the Gliebs CFL Saviours???

[url=http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Ottawa/2005/12/09/1345813-sun.html]http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/ ... 3-sun.html[/url]

Even CFL commissioner Tom Wright would have to admit Lonie Glieberman saved the league and Renegades considerable embarrassment with a gamble he took last June 25.

Imagine how pathetic attendance numbers would have been had it not been for his one-day only, $99 ticket sale -- given that six of the team's nine home dates were played under rain.

As it is, the Renegades were the only team in the nation to draw less than 20,000 fans for a game, and they did so seven times. Without the promotional blitz, they might have been performing before more seagulls than humans on most nights.

Glieberman is hoping lightning strikes twice, so to speak, when the Renegades hold a 2-for-1, seven-hour ticket sale to attract new clientele tomorrow.

He doesn't expect nearly the same response he received that Saturday in June, when 5,800 fans turned out to essentially pay $11 a game for a season pass, but he would like to have 1,500 new season ticket holders by the time the 9 a.m.-4 p.m. offer available at four local theatres (Silver City, Coliseum, Gatineau's Star Cite and Galaxy Cinemas) is over.

"We're excited, the buzz is starting to grow," said Glieberman, who continues to whittle away at the CFL-high ticket prices set by the team's original owners. "We think people will see this as a great opportunity to get the best seats at a reasonable cost. Either for themselves or as a great Christmas gift.

"It's unheard of, it's unprecedented, and once again it's a chance for us to connect with the fans."

Only 4,500 of the team's current 12,700 season-ticket holders are regular Joes -- that is, non-corporate or non-$99 accounts.

But then, the fan base took a tremendous hit last off-season, when Wright allowed the Renegades' dawdling ownership to remain in a state of indecision until just days prior to training camp.

Now, under majority shareholder Bernie Glieberman, the Renegades are making up for the silence that followed the 2004 season. They have hired a new, flamboyant coach, John Jenkins.

Their quarterback situation remains up in the air and they have yet to re-sign stars Korey Banks and Josh Ranek, but they have otherwise attacked their list of potential free agents with a very unique approach, inking five of them to either four- or five- year contracts.

And while there was no obvious marketing done by the Renegades all last winter, ads for the 2-for-1 sale are everywhere you look and listen.

Still, a number of fans are going to demand improvement from the product before coming back to the park.

Even though the 7-11 finish in '05 tied the best record an Ottawa pro football team has had since the 1992 Glieberman-owned Rough Riders checked in at 9-9, the way it was put together -- losing eight of the last 10 -- left a bitter taste in the mouths of customers who are starving for a playoff-game hot dog.

With the East Division shaping up as a competitive one next season, Glieberman is wary of making a prediction on how many games his team will win. But he's pretty sure people will enjoy the type of game played by a Jenkins-coached team.

"It's going to be wide open," Glieberman said. "It's going to be exciting."

And odds are it's going to be played in more favourable weather.

Ya, but people choose not to recognize all the good things they have done.

And some have chosen not to recognize all the bad things (which outnumber the good) that they have done.

And can you even name those bad things??

Um, there are just a couple(since last June, that is):

  • spreading rumours (or letting someone in the organization spread rumours) about getting NFL rejects on the team to undermine current players/ get pointless coverage / p*ss off knowledgeable fans
  • only having one full time guy pushing ticket sales (Balloch)
  • firing a coach in about the most unprofessional low class way possible
  • firing your only media relations guy
  • naming a new coach before the old one has left
  • not interviewing for a head coaching position
  • letting a has-been be your GM

Of course those are only off the top of my head.
Who knows if some of those seemingly brain dead moves turns out, but on first glance, it doesn't take a genius to see the idiocy in these moves...

Gades ? Smyth Cam? You can't deny that these things that ranekrules lists didn't happen? Here's another one, Calling your media guy a "Village Idiot".

Actually ORR, Gades is the Village idiot demonstrated regularly by his posts. How about a marketing campaign that discourages families to attend! What of the complete lack of interest, in fact contempt, management has towards Ottawa’s football tradition here, amateur football and its history – the Gliberman’s past history aside. Utter incompetence.
Lonie has now cheapen the product so dramatically that the average fan now expects to pay 11.00 a game, while escalating salaries foolishly. Bo Rogers, a healthy scratch at times this season, to make 90, 000. Kyries Hebert signed for $200, 000/year. With the bar set this high, what is Ranak, Hudson, Banks and so on going to demand. Just insane!
The economics of this team are becoming so out of wack that regardless of what happens on the field it is doom to collapse under the weight of the financial losses that the team is guaranteed to incur. Their books are going to look a lot like those US expansion teams.
And no, the fans are not to blame – the immaturity and idiocy of Lonie Gliberman and the complacent CFL commissioner Tom Wright who allowed this fool back into the league will take those honors.

well, if it wasn't for this fool, this team wouldn't be here right now, and i don't know about you, village moron, but i'd rather have football than not have football.

Wow, I guess I don't have to reply to Smyth, you guys have done it for me. I thank you. :smiley:

I have to agree with Gades, much to some people's chagrin. Nobody else stepped up to buy this team last fall/winter when Watters was getting out. I would think all the other governors would have taken anyone beside the Glieb's if they had made their intentions known.
I want to watch football at Frank Clair next year and if it weren't for them we might not be. I don't agree with some folks who say I'd rather there not be a team if the Glieb's run it. I WANT A TEAM! I wish it wasn't them, but it is. If the CFL stepped in and said here is a good cdn owner who would run this team professionally and booted out these guys, I would be estatic. As it is we have a team and regardless of how they're doing I enjoy catching a breeze at FCS on a nice July day beside the canal and WATCHING OUR HOME TEAM PLAY FOOTBALL (whatever their name is!).
If someone else wants to pony up the cash, and run this team right, ASK THEM TO CALL TOM WRIGHT!!!!!!!!

There is nothing i’d love better than for this team to be community owned. No one in this city is willing to step up to the plate and the Gliebs did, and for that, i’m thankful to them.