The CFL Hates Ottawa!

The CFL has screwed around with the Rough Riders and the Renegades for so long that people in this city don't care anymore. The league has done nothing but bring in the worst possible owners and the fans end up suffering. First, the Gliebermans. Everybody knows how awful they were and it was a happy day when they left to grab a US expansion team. But why the heck did the league bring them back in? Then you have Bruce Firestone who brought the Senators to Ottawa without having ANY money and left them bankrupt. By the way, he teaches business at Carleton University, every wonder why it's one of the lowest universities in the country? Then you have the ghost known as Horn Chen who actually owns the name Ottawa Rough Riders.

Fan support was never an issue in Ottawa. Ownership was.

The Renegades show up and everyone is happy again. More ownership screwups and the league "SUSPENDS" the team. To most of us, that meant the team was on hiatus but still very much a team. So why the heck is the league demanding such an incredibly high "expansion" fee of 5 million?

When will someone in the CFL show some REAL LEADERSHIP and address the problem with Ottawa. I demand an answer!

i dont think they hate ottawa.... theyre just dumb.

You're demanding an answer on a fan forum. I would highly suggest re-thinking your outlet.

I'll reserve any judgements because I'm sure there is much more to this story than reading an article or two. Who knows what has gone on behind close doors and none of us knows if the expansion fee figure is the best one or not without knowing all the facts.

....theprez meets Statik76....Statik meet prez....this outta be fun....

....I'll start you two off with a topic:

"Fan support was never an issue in Ottawa"

discuss.......

I'm betting on Statik76!

If I could only find the collumn on Sports Action!

So your wife runs out on you a few times and leaves you stuck with all the bills!

You gonna just take her back like nothing ever happened?

NO WAY! you'll make sure she puts up some cash to pay for some bills first!

Makes sense. 5Mil is a little much but 3Mil sounds good.

If I win the lotto... :smiley:

I thought it was the other way around , Ottawa hates the CFL . Problems , it seems to me , were around in Ottawa long before the Gliebs came around. The league doesn't run individual franchises and they can't make new respectable owners just appear. It's a two way thing poor attendance = losing money for an owner = an owner who doesn't want to put more money(and lose that too) into the team which = losing games which =losing fans which = losing more money for the owner.
If Ottawa wants a team for real then the fans got to support the team win or lose just like those other roughriders do in order for an owner to make a team work . Don't just blame the owners , it's 50/50 between a prospective owner and the fans.
If I was a real rich guy why would I want to put a whole lot of money into that team if the fan support was so fickle?

You would need to win a real big lotto , not just a 649.

Heck, if I won a lotto I would buy a team too.

The prez has made a good point though, although it is a also the fans and owners fault, the CFL is playing hardball with potential new owners.
They should not have raised the fee to 5 M when talks were allready set at a lower fee.

Prez, interesting.

This is a whole chicken-egg argument .. Which came first - the terrible fan support? or the half assed owners? What exactly made the ownership in Ottawa so terrible last time around? I mean - its a real popular excuse by the Ottawa fans - but i mean, specifically - what made the ownership so terrible that the people of Ottawa couldn't bring themselves to supporting their 'beloved' football team?

the losing record? Last time I checked they were putting up a competitive team with some named players (K. Joseph, Armstead, Ranek, Banks) .. ? In fact .. they were challenging for first place in the east when only 20,000 fans showed up (and i heard that # was grossly exagurated, which is a regular Glieberman signature of low attendance).

ticket prices? must have been season tickets prices ... they were .. what? $99 bucks? cheapest in the league (BY FAR) !!! ? Hmm - yet only 4500 some-odd season tickets sold (lowest in the league - BY FAR). How about that September contest with the Bombers .. "KIDS get in FREE" .. again - 17,000 fans. (FRIDAY Sept 16/05). Second lowest season ticket prices in 2005 were the stamps at $130 - yet they sold 19,000+ .. and thats coming off TERRIBLE TERRIBLE OWNERSHIP that forced the stamps into starting his half-retarded son quarterback ...

Ahh - it must have been the lack of promotion! promotion nights that were CANADA-WIDE stories? Mardi-Gras parties? vacation give-aways? there were more promotion in Ottawa than I ever remember there being at all ... fund raisers for New Orleans? what a terrible idea. vs. BC (SEP 8/05) .. 19,000.

The Glieb's wanted to expand entertainment to tailgate parties before the game ... the city blocked that from happening ... why?

so despite a winning record, star players, the cheapest season tickets in the league, and massive promotion nights going to a good cause ... the reason for not showing up was 'bad ownership' ... THEN the "fans" blame the league for not putting up competent owners - when the city couldn't do it themselves?

