Can the CFL finally expand past the St. Lawrence Seaway?
This week we learned that the Canadian Football League is entertaining a bid to land a team to Halifax, which would finally bring the league east of Montreal.
With the Toronto Argonauts facing the Calgary Stampeders in the Grey Cup on Sunday, a Halifax team might make an East-West rivalry feel more authentic.
This isn't the first time there has been an attempt to set up team roots in Nova Scotia.
The CFL granted the region a franchise in 1982 on the condition that it a build a stadium suitable for professional football.
By 1984, however, they had to withdraw their team's application after they couldn't find enough funding for a stadium.
Karen Ouellette is the executive director of Football Nova Scotia. For her, that issue top is of mind for the CFL's potential expansion.
"I think the first thing we need is a stadium and that's been the million dollar question for the last couple of years," Ouellette tells Day 6.
Stadium + City + League approval = a franchise in the east
Ouellette notes that it's hard for the league to claim to be Canadian if it doesn't have foothold in the Atlantic provinces.
It's a sentiment echoed by Halifax Mayor Mike Savage, who also thinks that there's a real chance the team will survive.
"This time you've got a serious ownership group of people who know professional sports, who know stadium design ... have the deep pockets that are required to put together a franchise ownership group," Savage says.
It will be a Maritime team and you will get people from New Brunswick and P.E.I. as season ticket holders.- Karen Ouellette
"But particularly [there is] the expertise to potentially build a stadium and manage it in such a way that's a good deal for the citizens of Halifax," says Savage.
The bid group is led by two former executives of the Arizona Coyotes, Anthony LeBlanc and Gary Drummond, as well as local businessman Bruce Bowser of AMJ Campbell Van Lines, and Richard Butts, president of Clayton Developments and the former CAO of the Halifax Regional Municipality.
In the past, Savage has warned interested parties that any bid to bring a team to his city must include a plan for a new stadium. This group's ability to coordinate a facility, the city and the league could be the trifecta.
"That's what distinguishes this group and that's why I asked them to speak to council. And that was followed by a visit with the commissioner of the CFL," he says.
A team for the Maritimes
Ouellette says the team would belong to the region, not the city of Halifax.
"It will be a Maritime team and you will get people from New Brunswick and P.E.I. as season ticket holders," she says.
Savage agrees and suggests that should be reflected in the name of the prospective team.
"Schooners is a possibility. The Atlantics is another," Savage says.
He didn't suggest 'Roughriders', but one assumes it's always in play in the CFL.
Ouellette says the team could also offer a nod to the city's past.
"I was driving my son and his friends to school and they were talking about the Halifax Explosion," she says, referring to the December 1917 disaster when two ships packed with explosives collided in the Halifax harbour.
It was the largest man-made explosion prior to the development of nuclear weapons.
"Every time the team scores a touchdown or a field goal, the explosion sound could go off."
It's bigger than the CFL
"There's a lot more here than just the CFL," Savage says. "You have to look at what does this do for the community, what does this do for the people who live here. And something that's really important for me, what does it do for the people who might want to live here."
CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie is in Ottawa to take part Grey Cup festivities but he says the issue has been the talk of the league ever since the news broke.
I can tell you, the first Grey Cup in Halifax would be an epic event.- Mike Savage
"I haven't gone anywhere where it hasn't come up. It's almost become like it's become part of the national psyche now to get that 10th team, that last piece of the puzzle to make it a coast-to-coast league," Ambrosie says.
Ambrosie also attended the 10th annual Atlantic Schooners East Coast Kitchen Party last weekend.
"It's the missing piece," Ouellette says of a CFL team in the East. "We have the minor, we have the high school, we have the provincial teams and we have the universities but we don't have the next step."
Savage says he's not counting his chickens before they hatch, but points out that there is a lot of excitement.
"I can tell you, the first Grey Cup in Halifax would be an epic event."
To hear Mike Savage and Karen Ouellette discuss CFL football in Halifax, download our podcast or click the 'Listen' button at the top of this page.