Hey here is a thought.
What if Western Ontario had a team that represented Windsor, London, ect and played their games out of Hamiltons stadium?
It works in the NFL
How is it that Glieberman owns the rights to an area (Windsor/Detroit) that has never had a CFL team?
Regardless, couldn't someone buy the rights from him?
(1) Who has the money to buy the rights?
(2) And why would you even want a team there?
Until those two questions get answered Glieberman owning the rights to that area is just as significant as Glieberman owning the rights to the Spuzzum area.
Answers:
(1) The hypothetical owner of the franchise. How much would it cost to purchase the rights? No more than the franchise fee, I would expect. A bigger problem (and surely a much bigger cost) is upgrading/building a suitable stadium in Windsor.
(2) Windsor goes on the very short list of Canadian cities that could potentially support a CFL franchise in the not-too-distant future (some more readily than others). [As I see it, the list includes Ottawa, Halifax, Quebec City, Windsor, London, and maybe Victoria.]
Windsor has the very large metro Detroit population to draw from.
A huge problem (as has been pointed out numerous times) is the lack of a suitable stadium in Windsor. A team could be based in Windsor but use a Detroit-area stadium in the short term.
A good choice would be Rynearson Stadium in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The stadium is on the campus of Eastern Michigan University and is used by their college football team.
Stadium capacity is just over 30K and the stadium looks like it would fit CFL field dimensions (satellite photos show an American football field surrounded by a wide track (which would need to be covered (at least temporarily) for CFL games)).
Links:
http://wikimapia.org/#y=42255777&x=-83648379&z=18&l=0&m=a&v=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rynearson_Stadium
Obviously, you’d have to get the university to agree to work with the CFL on this.
Interesting tidbit – I notice that the Detroit Wheels of the defunct WFL (mid-'70s era) played in Rynearson Stadium. It would be fitting that the Windsor Wheels (which sounds better) of the CFL play there as well – but with a better fate.
I don’t see this happening. Hamilton is over three hours from Windsor and over 1.5 hours from London. There’s already one team playing there. These markets aren’t going to feel that a team in Hamilton really represents them (not to mention Hamilton’s stadium sounds like it may be an issue soon).
I assume you’re referring to the New York NFL teams playing in New Jersey, Washington playing in Maryland, and ‘New England’ playing in Foxboro (but drawing from the whole area). However, those locations are much closer to their core cities (East Rutherford is less than half-an-hour from NYC, Landover is less than 25 min. from the center of D.C. (less than 10 miles), and Foxboro is less than 40 min. from Boston (and less than half-an-hour from Providence). The main reason these stadiums are away from their team’s core city has to be the exhorbitant cost of real estate in Boston, NYC, and D.C.
I love the pic of Rynearson Stadium.
Now you got me to add Detroit to my list of possible CFL teams.
Yeah, the stadium seems just about right, except for the track. I’ve done a quick mock-up diagram and the CFL field easily fits within the stadium. However, it definitely covers up a bit of the track. Do you think there is a way to ‘cover’ the track (an a temporary basis) for CFL games or would they have to tear it up?
I’m not sure if the university would go for the latter option as they do use the stadium for track & field.
The only other problem is proximity. Ypsilanti is a little outside (to the West) of Detroit (under 40 min.) and Windsor (under 50 min. (need to account for border crossing – not sure how long that takes)). This really isn’t too far, but you also are very close to Ann Arbor, which is about 20 min. away further West. If this AAFL takes off as supposedly planned (to start in Spring 2008), they’ll likely have a team in Ann Arbor which means more distraction for the fans and overlap at both the start of the CFL season (AAFL) and end of the season (NFL). Maybe it will be better to wait until after the AAFL fails and folds…
[Oh yeah, and the Glieberman thing…]
I agree with ronfromtigertown on this one.
Here's why I don't think Windsor would work.
Having been to Windsor many times over the past few decades (visiting family and friends) it's apparent to me that no one cares about the CFL. There is zero history and tradition with the CFL. Windsor is indeed a Detroit sports town. Windsor supports the Lions, Tigers, Red Wings, Pisotns and the various Michigan universitites including the football programs.
