No, football isn't popular in Ottawa ...

i'd bet, that if the ticats put up a winning season, theyd start to sell-out alot of games..they are close right now with the worst team for the last 5 years.

And again I ask the question…How many times is the fiasco going to be tried before the truth is finally accepted?..2…3…7?? I’ll just bet that if it’s tried once in Quebec City it would be a resounding success from day one.

It should be shocking, because it’s innacurate. There’s a picture in the 1976 media guide of Lansdowne Park from the previous year. The attendance was over 35,000 for a regular season game against Montreal. Bleachers had been added in both endzones to increase capacity, because normally Lansdwown sat a little over 30,000.

Too many people are on the expansion bandwagon. Now is not the time to expand. Make the league stronger, more financially secure than it already is and then maybe in 5 years begin to look at options.

Too many people are on the expansion bandwagon. Now is not the time to expand. Make the league stronger, more financially secure than it already is and then maybe in 5 years begin to look at options.

I agree wholeheartedly. Take it slow and easy and build on this decent TSN deal and go from there. Of course, always talk with interested parties but the CFL should not expand for just expansion sakes, or go back to Ottawa with just any owner. There is a hard core of fans in Ottawa but I think this hard core base is too small to support a CFL team.

You’ve asked before, and I’ve answered before (though perhaps not to you directly). I don’t think asking for as many chances as Montreal as had is unfair. And they nearly blew their third time at it too.

The simple fact of the matter is that the league has very few options. Expansion to Quebec City is not feasible right now for a number of reasons listed ad infinitum.

Despite what past posts of mine may indicate, I understand the suspicion towards Ottawa fans. I just don’t agree with it fully because Ottawa’s attendance is always evaluated by comparing a loser against a winner. No one knows how well Ottawa would support a quality club, and it’s a simple fact that winning, entertaining teams draw more than losing ones.

If Ottawa drew similar numbers for a 10+ win team, I’d agree that the market is blown beyond repair and shouldn’t be tried again until everyone that still has a bad taste in his mouth is dead and buried.

Im 17 years old. Why is this easy for me to see this and so hard for some older, wiser people to see? lol

You know jman, I've found myself having got caught up in going back to Ottawa right away and that but sometimes you young fellas just make sense and rather than spewing out all sort of rhetoric, you get to the bottom line which hits people in the head better. Without being nasty with words and that. Sometimes older is not necessarily wiser! (But it is older :wink: )

See, I think the CFL should expand for the sake of expanding ... because really ... how else would you expand? :wink:

But I agree that you can't rush blindly into it. It does have to be a deal that will make the league better as a whole. If expanding is going to hurt another team in the long run, then yes it's a bad idea.

(Look at the NHL, after they added 9 teams and relocated 3 more in the 90's ... granted, 6 of those new teams and 2 of the relocated franchises went to non-traditional markets ... but either way, how is the NHL doing now?)

Expansion would make the League stronger, but only if it's done properly. Consider the last two years there were 9 teams in the League - the only team that was a trouble spot was Ottawa. And out of the billions of reasons that everyone throws around as to why that was, it wasn't because the CFL expanded too quickly, or anything like that.

I don't think the CFL should go back to Ottawa "right away" ... I think they should go back as soon as a good deal is made with a good ownership group. And I think they should go to a 10th city as soon as a stadium is secured, and a good deal can be made with a good owner there.

As of right now, it would be a bad idea to put a 5-year ban on adding teams, just like it would also be a bad idea to force new team(s) into the league within 5 years.

As a side note, I think it was jbedell who said it might be a good idea to add two teams at once. I think he has a point - it would force the new teams to try and be better than one another. Of course, the risk is expanding too much too fast. But it's moot anyway, as long as no stadium is built in Halifax or QC ...

Anyway, the CFL is guaranteed at least 3 years now without expansion ('06, '07 and '08) ... theoretically the CFL will keep getting stronger with time, and I'd say that it would not hurt at all if a 9th team was added in 2009 (as long as it was done properly).