Ottawa

So there's an article in the Globe about how the city council isn't sure about investing in a new stadium for Lansdown Park. On the bright side, they seem even less enthused about Eugene Melnyk's rival plans for an MLS franchise based in that exurban hellhole known as Kanata. MLS in Ottawa always seemed to be kind of the last place I thought they would expand and guess what, they didn't.

I hope that Ottawa can get its act together and get a new or refurbished stadium built, especially with the way the feds are spraying around money right now. Ottawa does seem a hard market for the CFL, being a government town and the disappointment of multiple past failures. One upside is the CFL is remarkable stable right now, with, apart from Saskatchewan, a viable salary management system and also seeming to be relatively unaffected by the current recession. Which is more than you can say for the NHL.

Sometimes I wonder if Quebec City isn't a better place for the next team. Ottawa will attract people in the Ottawa area, but it certainly won't be Canada's team. Quebec would probably draw a decent amount of fan interest throughout Quebec outside of Montreal proper. Although then again, it could end up just splitting the fans the Alouettes already have. Seems unlikely Quebec will ever get a stadium in the near future, so Ottawa is probably the only chance for a new CFL team for quite some time.