No stadium.
No owner.
Small and relatively poor population.
Forget Detroit support. The opposite is a reality. Windsor supports the Detorit sports scene.
No way to make any money there with a CFl franchise.
CaptainKirk -- You may well be correct, but the quick poll I did showed over 50% of Detroit Lions fans would support a Windsor CFL team. (Granted the number of responses formed only a small sample, but it could be representative of reality.) I think an exhibition game in Rynearson Stadium would serve well as a test of fan interest in supporting a CFL team.
Not trying to disparage you or anything of the sort, but internet polls mean virtually nothing.
If the Gliebermans own the franchise rights to Windsor/Detroit, what has stopped them from having their expansion team there or moving one of their failed franchises there?
How long have they owned the rights?
Did they own the right to Windsor/Detroit when their Shreveport franchise shut down operations? If so, what stopped them from moving the team to Windsor/Detroit? (And what stopped them from starting there in the first place?)
And why does the CFL allow an 'owner' to control the rights to a location that has never fielded a CFL team?
To answer my own question here (sort-of), I looked more closely at Rynearsons Stadium, and really a CFL field will only touch the track in the corners of the endzones (like Edmonton’s stadium) assuming you extend the field surface on the end where the ‘pavement’ takes up a chunk of the inner oval. So, I guess there really shouldn’t be much of a problem getting a CFL field in that stadium.
It could be easily done, as long as the grass infield is higher than the track.
first you lay down (that pink construction) plastic sheeting where needed.
Then several inches of sand, followed by reo-mesh (the reinforment mesh thats laid in concrete pours) that has half inch (I think they are) studs added at the junctions of the mesh, then lay just enough sand to almost cover the studs.
Then you roll out that instant turf, water in, let it settle in for a week then your set to play.
This is how the VFL (now AFL) prepared the stadium in Japan in which it played a yearly demonstration game in the 80s.
It’s much the same method used at the MCG to cover the runing track (prior to the tartin or whatever the rubberised part of the track is made of) etc prior to the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The track was buried for near on two years during the AFL season.
Gliebermans own the franchise rights to Windsor/Detroit.... you guys have to be joking.
This seems to be the case…
I just wonder how long they’ve had the rights and why they haven’t put a team in the area themselves. Have they tried? (I’d think they would have.) What stopped them?
Detroit is their home town, I believe.
Maybe they were somehow behind the Windsor mayor’s inquiry for a CFL franchise.
And why does the CFL allow someone to own exclusive rights to a location that has never fielded a team? How much is the CFL paid for such rights?
Thanks for that – good to know. :thup: Although track season may coincide with CFL season (talking about a university stadium) so maybe would have to live with the clipped corner endzones.
someone please tell me how the hell the gliebermans own the rights to the Detroit Windsor area i think that's a load of garbage.
the cfl could and would work in detroit,let me get rich im buying me a cfl for detoit just watch
Anything can happen in the CFL.
[url=http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/News/2005/03/04/950054.html]http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/ ... 50054.html[/url]Third paragraph.
Bottom line: DO NOT TRUST THE GLIEBERMEN!
The last paragraph in that article was interesting though - according to the writer (and not Glieberidiot), the Gliebs sold more tickets for the Rough Riders than the Renegades did (pre-Glieberlosers).
I think it's a pipe dream to assume Detroit would support a Windsor CFL team enough. They may go to games, but it would just be a lark, and a novelty for a while. The "expansion buzz" would wear off by August or September, with the start of the NFL.
You'd have to convince Americans, who grew up with the glitz and glamour of their own football league, to instead convert to the lesser-known, and unfortunately poorer, foreign league with different rules and (to them) no big-name players. Sure, some would do it, but probably only as many as there are Baltimore Stallions fans today. Not nearly enough for sustainability!
The CFL has a hard enough time competing with the NFL in Canada, let alone in a big American city ...
(through all this, I'm treating Windsor as just a suburb of Detroit.)