Question regarding Ottawa expansion

CFL Talk
1

I don't know if this has ever been mentioned officially...

Is the league actively looking for another expansion location
to enter the league at the same time as Ottawa ?

If not--
Then they'll need to plan for a 21-week 18-game Regular Season

with one team required to be on BYE during 18 of those weeks
and each team getting a BYE twice during those 18 weeks ...

and then teams grouped into sets of three
required to be on BYE during the other 3 weeks.

That would actually give each team 3 BYE weeks throughout the season
... but it seems to be the only way to schedule 18 games for 9 teams.

:|
2

click on link, then select schedule for 2005 at the right.

http://www.cfl.ca/schedule/year/2011/time_zone/0
3

...in 2005 they had an 18 game schedule in 20 weeks with each team only have two byes...

4

Yeah, they had a good thing going in 2004 and 2005 with a 20 week schedule.

The best way to look at it is like this: 18 games X 9 teams /2 = 81 total games

For nineteen weeks, there would be four games per week (19 X 4 = 76)

For one week, there would be five games (5 + 76 = 81)

As such, eight teams would have two bye weeks and one team would have three (while also playing twice in one week, as Toronto did in 2005 in week 6)

Hope that helps.

5

Oh… Interesting.
I didn’t consider an unbalanced format with some teams having more BYE weeks than others.

Regardless of that–
Has there been ANY talk of another expansion team for that same season?

6

not at the same time no... they won't confirm any 2nd team because they're taking it slow.

7

god i hated that season’s schedule, though they did a great job making it all things considered. 2 games in 4 or 5 days has to be rough.

that is the 2001 schedule…

[url=http://cfl.rpaddick.mrx.ca/schedule/year/2005/time_zone/0]http://cfl.rpaddick.mrx.ca/schedule/yea ... ime_zone/0[/url]
8

Yeah, assuming that the Rogers Centre booking doesn't throw another monkey wrench into the mix with a new team. Seriously the Argos need to get out of the dome.

9

Agreed. Hopefully Braley is working on that.

10

Here is hoping the success this year in Moncton and probably next year when and if there are more games due to the construction in the Hammer, maybe just maybe this will become the expansion and 10th franchise city coming in the same time as Ottawa.
Bringing in a balanced league and schedule.
Wow.

11

I thought 2005 was a good way to handle it. If you notice, the week that they played 2 games, there was 5 or 6 days between them and that week was sandwiched in between 2 bye weeks, so it wasn't so bad. Ottawa CIS does the same thing in week one of the CIS season since their playoffs start a week earlier than everyone else's. Why they don't just officially start the week before, I don't know.

12

That’s true, Toronto had byes in weeks 5 and 7 with a game on Thursday and a game on Monday in week 6. I think they were comfortable with this, since the CFL was planning on doing the same thing in 2006 with Montreal, before Ottawa folded:

http://www.cfl.ca/article/2006_cfl_schedule

They have the team play on the civic holiday while getting a bunch of time off before and after. Although with that in mind, I would rather see a game on Wednesday because Thursday to Monday seems like a quick turn around (even though Calgary and Edmonton do the same thing every year). With that being said, I think the 2006 proposed schedule is ideal, with the regular season starting mid-June and playoffs in the first week of November. The third Sunday of November for the Grey Cup is something I would really like to see them do once Ottawa’s back.

Additionally, it should be easier to schedule games at the Rogers Centre over 20 weeks than with 19 (as well as with three weeks of preseason).