Jeff Hunt has never given Ottawa's sports fans a reason to question his judgement during the decade he's owned junior hockey's 67's.Hunt hasn't. Please don't get your rapidly disintegrating pair of Rough Riders boxer shorts in a knot over this news: The Sun's Don Brennan has a column today detailing how Hunt and Frank D'Angelo -- the one and only -- have "very informally chatted" about working together to land Ottawa CFL Team Version 3.0.
Bill (Jesse's Dad) Palmer's group is the only one negotiating with the CFL and if that should change to let Hunt-D'Angelo or anyone else in, so much the better. In the abstract, there should be two bid groups competing to present the best business model to the CFL's board of governors. Of course, the CFL will simply go, "Whatever," and hand the team to whoever is willing to pay the most exorbitant franchise fee and agree to the least favourable terms for the expansion draft, but that's neither here nor there. (Hey, don't knock it. That kind of forward thinking got Ottawa into the NHL and stuck Hamilton with the Almost Hockey League.)
Everything looks to be on the up and up here. At the same time, had to laugh a bit when Hunt said, "Now, whether Frank would get Ben Johnson to do another commercial, I don't know."
(He did. The second one was halfway funny as crass exploitation goes.) At this writing 74% of respondents to an ottawasun.com poll say they would support football in Ottawa in Hunt partnered with D'Angelo. Of course, that's open-ended (maybe people would go to more Gee-Gees games) and it's down from the 79-80% (if memory serves) who responded "yes" to a poll last summer asking if they would support football in Ottawa if Hunt was involved. Granted, that poll was taken during the CFL season, when the issue was fresher in people's minds. The support is still there.
Bottom line: People want to believe the CFL can thrive here again, but many would like to know as much as possible about the spiritual and financial leaders before committing. If Hunt and the public believe D'Angelo messing with the little guys of the local media
and massacring Canuck rock classics is part and parcel of a means to that end, so be it. Some reserve the right to be wary.
The desire for the people in Ottawa-Gatineau want is good football from June to November, as free of farce as is possible, given that it's the CFL. Is that so much to ask?
DIGRESSIONS
By the way, whoever put that unflattering nickname up with that YouTube clip should have the grace to withdraw it, since Frank is performing out of charity, and so are the people listening to him. As an aside, isn't it funny that the descriptive "beer baron" is now being universally applied to D'Angelo? You would think he would man up and thank the guy who started that.)
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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3 comments:
D'Angelo and GeeGee in the same sentence reminded me that U of Ottawa's newer faclity is still know by the generic Sport Complex name. Long rumored that they are hoping for a "naming sponsor" someday. Still planning for a stadium some day too. So, if the CFL won't give the Riders/Renegades to Frank, how about a Steelback Stadium at UofO? I believe a hockey arena somewhere --the Sault maybe was --named Steelback Arena.
A football stadium over there would be super, I'm sure.
I supported the CFL in Ottawa under the ownership of Waters ( Alan, not Brad ), community businessmen ( Whit Tucker, Hap Nicholds et al ), The Gleibermen ( Parts I & II ), Horn Chen, Bruce Firestone and Watters & Co. ( Bill, not Brad. Brad was the gentile equivelant of Lonie, but I digress ). I guess it ain't much of a stretch to assume that I would support it under the Beer Baron.
I think part of the appeal of the CFL is the bizarre characters it attracts. The Beer Baron is a natural fit. I thought the spectacle of Lonie & Forrest & Jenkins with his blow dryed hair or toupee and red cowboy boots was borderline surreal. In what other pro league do you find these characters?
It's the CFL, it's not corporate, it's 8 or 9 wealthy ( by CFL standards ) guys flying by the seat of their pants most seasons. We've always laughed that we had a 9 team football league and 2 teams named Rough Riders. But isn't that Canada? We're kinda small time ( I'm from Madoc for christs sake )Ottawa, Regina, Winnipeg, Edmonton & Calgary.
As for the "exorbitant" expansion fee, in fairness the owners do need something substantial from any Ottawa owner. They all take money out of their pocket in reduced shares of TV & licensing money if another team joins the league and they have to make that up. Oddly enough, the CFL does well on TV, particularly outside Toronto. I never thought it would happen in my lifetime but the Alouettes draw great numbers on RDS. There is decent TV money out there for the CFL.
So yeah, the Beer Baron is tacky, he ain't polished like Bryden or Melnyk, but maybe he fits in. In a heartbeat I would go to see the Ottawa Rough Riders vs the Green Riders, crank back 8 Steelbacks and hopefully the Beer Baron would perform afterward and crank out some awful Trooper cover and I would happily sing along, content that the CFL was back. In a lot of ways it beats hell out of driving 10 KM / hr on the 417 back to Ottawa after a Sens game.
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