not go to montreal for any money.
For me, vancouver is miles in front for a multitude of reasons, except for lousy fan support, percentage wise.
Edmonton and calgary next because they are near mountains, and I liked my short time in edmonton.
Winnipeg wins out over Regina because it is farther south, closer to the states, has a little more besides football than I beleive regina has, for other entertainment and such.
Regina ahead of Ontario for the fan support, and to avoid lower Ontario smog.
Hamilton ahead of Toronto because of Toronto's poor support of CFL percentagewise.
To Americans, going to Sask. or Winnipeg is the equivalent of Green Bay or even Sioux Falls. They seem small time.
Calgary and Edmonton get treated like Denver. Big city like but out of the way.
Vancouver = Seattle. It's seen as a nice quiet large city with all the amenities.
Toronto and Montreal are big-time cities if you can get by the fact that they're 'foreign.'
Hamilton is an add-on to T.O.
I've got lots of family still in the States and this is their perspective and that of most Americans that I know.
Not too sure what the full list would be, but Regina would be first and Hamilton second.
Relatively small communities where football is the big game in town (Sask especially).
Playing in Regina is like playing in Green Bay. You're more than a payer on the team, you're part of the community and people recognize you and everyone across the entire province loves you. Even if you're just that guy on special teams who makes one nice play a season, there's some dude wearing your jersey with a watermelon on his head.
I actually laughrf out loud at this.
First Tier
Second Tier:
Calgary - great city, but very cold
Hamilton - close to Toronto
Third tier: the cities are either too cold, or too small. Not enough going on in these cities entertainment wise. So in no particular order:
-Edmonton
-Winnipeg
-Regina
I think TO would be #1 because of the exposure Toronto and the Argos are getting with 2 NFL games with the Bills Deal.
I would want to play in a place where the fans know their football!