Ottawa Red Blacks Have 13,000 Season Ticket Holders

Just saw a tweet from @arashmadani stating that Ottawa has 13,000 season tickets sold, according to one of the owners Jeff Hunt. That's impressive with a few months to go until the start of the season.

Maybe even more than the Argos. I recall the Ticats stating they were going to cap season tickets at 16,000, maybe Ottawa will have to do something similar.

Interesting Take on Why Bob Bratina Isn't Running Again for Hamilton Mayor

Tim Horton's Field Conspiracy Theory over at the Surly Hamilton blog:

http://surlyhamiltonian.blogspot.de/2014/03/conspiracy-theory-is-bob-bratina-not.html

Arash Madani Article on the 2014 CFL Collective Bargaining

This article by Arash Madani about the impasse between the CFL and the CFLPA for their next contract is required reading. Interesting that Madani works at Sportsnet and yet is probably the best reporter on the CFL beat.

One item I found interesting from the article was about practice rosters:

"2) Expanded practice rosters and injured lists. While presently, practice rosters are expanded after NFL cuts in September, the league wants more players at the $600/week stipend, which would provide more competition to usurp more expensive veterans."

Never would have occurred to me that players wouldn't want expanded practice rosters, but I suppose as a vet I could see their perspective. Personally I like the idea of expanded practice rosters for non-imports, so that more Canadian players are getting experience practicing rather than waiting at home for injuries to strike.

Every team having a few more Canadian receivers and linemen on the practice roster would increase Canadian depth in the CFL.

Defensive Tackle Torrey Davis Re-signs with the Ticats

Just saw that import Torrey Davis re-signed with the Tiger-Cats. He had 16 tackles and a sack last year for Hamilton, and 24 tackles and 2 sacks between Hamilton and Calgary in 2012.

Ottawa's TD Place Construction Progress Versus Tim Horton's Field

I saw that the @TD_Place, the twitter account for the Ottawa Red Blacks has some pictures of seats being installed. What's happening seat wise in Hamilton? Actually I have no idea. Maybe I'll swing by today and have a look.

Injury Prone Quarterback Buck Pierce Retires from CFL

Buck Pierce has announced his retirement. Tigercatatonia will miss Buck, primarily because it was easy to make jokes about how injury prone Pierce was, although we always saluted his efforts. Farewell Buck, and try not to get any more concussions.

Boom! Ticats Want $1 Million Per Game If Stadium Delayed

Tigercatatonia has been posting and wondering about what the current construction state the new Tim Horton's Field with all the bad winter weather. It was announced in January that the stadium was two weeks behind and it has been nothing but unseasonably cold weather since the announcement and early March is looking unseasonably cold as well.

Now we have a bit more information about what happens if the stadium is delayed past the first scheduled CFL game in July. From a Spec article:

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats will be looking to recover at least $1 million for every home game they miss if the new Pan Am stadium is not completed on time.

Infrastructure Ontario says Ontario Sports Solutions — the consortium building the $145-million stadium — is on the hook for the costs if the team can't play its first scheduled home game at Tim Hortons Field on July 26. 

 At least the city isn't on the hook for that, but the province. With a potential million dollar penalty per game that at least gives an incentive to the province to get the work done faster, although in theory they could pay only nine million if the stadium isn't ready for the regular season, which in the grand scheme of cost overruns isn't that much.

Where would the Cats play if they can't play at Tim Horton's? Mac? Quite small and couldn't get a fraction of the season ticket holders. Guelph again? Maybe. Are the temp stands even still up? Expect after winter is finally done to find out a better estimate of how delayed the stadium is.