Where to Grow, where to go?

Fans of the CFL may have gotten a wee bit of a shudder earlier this afternoon, while conducting his ever popular roundtable feature of Prime Time Sports, host Bob McCown floated an idea that many a CFL fan probably thought had long been buried in the time capsule.

McCown, mischief maker that he can be at times, said that if the idea of further expansion of the league through Canada doesn’t pan out (and it’s been how many decades since that rumoured Atlantic team will take to the field) then the CFL should once again, revisit its American Experience!

Lock the doors, bar the windows and pass some ammunition, we need to nip this musing of madness in the bud. With the ghosts of Shreveport, Birmingham, Sacramento, Las Vegas et al, still wafting occasionally into a CFL conversation, we can only hope that the ole Bobcat was just filling some air time on a Friday afternoon.

To be fair, he did say that his idea would bring cities such as Syracuse and Columbus into the family and not venture deep into the heart of the south. But still, we have been down the road before and we’d just as soon keep the GPS above the 49th parallel.

The idea of expansion in the CFL is a must and if the folks in Atlantic Canada can’t find an owner and a stadium then perhaps it’s time to move on a little further west. We can see the CFL working in Quebec City, the market is as football mad as it’s ever been with the college game succeeding as it has the last few years, the rivalry with Montreal would be a natural and it would bring Quebec City up to par with the other large cities of Canada, something that would do a good turn for not only the city but the country as well.

Ottawa will no doubt be back in the league no later than 2008 (even if Bobcat says he’d forget about the market, with its fickle fans), so that would bring the league to ten.

But thinking on a larger scale, if Halifax ends up as a dead end, why not a team placed in Windsor, able to draw from Detroit and Northern Michigan as well as the Western half of southern Ontario. Stadium issues there are problematic but an owner with a bit of a marketing vision could bring the Canadian game to the gateway to Ontario and make a go of it.

Finally, to round out our musings for this topic, a twelfth franchise could placed in Victoria, Vancouver Island is one of the fastest growing areas in the nation, from Campbell River down to Victoria the population is increasing every year, the need to catch a ferry to catch a game, makes it hard for Island fans to attend many Lions games in Vancouver.

Many have relocated to the Island from various parts of the country and would no doubt bring their football allegiances with them. The idea of being able to drive to a home game in less than three hours would draw fans from Nanaimo south on game day. The rivalry with the Lions would help to build up instant recognition and help to build the fan base in Victoria.

So there we have it, twelve franchises, you can keep the East / West balance or go to a three division set up. With apologies to the Bobcat, there’s room still to grow in Canada, a 12 team league would offer even more opportunities to Canadian University grads, increase the TV penetration even more and set the league up for long term success.

We look forward to the arrival of the league’s consultation fee, we were glad we could have been of assistance.

The above posting first appeared on my Twelve Men on the Field, blog a suitcase full of stuff about the Canadian Football League.