(Originally posted May 15, but it seems to be a popular thread.)
The smoking gun with the CFL's decision to give up on returning to Ottawa might be the league's new TV deal.
The league is locked into a high-dollar (well, by Canadian standards at least) TV contract for the next five years. The league's new commish, Mark Cohon knows full well of what's happened to a lot of his well-intentioned predecessors (Mike Lysko, Larry Smith, Tom Wright...), so he's not about to start his term by teling the other owners that they have to divvy up the pie even thinner -- especially the ones out West who can't figure out what Ottawa collectively doesn't get about three-down Canadian football. (Granted, as reader Dennis Prouse points out, each team's share of the expansion fee would off-set the lost TV revenue.)
That's the business of sports. Too bad for the people in Ottawa-Gatineau who want to see the CFL back here. There are rumblings that the city is going to do something to quote-unquote revitalize the Lansdowne Park site, so that's another variable. Still, it's too soon to tell if this was the final death knell for the Ottawa CFL Team Version 3.0. The door's been left open just a crack.
Related:
Final suitor for an Ottawa team to drop out this week (David Naylor, globesports.com)
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7 comments:
Is it really the TV deal holding it up? My rough math tells me that the expansion fee they are asking would just about compensate all the other teams for having to split their TV revenue one more way. My theory is that Jesse Palmer is now headed for the broadcast booth permanently, so as a result his father started losing interest.
In today's CFL news release, the league talked about other strongly interested parties. While not trying to be Pollyanna-ish, it strikes me that they wouldn't have bothered mentioning that if they didn't at least have some nibbles on the other end of the line. Now would have been a perfect time to bury Ottawa for good, given the Senators current Cup run diverting attention, but they didn't do that. In fact, Cohon's announcement today meshes with some of the previous comments out of the League, where there seemed to be hints in recent weeks that there were more suitors in the mix again. I guess we will find out over the next few weeks whether they really do have another buyer lurking around or not, as news like that tends to leak out eventually.
Finally, as for the old Lansdowne Park into condos theory, I'm not all that concerned. The Civic Centre is quite busy with hockey games and other events, and the stadium turf is also extremely busy all year round. In addition, the city of Ottawa needs a half-decent stadium if they ever want to host events like the FIFA World Under-20, the Rolling Stones, etc. I just can't imagine them taking the wrecking ball to the only large outdoor stadium in a region of one million people -- not without a plan to replace it elsewhere.
Dennis,
Good points, as always. Love the Jesse Palmer theory...
I might be wrong. The good news is the league didn't close the door entirely... but it did want to see the colour of Bill Palmer's money, which suggests the CFL might be happier as with eight teams (or at least an even number).
The original proposal in Jim Watson's day was not to tear down the whole stadium for condos, only the South Side stands, Part of the overall redevelopement plan of condos, trendy shops and green space for Lansdowne. The civic center,north stands, and the field, for soccer, local sports, some concerts would still be there under the Watson era proposal. It would no longer have the seating to support the CFL any more.If there is no prospect of a CFl team in Ottawa for years; that may be the plan that is resurrected, as Mayor O'Brien does want to redevelop Lansdowne.
Or perhaps it is time to give the place to Melnyk's Capital Sports to manage. Larry Oh does seem like a private enterprise kind of guy.
That's interesting. Definitely Lansdowne could be more space-efficient, especially if the CFL is not returning any time soon.
O'Brien is Larry Oh, not Larry Zero now... ;)
Oh yeah-I forgot--demolsh the Coilsseum and build a parking garage there, as the present parking lots would disappear along with the central canada exhibition , under the Watson plan.
Losing the CFL for eons would be bad, but it might make for a nicer site for the GeeGees to attract fans to.
I've believed for some time that slicing up the TV revenue pie into smaller pieces was a big hurdle to get over in bringing the CFL back to Ottawa although yes a big expansion fee would make it square for everyone.
I get the impression from the reports I read that Palmer's group didn't have a problem so much with the expansion fee but with the City. I read that the Gleibermen were paying in the 600,000 - 850,000 range in rent, very high by CFL standards. I don't know what the political solution is, a lot of people in town have a sour taste in their mouths from previous experiences with the CFL and anything that smacked of a handout would be a tough sell for Mayor Larry and Council.
I still don't think it's dead, CFL owners can and have come from unexpected places over the years.
If the CFl does not come back to Ottawa very soon, they will lose a stadium. The pressure will be on the mayor and council to stop paying taxpayer dollars to maintain a stadium that is starting to show signs of decay. We do not get enough special events to fill 28000 seats and need a regular tenant to justify keeping FC stadium. My guess is that it would be downsized as a part of the redevelopement of Lansdowne that the mayor has called for.
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