Hamilton Tigercats

For those CFL fans who have been pining for the day when the league finally has ten Canadian cities (Ottawa's future return has been confirmed), that possibility will be even more tantilizingly, teasingly closer in 2012.

Next year, the Hamilton Tiger Cats will be homeless and CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon indicated during the Labor Day game in Hamilton, that at least some of their 2012 games will be played in Moncton, New Brunswick.

For the past two seasons Moncton has (and will be) the home of two successful CFL regular season games labeled TouchDown Atlantic.

The CFL has long wished to expand into the Maritime region (though most pundits were expecting Halifax to lead the way), and upstart Moncton, trying to prove that it is THE Maritime city, managed seize the initiative by hosting an international games that required an almost-CFL-size stadium to be built.

Both Touchdown Atlantic games were (will be) successful at the ticket window, and next year Moncton will be rewarded by being allowed to host more than one Hamilton game.

If potential investors are waiting to see if Moncton can successfully be a permanent CFL franchise, next year's multiple games experiment should provide a clearer picture about the long term possibilities of a team in Moncton.

Certainly the CFL is doing its best to dangle Moncton as a successful expansion site for a permanent CFL franchise before potential investors.  One wishes them the best of luck in finally luring an interested owner.

Commissioner Cohon also made it clear that the fans in Hamilton will be able to see their team play some of its games in the Hamilton region.

This opens the possibility of taking the Moncton experiment into new territory.

Does Hamilton erect a temporary facility like BC did and play their games within city limits?

Or does the league try the Moncton experiment in other southern Ontario cities?

Within reasonable driving distance of Hamilton lie two cities that have grown into potential CFL size franchises, Kitchener-Waterloo, and London.

Both have successful CIS football teams so the CFL could be tempted to see if university football success can be translated into professional football success.

Another possible choice could be Oshawa, on the east side of Toronto, that was rumored to be a permanent destination for the Tiger Cats, when the Bob Young-city council feud turned nasty.

And if the CFL wanted to try more long distance experiments, there are Quebec and Halifax.

2012 will be the year of the Hamilton-Moncton-Kitchener-London-Oshawa Tiger Cats.

What started out as an exciting prospect, a new Hamilton stadium for the Tiger Cats that would settle the team's long-term future and ensure Grey Cup games to be played in Hamilton at last, has instead become an endless squabble, a laughable enterprise, and one that makes no sense at all.

The latest proposal is to turn the stadium 90 degrees and reduce seating capacity from 29,600 to 22, 500.

The credibility of the CFL has taken a hit on this issue; acceptance of this proposal would only highlight the contradictory statements and paths of Tiger Cats owner Bob Young, and CFL commissioner Mark Cohon.

A golden opportunity is slipping away.  It started when Toronto was awarded the 2015 Pan American Games and announced that some of the events would be held in a new stadium to be built in Hamilton.

At long last, here was an opportunity to guarantee the Tiger Cats' long-term future.

There was an easy blueprint to follow: build a stadium that seats between 35,000-40,000 that could be expanded to seat over 50,000 for Grey Cup and playoff games.

But Bob Young claimed the site of the new stadium was a threat to the future of the Tiger Cats because of parking problems.

Commissioner Cohon backed him up, claiming that Hamilton was not considered for Grey Cup games because of the size of Ivor Wynne Stadium, and threatened to endorse a move out of Hamilton and never return.

Somehow a bizarre compromise was reached; Ivor Wynne would be renovated and reduced to the CFL minimum seating capacity of 25,000.

Now the stadium is supposed to be renovated even more with a direction change so that players won't get sun in their eyes, with the only other improvement being better seats and amenities.  Reportedly Bob Young and commissioner Cohon are happy with this proposal.

But please explain if a 29,600-seat stadium was not good enough to host the Grey Cup, how is a 22,500-seat one on the same site supposed to be better?

How is a reduction of over 7,000 seats supposed to increase revenues?

Why is the CFL okaying a project that reduces seating capacity beneath its avowed minimum of 25,000?

