why doesn't Ottawa work????

CFL Talk
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[url=http://www.ottawasun.com/Comment/Editorial/2006/03/27/1507263.html]http://www.ottawasun.com/Comment/Editor ... 07263.html[/url]

So the Gliebermans have given up, Eugene Melnyk has given it a pass, and it looks like pro football in Ottawa will take another hiatus this season.

But can someone answer us this: Why doesn’t football work in this town?

It’s a question that has us scratching our helmets. And try as we might, the more we look at the potential for this sport to succeed and be profitable in our city, the more we can’t figure out why it isn’t already � and hasn’t been since its glory days about 25 years ago.

It’s true that eastern Canadian teams in Hamilton and Toronto have struggled, only recently getting back on track. But business has boomed in the west, particularly in Edmonton.

So why not Ottawa?

Don’t we have a strong population base, with one of the highest personal disposable incomes in the country? Don’t we have knowledgeable and passionate sports fans who love both their Senators and their 67’s? And don’t we have great football facilities, smack-dab in the middle of downtown?

Supporting football in Ottawa is not really a big commitment for most fans. There are nine home games, and tickets sell for relative peanuts.

Think of the financial commitment many hockey fans make to their Ottawa Senators, who sell out their farflung west-end home night after night, and football seems like it should be an easy sell.

Yet for some reason it fails. Is it a management issue? Perhaps, and that’s why we would have liked Melnyk to take up the reins of the sport and create some real synergies with his existing interests in this town. Melnyk the savvy businessman obviously saw something he didn’t like or didn’t want, and now the Renegades must look to another saviour.

We’d like to keep our football team, and we’d like it to be successful, both on the field and in the front office. But maybe before that can happen, we need to answer this nagging question: Why not here?

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anyone else having trouble getting to the ottawa renegades website?

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Works fine for me.

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ok...good....its not workin for me, and i started thinkin that meant something....wheeewwww

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Its strictly a management issue and ONLY a management issue. The fans here a great. They came in droves. We even had 18,000 a game last year despite a loosing record. Its poor management, pure and simple.

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sorry...when the gades were leading the east division, they were still drawing 18K....

but i hope your right.

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A more challenging aspect is the fact that many who live here have moved from other parts of the country in recent years. They tend to hold on to their loyalities from back home. In addition, the French in the area cheer for the Allouttes…

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but the city has roughly 1.7 million people…were only asking 28K to come to games…theres not THAT many alouette fans in ottawa.

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If the Gades play this year, come to a Renegades-Allouttes game here in Ottawa. You’ll see what I mean.

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I’m trying to convince the wife to go see a game in Ottawa, hope i’ll see that :slight_smile:

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Maybe not in Ottawa, but on the other side of the Ottawa river, i’m sure there’s more Al’s fans than 'Gades fans.

'Gades did next to nothing to try & grab the Gatineau Football fans attention.

Like someone said earlier…poor management !

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The city's population is 1.1 million. to get roughly 1.7 you would have to consider Northbay, Kingston, Cornawall and Sudbury suburbs of Ottawa-Gatineau. Not that it's an excuse. When we were living in Cold Lake Ab we had season tickets to the Eskimos; 350 KM away. I think you cold sell tickets to the Renegades games in Cornawall or Kingston with a charter bus included. I read in the Citizens that we have a season ticket holder who is from Baltimore. He and his buddy drive to every game, 8 hours...

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You are correct newbee there is so much fertile territory around Otawa proper that an owner has to develop. It is criminal that there are apperently no charter buses coming from Gatineau, Cornwall, Kingston, Brockville etc.
As for the city of Ottawa, from an outsider it appears notwithstanding the lack of local ownership and winning season, how the citizens find itself "too sophisticated" for the CFL. Something like what the majority of the people from Toronto had.

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Too sophisticated? I don’t know.

But I will say this. “Sports” fans of city seem to have short memories. When Bryden owned the Sens, he was always passing the tin cup and/or threatening to move them to Houston, Portland or wherever.

They went bankrupt. That’s why Melynk swooped in when he did. He got the team and the arena on a “Buy 1, Get One free” proposition.

So it’s somehwat amazing that there are those in the city who seem so blase about losing one of its sports teams — and one with a longer, richer professional history than the NHL team.

BTW: Yes, they could do better job of marketing within, say, a two hour radius. But with pop, depending what’s included, of around 1 million, there is no reason on the surface, why CFL can’t draw 25-30K a game.

They just have to solve the undelying problems.

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It's management ... all poor management. I like to think that anyone on this forum could run that team better than the past sets of owners that Ottawa has had to endure - and I think I'd be right.

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waring: stupid comment 101 code RED CODE RED!!!

heck, I'd like to fix the playoffs and the Grey Cup for the gades that way fans in Ottawa would start believe in them again.

but the CFL isn't going there.

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And the Ticats had 28,000 despite an even worse record…thanks to management creating demand that is independent of the team’s record.

Whoever buys the team has to do the same thing. If a winning record is required in order to make football a success in Ottawa, then football cannot be a success in Ottawa.