Fri Jul 1 Montreal 36 Ottawa 39 (18,899)
Sat Jul 16 Calgary 18 Ottawa 33 (16,303)
Thu Jul 21 Edmonton 29 Ottawa 21 (17,607)
Thu Aug 11 Saskatchewan 17 Ottawa 22 (20,607)
Thu Sep 8 BC 61 Ottawa 27 (19,013)
Fri Sep 16 Winnipeg 37 Ottawa 21 (17,567)
Fri Oct 7 Hamilton 21 Ottawa 43 (19,069)
Sat Oct 29 Montreal 43 Ottawa 23 (20,833)
Sat Nov 5 Toronto 17 Ottawa 27 (16,504)

YUP. Definately an ownership problem. Look at those numbers and tell me its an ownership problem? You were 2-0 at home with brand new owners, promotions and the cheapest tickets in the league, and 17,000 people show up .. the year after hosting the Grey Cup?! You are telling me the other 800,000 clods in Ottawa all said they weren't coming because the ownership was bad in the past? No wonder no one wants to own a team there!

You BLAME the league .. then ask for a team ..
interesting - Good luck getting another team.

The CFL doesn't hate Ottawa. Ottawa hates the CFL.

But rest assured ... I HATE OTTAWA.

StatiK76
GO BOMBERS!!!

If the CFL hates Ottawa ... why would they keep putting in so much effort to return?

They made a mistake going back to the Gliebermen, yes. But they learnt from that mistake the next time, and suspended the franchise. At the time, the Gliebermen were the ONLY people willing and able to buy the franchise, so the CFL considered that to be a better option than letting it go under. And now, I'm sure there are a few governors saying, "I told you so" ...

Now, the League wants to make absolutely sure any potential owners will put their money where there mouth is (hence why I can't buy the team), and so asking for a high "expansion" fee (even though it's not exactly an expansion team, UNLESS suspending a team is essentially like folding it - I have no idea, does anyone else?) is fair. You want to own the Ottawa team? Show me that you'll stick around through the rough times, and NOT pull a Glieberman and say, "I'm not paying any more bills". If someone pays $5M for something, they are going to try their damnedest to make it work.

As for the fan support debate. It was not that long ago when Hamilton AND Toronto - both Ontario markets - where getting LESS than Ottawa ever did. Did they start winning? Toronto, a little more; Hamilton started LOSING. But now, attendances in those cities (especially Hamilton) is fine.

Fan support in the CFL seems to be linked more to how the franchise is run, and not to how it's doing on the field.

The Gliebs had good ideas with tailgating and New Orleans support nights. They had bad ideas too. And cheap ticket prices won't help AT ALL if a fan is staying away in order to boycott the ownership. As for the Stamps argument - attendance plummetted, and is still recovering, from the F-tropp fiasco. The only reason it's not worse is because the Stamps had an excellent reputation preceeding them. Ottawa teams DO NOT because they have had the worst run of owners in the League - ever.

Also, for an owner: If they can make money elsewhere (sponsorship, TV) = good-looking franchise = increased fan support = more money = better team (theoretically) = more fan support. I can't blame owners for being hesitant, but a GOOD owner will find a way to work with the problem. I also can't blame the CFL for playing hardball.

Good points brought up by both Statik, and Canuckev, on their respective sides of this discussion.

CanucKev,

again… I seem to still be misunderstanding something. What exactly could the fans of Ottawa be protesting by boycotting brand new ownership? What exactly did the Glieb’s to the Renegades the second time around to push people away?

boycott all you want … it sent the ownership and future potential ownership a clear message. if we don’t like you - we won’t attend. Not exactly a red carpet for any new potential owner … What owner wants to purchase and pay for the grudges a fan base has with previous ownership? I specifically warned the people of Ottawa that this is exactly what would happen if they didn’t attend the games …

but really … details from the ottawa fans on what the gliebermans did the second time around to force people to stay away from the stadium … starting from the first week, to the last. Other than the controversial MardiGras party (which can be argued whether that was positive or negative … i stand by the negative … but whichever - that was midseason) … what had they done wrong previous to that incident?

also - Calgary is not really paying for the F-troop era. In fact, i’d argue attendance dipped while the team was losing … but many variables comes into play … the calgary fan base has always been fairweather … (flames anyone?)

StatiK76
GO BOMBERS!!!

One thing we have in common StatiK76 are stats.
Now for my 7 cents. Meaning you get my 2 cents 3 and a half times,lol
Canuckev, the CFL is playing hardball with potential owners. You cant change your mind and ask for a extra 1.5 million and think that is fair midway through negoiations.
StatiK76 has a extremly strong point that Ottawa fans just dont care and I am going to agree with them only I will give you yet another reason why I feel they dont care.
It is also because Ottawa has not been in the grey cup since 81. Even when I was growing up as a kid I always remember Ottawa losing most of their games. Sure they may have won a couple games here and there but for the most part, Ottawa was usually the crappy team in the league.
"...Snipes was dominant and the club had their best season in 13 years for a 9-9 record."

Winning %50 of their games gives them the best record in 13 years?
No wonder fans are hard to get to games.
StatiK76 still makes a strong point that fans should come to games regardless of what happens on the feild.
Thats my 7 cents.

Well at least you didn't share your 7 cents over seven consecutive posts as per usual BeerBarons.

Well what are your thoughts then oh wise one,lol

I actually pretty much agree with all of the points you made in your previous post BeerBarons. Very astute analysis.

Thanks Blue
Stati76 is proving to be a tough person to compete with,lol

Overall I dont think the CFL hates Ottawa, but instead rather, I feel that Ottawa had a few bad bounces over the years.