Yes it’s formative years that are the key factor for how they determine NI eligibility. I’ve always thought they should create an exemption for certain players if they do obtain Cdn citizenship or become full time residents of Canada. From what I’ve understood, Calvillo for instance has made MTL his full time home for a while. When you think about it, with all the young players wanting to head to the NFL after their first contract expires and most US born players heading back to the US after the season is over, there aren’t that many players that would fit this category. Still I think it would be nice to acknowledge the US guys that have made the CFL and Canada their full time home.
As for ownership’s the CFL timing for expansion and sale of team is perfect.
OSEG started with a Junior hockey team and now also have a CFL team and have brought the Fury owner into the group for pro soccer.
Flames have been building their teams with WHL and NLL lacrosse before recently adding the Stamps.
Canucks have been intersted in the CFL Lions and that may come to be in the near future.
NHL owner in QC may very well be intersted in a little further future to add a CFL franchise to this more popular and profitable model of ownership Synergy groups
I certainly wouldn’t want another US division as in the past, which would only dilute the talent pool and hurt my Lions chances of winning the Grey Cup, but a guest US team or two shouldn’t be out of the question.
I think we can all agree CFL USA shouldn’t be brought up as only the NHL can get away with expanding without any forethought or proper organization.
Like the Maritimes, Anchorage is interesting as they are both potential new Saskatchewans. People appreciate it more when there is not much else around.
As for the minimum number of “Canadian” players it might be time to reevaluate that. With Canadian players like Henoc Muamba now going to the NFL anyway, instead of staying in the league that has designed rules to protect them, it seems to me those players no longer need that protection, or at the very least an exemption to said rule should be provided if a quality Canadian player signs with the NFL.
To be realistic there will be no US expansion, there will be no reavaluating of ratio numbers to lower the number of Canadians,
There not going to dress all 46 players as there are reasons why bring 46 and dressing 42
Probably not this time around but they will look to expand rosters maybe next time around. QBs will not be part of the ratio.
Since things like practice rosters have been put into place Canadian draft picks may not be ready to play in the CFL right away but have a place to develop so again no change in the ratio
two things that both sides agree on is the current ratio numbers and keeping QBs seperate from the ratio.
I think it needs to be stated clearly and firmly that a single entity owner is not 100% needed for Atlantic expansion. Cohon and damn near everyone involved in Atlantic expansion has said at least 3000 times that Community Ownership is the way to go for this expansion. Not finding an owner isn't a deal breaker for an Atlantic franchise.
Why are we writing off Victoria BC? That’s a natural rival for BC. The Ferry series, or something like that.
Any who, last thing we need to talk about is US expansion again, that’s what will really make us look 'bush league, as though we were trying to operate under the nfl’s nose again. Let’s keep this beautiful league in Canada
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria,_British_Columbia That’s a population of 344k in metro area, and 760k on the rock.
http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=63045493Vancouver Island Ferrymen. Like the greco Charon, who took dead souls to the afterlife
Well it has to be one or the other. Convincing politicians here to help kickstart a community CFL team will be like hitting yourself in the head with a red brick. They don’t understand the concept and frankly everything that was done through those types of channels down here ends up in a massive failure with a couple cronies lining their pockets and no accounting of the money.
1- Black Eyed Peas concert with 800k to a friend of the mayor none of it accounted for.
2- PanAm games committee : 11 million dollars to “friends” spent by the committee, no accounting done. Games cancelled.
3- Hearth Stone Restaurant: (Sheltered workshop) 500k. Staff stealing the tip paying jobs instead of “clients” son of the director behind the bar and case workers waitressing ! Closed after a few months.
I could go on and on…
Yes I know that the Mooseheads owner is a former Hockey player but he is also a business man now. Who is to say that the mooseheads may not become part of a sports ownership group. It is how the REDBLACKS started OSEG started with just the 67s.
It may or may not happen but it is an avenue that successful sports franchises have used to great advantage and profit.
Just out of curiousity how would one go about organizing and starting a community owned team in this day in age?
Not so fast.
The stands need a lot of work and the track would need to be removed, but the playing surface is brand new and top of the line. 8)
As far as who did they build it for? Your guess is as good as mine.
Victoria is completely ignored by the sports community in Canada. Neither the Canucks or the Lions even remotely market in there. I’m not sure the logistics, but it’s a notoriously bad sports town. However there are some rumblings about UVic taking a shot at CIS football.
I’m not sure for certain, but it seems to me that when operations start the franchise governors (or the league) issue shares to the community (and realistically could be released to the entire population of Canada) to fund the costs of the upstart. This has two benefits - you essentially create a non-profit team that operates within the boundaries of the league and you create a sense of personal ownership for the team. Subsequently, you can release shares every X-amount of years as the economics of the league changes.
Mind you I’m not sure how feasible this is, it’s 100% speculation.
The CFL implemented a “naturalized Canadian” rule in the 1960’s, with players like Ron Lancaster who had played and lived in Canada for over 6 years qualifying as a non-import. But that rule didn’t work. There are only 7 starting positions for non-imports and if you allow American-trained players to start taking their places, there would soon be no Canadians in the league. So the league cancelled the naturalized rule and will never bring it back.
It’s against Canadian law to discriminate against a person based on their nationality, so being Canadian has nothing to do with qualifying as a non-import, witnessed by Josh Bartel, an Australian who is a non-import. That’s why the league brought in the non-import rule, to get around a anti-discrimination court ruling sfter one U.S. player successfully sued the league in the 1960’s.
"Xvys"if you allow American-trained players to start taking their places, there would soon be no Canadians in the league. So the league cancelled the naturalized rule and will never bring it back.
But what if the Canadian players are better?? Do you think that a better Canadian wouldn’t be allowed to play? Are you saying that if there wasn’t a NI rule then teams would start all imports?
Wouldn’t the owners or team presidents, managers want to play local players for the promotion aspect?
I think they should have Canadian players but I have a problem with the numbers. I don’t think there are enough good Canadians out there to maintain rosters on 9 teams.
The owner agreeing would be immaterial. Any player who doesn’t make the team could sue for restraint of trade (or some such basis) as an arbitrary rule restricted his opportunities for employment. That is why they never tried to enforce the ratio in the last US expansion. IMO US expnasion is more trouble than it is worth
I’m inclined to agree with you on this. The last think the CFL needs is lawsuits flung there way over discrimination. As much as I love the idea of Anchorage, I believe this is the big reason it could never happen.
Well, to be honest, they would probably have trouble getting players to come up there. Maybe letting that rule slide for once will even things out.
Anchorage.... better chance of iraq getting a cfl team. Hopefully the wheels are slowly turning in Halifax and something happens in the next few years .
According to UVic’s athletic director Clint Hamilton in a recent interview, “UVic is not considering adding football as a varsity sport at this time,”
UVic football makes all the sense in the world and they can’t even do that right. Nevermind a professional team.
+1
U vic is a school that should have a football team but they are just like other schools in BC and leave that up to the BCFC to place a college aged football team in Victoria.
They are not even the best team on the Island with the VI Raiders whose players go to VI University if they are intersted in going to school while playing football.