The Bombers Should Move to the West Division Next Season

CFL Talk
21

That is also another way to look at it and your reasoning has its merits as well so if Winnipeg stayed in the east with 9 teams that would work as well. At the End of the 2014 season all of these things will have to be weighed by all of those who have a stake in this and a decision would be made.
Probably the same after the 2015 season for the upcoming 2016 season if it is decided to stay east for 2015 as well.

While I agree the possibility of a Rider Bomber Grey Cup is intriguing it would also be intriguing and having a better chance to happen much more would be a playoff Match up between the two rivals

22

Happy with the Bombers in the east, thought they should have stayed there last time Ottawa joined back in the 2000s

23

The Bombers can be in the brand new Central division, all by themselves :wink: Sarcasm aside, they are a West team and they are a much better draw and bigger rivals with the West teams.

24

I think that is the biggest thing about them being in the EAST was that they are certainly a better draw in the West. It will not be as bad with 9 teams and playing everyone twice but 2 teams. Certainly hurt league attendance with the bombers having to play all east teams 3 times and on 4 times. besides the Riders a pretty good old time rivalry with the eskimos is something that is lost with the Bombers being in the east.
Again the importance seen by the entire CFL and all those involved the importance of a 10th team.

25

I preferred the rivalries in the West, and every Manitoban should feel like a Western, but I could care less which division we are in. We draw good for the Eastern teams now too, attendance will not be an issue. And ofcourse there should be compensation for having to relocate, I would expect nothing less. Not sure what you are beaking at there Hfx.....

26

It’s split. A lot want to stay in the East because we’ve been there so long and have built up rivalries while others want to go back to the West and rekindle the old rivalries.

Personally, I would prefer staying in the East.

27

Having grown up with them being in the west and the rivalry September Long and the original rematch grudge game (banjo bowl), I'd like to see them back in the west. I use to really hate them until they moved to the east, nice to get that back.

28

Agreed. If anyone thinks that Mr Cohon has any real power to make unilateral decisions they are sorely mistaken. This league is run by it’s OWNERS and has been since at least the 80s, probably even earlier.

29

I believe the Bombers should move back to the West because more of their fan base is western, even as you regulate the forums most of the flak that the bombers receive come from Eastern fans. For the most part the Blue Bombers team is like a typical western team; they have devoted fans that attend their games.

Right now there are many fans of the Bombers who have difficulties seeing live games unless they want to travel all the way to the east side of the country. Us fans would like to be able to see more live games of our team! They should be brought back as it was always just suppose to be a temporary move to the East.

They are already talking about another new team in the East after the Red Blacks, we might even be seeing one in 2014 possibly 2015 if not 2014. So makes sense introduce the Red Blacks and move Winnipeg over at the same time. Bring some excitement for both the West and the East and than you will have the space to bring in another team in the East with out much effort the next time and can concentrate on promoting the 10th team when it happens.

30

Its about a 2 hour flight to Ottawa less then that To Southern Ontario.

31

Once it’s a nine team league next year, with everybody playing everybody at least twice (which is what they do), you’re talking about a difference based on divisions of two games. Since one of those is likely at home, you’re talking about one extra western game than if they’re in the East, which is pretty hard to stretch into a hardship for fans.

They are already talking about another new team in the East after the Red Blacks, we might even be seeing one in 2014 possibly 2015 if not 2014. So makes sense introduce the Red Blacks and move Winnipeg over at the same time. Bring some excitement for both the West and the East and than you will have the space to bring in another team in the East with out much effort the next time and can concentrate on promoting the 10th team when it happens.
There is no chance another team is appearing in 2014 besides Ottawa, and pretty slim chances for 2015. There's nowhere for this mythical team to play.
32

When they were talking about Ottawa last year; they also said Moncton or QC were looking for teams; they said what was holding them back was Arena's but both I believe actually now have approvals to build the arena's. There was a third City close to Moncton that was interested but most felt that Moncton would be the better choice.

As well it is easier for myself to travel to Edmonton/Calgary/Saskatchewan than it is to travel to Montreal/Hamilton/Toronto to watch CFL games. So with the current setup of eight teams during regular season there would be three extra games in one of the Western cities. Now if my team made it to the play offs that is two more games that would be played in the Western Division. In all that would be five extra games a year out of a 21 week Season prior to Grey Cup. This works out to ~23% more chances of seeing my team live unless I did some math wrong.

Maybe I am misunderstanding exactly how the games work; now I would expect that there will be even more games missed if we had a 9th team and leave the team in the East. We might be talking a difference of 28% than but I'm obviously not 100% I am looking forward to my team being back in the West because that is where I live is the West.

