If the executives in the CFL are smart, the league will never have more than eight teams in the league.
There needs to be at least one major city without a team in order to have an option to move one of its eight teams if the stadium deals begin to sour-out.
You can do more with an even number of teams when it comes to scheduling. No one wants to go back to Wednesday night games (when you have to work the next morning as a fan) to satisfy getting games in with an odd number of teams in the league.
If the Tiger Cats move to Ottawa, leave it up to the Ottawa fans if the team gets renamed (new identity) as the Ottawa Rough Riders or as the Ottawa Tiger-Cats.
Please do not develop Ottawa if the idea is to have nine teams.
If any team moves in the next couple of years it's likely that it would be the Argos. Braley is running two teams right now and eventually he will have to give up one, the problem is finding buyers.
The Argos have had the lowest attendance in the CFL the last few years and it's hard to attract fans to Rogers Centre.
Hamilton' attendance is not much better but with getting a new stadium they have the potential to generate revenues from new seating, private boxes, club seats and new fans that just want to sit in a shiny new comfortable stadium.
It's sad that the two cities in Canada that have the largest population base to draw from can't draw decent crowds.
If the Argos could get a smaller stadium in the suburbs they have a future, but I don't see any plans right now for a new Argo stadium.
Are you saying the view of the action at the Rogers Center stinks? It’s in a bad neighborhood? Parking sucks? No bars/restaurants/night life beforehand for a Friday or Saturday night game?
I think you've been away from the forums too long. Hamilton is having its stadium half-rebuilt and half upgraded to modern building code standards. Ottawa is doing the same with Frank Clair stadium. The CFL is going to develop Ottawa as the 9th team not for the sake of having a 9th team (if they had a Hunt Group and stadium deal out in the Maritimes, QC, Victoria, London, maybe even a northern US city, they'd jump on that and make it 10), but for the sake of having the national pro league in the national capital, for the sake of a 7 million dollar expansion fee, and for the sake of providing the good fans in Ottawa with real long-term ownership for the first time in decades. I think thats all worth an irregular schedule, don't you?
I stand corrected. It takes 21 rounds to have a 9 team league play 18 games each. That means only two rounds of play will have to be squished into a single week in order to have 20 weeks of play. As long as the first two weeks are squished into one week, the rest of the rounds can maintain everyone playing on Friday or Saturday night. That’s not bad.
As far as giving every large city in Canada a team, that’s not good. The CFL loses its bargaining chip. With nowhere else to move, a 9+ team CFL league, teams either put up or shut up (fold) without the option of moving.
I was wrong. The current season is 19 weeks long with each team playing 18 games, and not 20 weeks like I said above.
That means the season will have to begin a week earlier or end a week later under a 20 week format if just two rounds of play are squished together into one week, with 9 teams. Squishing a 21 round schedule into 19 rounds of play is UNACCEPTABLE. That would mean lots of weeknight games (Wednesday night). In that case, I'd say NO WAY to having an odd number of teams in the league. Any gains by having Ottawa in the mix as the 9th team get lost because all teams suffer by having one or two home games of their nine games played during a weeknight.
Pay the Ottawa construction workers whatever they are owed right now, and disband the project immediately...unless the season for nine teams takes place over 20 weeks instead of 19. That's my two cents.
So imn guessing your the owner of the ottawa senetors? the league had nine teams for many many years and it worked. poor ownership caused the failure. to see how the schedual woudl work, check wiki for previous CFL scheduals. With your odd theory of needing a barginning chip… Quebec city was thrown around when hamilton was not wanting to work with the Cats for a new stadium. there is also moncton (or halifax depending who you ask) also if a have to move the argos lets say, and those spots are filled, windsor and london have been making small noises of being able to handle a few games a yeare if need be. i find you comming into the ottawa forum and talking like this is insulting to CFL and especially the ottawa fans who have been waiting years for this opertunity.
I’m offended that you are offended. I’m a big time JC Watts, Skip Walker, and coach George Brancato fan.
You have to draw the line. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. The lesser of the evils is having an even number of teams in the league with a few big cities without a team … to have a bargaining chip to keep the league in a position of strength.
There’s no reason in the world why the CFL cannot move a regular season game or two to Ottawa. Worst case scenario, one of the two teams can wear a throwback uniform of the Ottawa Rough Riders/Renegades – Toronto can wear the black and red of the Rough Riders with that big R on the helmet when they host Winnipeg in Lansdowne Park, as an example. That’s being financially responsible, it’s doable, and it’s creative.
It worked because that was a 16 game schedule over 18 weeks back then. The league now plays 18 games for each team over 19 weeks. Like I said before, do the math with 9 teams playing 18 games each. You need 21 rounds and some squishing of weeks together which involves Wednesday night games. That’s not good for the league. A team plays 2 games over a 4-5 day span (dates that aren’t desirable by the fans to let go and party it up since they go to work the next morning). The team doesn’t see action for the next 12 days. That makes for unfair advantages on who got rested and who did not. That’s not good for parity in the league.
Check your facts and CFL history. This is the last post i think i will waste on you. the schedual switched to 18 games in the mid eighties. in the early 2000's all 9 teams played. again, at Least check wiki before spewing trash you guess
is truth.
The Ottawa years in the league was the worst, not because of Ottawa but because 3 out of 4 teams in the East made the playoffs before a crossover was implemented.
Ok, fair enough. Name some cities that are at least as big as Regina population-wise … other than Ottawa. I’ll even let you include the surrounding suburbs in your results for your totals.
Who cares if we have Wed night games, every other pro sports league seem’s to manage just fine with games on Wed nights, so why cant the CFL. If you’re not game enough to support your team on a Wed night, then that is on you not the league. If I am not mistaken there has been a great advancement in technology just for this predicament, its called a PVR or DVD Recorder.
I would enjoy having games on Wed nights as it gives you something to look foreward to during the middle of the week
