CFL Hurt by Oshawa's Stadium Decision for Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Hamilton fans who were worried about the Tiger-Cats moving to Oshawa can dismiss the threat for now.

The Oshawa City Council cancelled a debate to take steps to build a stadium to be the new home for the Tiger-Cats last Friday.

That leaves owner Bob Young, who is dissatisfied with the Hamilton City Council's choice of location for a new Hamilton stadium, with one less card to play.

Young strongly protests the choice of a downtown Hamilton location because he claims the new stadium won't have enough parking and can't be expanded to accommodate the Grey Cup.

Young then publicly announced he would consider offers to move the team when the current lease with Ivor Wynne Stadium expires in 2011.

Unfortunately, the only other stadium of CFL size in Canada, other than the current eight franchises, is the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

No city will be able to claim the Tiger-Cats, unless the stadium issue is resolved.

Young was strongly backed by CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon, who threatened that the CFL would never return to Hamilton if Young's proposal was not met.

There have been some inquiries about the Tiger-Cats from various communities, and the most promising seemed to be from Oshawa, where some members of the city council wanted to have a debate on a possible vote on taking steps to consider the stadium issue and acquiring the Tiger-Cats.

Instead the vote was cancelled, much to the disappointed of the councillors who thought that the acquisition of the Tiger-Cats would put Oshawa on the map.

The reasons given included the cost of building the stadium, the ethics of poaching the team from Hamilton, and an image of Young as a greedy owner who would do the same thing to Oshawa and move the team, once a lease was up.

Young, of course, was hurt by the decision, though his supporters vowed to try again some time in the future.

But the real loser was the CFL.

It didn't matter if Oshawa got the Tiger-Cats—an expansion team for Oshawa would have been just as good.

But the decision shows how little faith investors and public officials have in the league.

There are few hard headed investors and public officials who see the league as a profitable venture.

I have said that Oshawa would make a good CFL franchise in the long run—five to 10 years from now, when its metropolitan population gets bigger.

But if the wider region is taken into account, an area stretching north from Lake Ontario to Peterborough, and west from eastern Scarborough all the way to Kingston, Oshawa is ready now.

The region east of the Greater Toronto area is not as good as the region to the west, which the Tiger Cats would be leaving, but it is one of the fastest growing regions in Canada, and certainly capable of maintaining a football team for the long term, starting right now.

Oshawa itself has been Canada's eighth fastest growing city for the past 30 years, ahead of cities like Hamilton and Winnipeg.

Most CFL fans want to see the league expanded and growing in Canada, bit those with money just don't believe in the profitability of the league.

Money is the reason the CFL or any other league will expand, but before money comes that invisible, intangible factor, faith.

People have to believe in the CFL and its future in order for the league to expand, and no one has shown any belief other than the current owners and the future owners of a new Ottawa team, to risk an investment in a team and a stadium.

In contrast, there are at least four other bidders trying to get an NHL franchise.

Ex-CFL Commissioner Tom Wright publicly made it his goal to expand the league to ten teams by 2010, only to see the league contract when Ottawa folded, an event which cost him his job.

Outside of Ottawa, the best the CFL has done in terms of future expansion is to dip its toe in this year's TouchDown Atlantic game in Moncton, in a stadium 5,000 seats below the CFL's official requirement of 25,000, and which is considered to have half of its seats as a temporary measure.

On the plus side, the game sold out quickly, giving the CFL hope that an investor might take notice and consider starting a permanent franchise there, in a proper CFL size stadium.

Meanwhile, Young continues to hope that another offer will appear for the Tiger-Cats, or that the Hamilton City Council will reconsider their decision and examine Young's alternative site.

Still, Oshawa's decision shows how investors see CFL expansion; a risk for political and financial adventurers, and CFL football enthusiasts, but no path for the hard headed to follow.