Cheers,
Tehedra

33

Who is talking about another team in the East?? Never heard this from anyone except you. Is there a stadium anywhere ? or a potential owner anywhere?
With the Argos struggling with attendance I would be worried about maintaining a 9 team league.
More than likely we will have an 8 team league again in a few years and Toronto will have their NFL team.

34
[b]mikem wrote: More than likely we will have an 8 team league again in a few years and Toronto will have their NFL team.[/b]
a few years? but you stated previously that this will happen [u]by 2014[/u].

why the change in prediction mikem?

35

There is no suitable stadium in Moncton, and no money to build a suitable stadium. They can play one game there by bringing in temporary seating, but the facility isn’t near up to snuff for a permanent team and the provincial government is broke so it’s not clear where the money to build a stadium would come from unless the Irving family feels like it. (The other potential location was Halifax, which has the same problems only with an inept city council added on.)

Quebec City has nobody interested in an owner, and also no suitable stadium. Though they’d have an easier time getting one if they really wanted to.

Near term, it’s not happening.

As well it is easier for myself to travel to Edmonton/Calgary/Saskatchewan than it is to travel to Montreal/Hamilton/Toronto to watch CFL games. So with the current setup of eight teams during regular season there would be three extra games in one of the Western cities. Now if my team made it to the play offs that is two more games that would be played in the Western Division. In all that would be five extra games a year out of a 21 week Season prior to Grey Cup. This works out to ~23% more chances of seeing my team live unless I did some math wrong.

Maybe I am misunderstanding exactly how the games work; now I would expect that there will be even more games missed if we had a 9th team and leave the team in the East. We might be talking a difference of 28% than but I’m obviously not 100% I am looking forward to my team being back in the West because that is where I live is the West.


Winnipeg plays 9 home games. So those don’t count, since they’re in Winnipeg no matter who they’re playing.

Of the remaining 9 games, they visit each other team once. That’s 7 more games, 16 total. Now there’s two games left, which presumablly in a balanced schedule are going to be against Eastern teams. (In total they play every team at least twice. Hamilton gets four games, Montreal & Toronto 3, but that’s counting home games.)

Now, add Ottawa next year.

Winnipeg gets 9 home games. Remove those again, as they’re still not relevant to what you want. Of the remaining nine, there’s now 8 teams so they play 8 games on the road visiting each team once. That’s 17 games. There’s now one game extra. If Winnipeg is in the West, that game is probably against Saskatchewan. If they’re in the East, it’s probably against someone in the East.

The point is that the difference is one game that will be easier for you to get to (unless it happens to be against BC). The way you’d get what you want is if they stop playing each team at least twice, so they might not visit Montreal at all in a given year in order to have more Western games instead. But in a league with this few teams, I don’t think that helps the brand.

36

Any way you look at it it is the scheduling of 9 teams that is the larger issue. I realize that before the 80’s this was done for a lot of years with no problems but scheduling was different in the 60s and even 70s with money saving tactics of Winnipeg coming east and playing Hamilton and Toronto withing 4 days and although the games were televised not as much money was involved with TV.
The Als went out in 1987 so a nice even 8 team league was in effect. a couple of years of US expansion was chaos and back to the late 90’s the Stallions went back to Montreal and Ottawa was out for 6 years.
The league was never comfortable with the 9 team set up through the Renegade Era as there was no good way to do it. The Renagades went TSN came in Bombers back to the east and aside from the RC interfernce of an odd tues ight Argo home game TSN and the CFL well able to put together a nice Thurs through sunday format for the summer and friday through sunday post labor day.
The 10th team will be coming in my opinion as there is too much money to be lost with a lot of wed night games which was needed before with the 9 team early 2000 set up so the Bombers will most likley stay in the east until the team 10 comes. Which I believe will be faster than many may think.
The CFL now has a lot more powerful people and businesses involved with the CFL now that know that 9 teams will hurt the financial outcome. Some may not officially be able to do anything but could be persuasive to those who can.

37

The Bombers should move Period!! Too many Whiners just the Argo's and some Rider Fans???

38

You should share whatever you’re smoking, as it’s obviously some good stuff :lol:

39

It will be more then a few years at the best you could say a Nfl team could be in Toronto 8-10 years from now thats at the very best.

40

not a chance the bombers move any time soon at least.

as for the nfl in toronto stuff... KEEP DREAMING... u cant sell out games without giving away tickets, NFL aint coming any time soon.

Ill go as far to say.. an NFL team would do better in BC, MONTREAL WINNIPEG REGINA EDMONTON AND CALGARY