Thursday, April 24, 2008

FENCE-SITTING ON RAPIDS' POTENTIAL SALE

It's going to take a bit to get wrapped around the news the Ottawa Rapids have apparently been bought by Rick Anderson and Rob Hall, the minds behind a little company named Zip.ca.

The overarching point is that the Can-Am League team has a lot more going for it than who ends up being the owners. There's so many more factors the average sports consumer mulls over when deciding to see a game. (If the ownership does weigh heavily into the decision, that means you have a bad owner.)

True, it is just four weeks till Opening Day on May 22. Thing is, (a) no one knows what Anderson and Hall have planned and (b) they seem to have some liquidity. Commissioner Miles Wolff was also very clear from the beginning that he considered a Can-Am League team in Ottawa enough of a winning proposition that he'd be willing to be the owner, but he preferred people with a local tie. He might be getting that wish.

(Yes, the news is 12 hours old, but between being out of town on personal business and that Flyers-Canadiens series opener, it's just getting up now)

There is a thread at the Unofficial Ottawa Rapids Blog; it seems best to direct comments there, since this near and dear to our friend Carl Kiiffner.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So willl the name soon be changed from the Ottawa Rapids to the Ottawa Zips? Or maybe they will also buy the naming rights to the stadium? Zip Stadium would be kind of catchy.

sager said...

The team will be called the Rapidz -- one single spelling, which is a backtrack after the work Wolff, Francois Marchand, et al., have done to reach out to Ottawa's francophone community.

Anonymous said...

Rapidz? I do not like it.Keep rapids and call it Zip stadium.
As in:
" Not cutting the grass this afternon dear.I am heading to the Zip to catch the Rapids.'