If a 22,500-seat stadium is okay for the CFL, what's the matter with them actively letting Moncton with a 20,000-seat stadium into the league and awarding them the Grey Cup as well?

Surely it can't be that hard to search for a site that can hold a stadium with increased capacity that will settle the Tiger Cats' long-term future?

What's wrong with doing what Winnipeg is doing—building a new stadium at the local university that can stage both college and professional football games?  What's wrong with situating the new Tiger Cats' home at McMaster University?

In a city the size of Hamilton, there's got to be an area that can satisfy all parties.

This present proposal is nothing more than a cheap, lazy stop-gap enterprise with no thought for the long term.

It does not bring an exciting future freedom for the Tiger Cats, but the further continuation of a prison sentence.

Kevin Glenn is one unhappy camper.

The Tiger-Cats veteran quarterback was unceremoniously yanked with 8:45 remaining in the fourth quarter of Hamilton’s 24-16 opening-week loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and immediately revealed his displeasure with coach Marcel Bellefeuille’s decision.

Following a dissection of the circumstances and the aftermath, there is really nothing fresh to be seen here. How lengthy a quarterback’s leash should be, and the potential to damage their frail egos by pulling the plug, is a rather banal quandary.

Being shown the bench on opening night, especially for a pivot who recorded a career-high 33 touchdown passes a year ago, was surely going to spark some controversy. But as expected, Glenn was back taking first-team reps this week with the Cats’ offense.

On July 1, coach Bellefeuille was looking at his team, trailing by just four points in the game’s late stages, despite his leader’s three detrimental turnovers, and considered his options.

In an 18 game season, there are no throwaway games; if the victory is within reach, you must find a way.

This tale has been told time and time again: quarterback-coach feud over a benching, and the starter’s role is in doubt. Why does this have to be?

Ice hockey presents an interesting comparative, where the goaltender plays a similar function to the QB: the leader, the backbone and the foundation.

Every season without fail, any goalie, All-Star or rookie, is liable to be pulled on a given night–it’s just the nature of the game. Sometimes it just isn’t your night; the goaltender and puck are in disharmony. 

But why not the same outrage, media scrutiny or player/coach faceoff? After all, we are talking about a single game, early in a grueling long season where many storylines are yet to take shape. Is there a different mentality in football than hockey?

Both the goalie and quarterback take on an exorbitant amount of pressure, and in turn appreciate respect and confidence from coaches and teammates. But, it appears the football player is the one who is less likely to feel secure – always looking over his shoulder.

Glenn has been here before. As recently as 2009 he was tabbed as the backup to his current understudy Quinton Porter. He has worn three different uniforms in 11 seasons, and he knows the highs and lows of the pro athlete life.

Canadian Football is a unique landscape, and unless you are Anthony Calvillo, job security is hardly guaranteed. The next American import is lurking around the corner, hoping to make his mark and ideally re-ignite his NFL dreams.

Quickly, and as anticipated, the murky Hamilton QB controversy cleared up this week, as fast, if not faster, than it arrived. Glenn is still No. 1, and the Tiger-Cats are showing full faith in their shepherd.

It could be a week, month or full year before another brush up occurs between player and coach in Hamilton or another CFL city, but something tells me the aftermath and outcome will be eerily similar.

Fear not, insecure spiral hurlers, your standing may not be as unbalanced as you think; the shaky ground you stand on may simply be a tremor, not a full-blown earthquake.

Look beside you, to the netminders of Canada’s favorite pastime, and observe how they struggle one night, and rebound the next. 

No need to blow a gasket.  The next time an off night presents itself, just hope your team can rally for the win, and come out slinging the following day. 

Finally, everyone seems to be at peace again in Hamilton due to the unanimous decision by the Hamilton City Council to renovate the Ivor Wynne Stadium.

The city of Hamilton is happy because this decision ends the dispute with team owner Bob Young and means the city will keep the Tiger-Cats for the foreseeable future at the cheapest possible cost to taxpayers.

The taxpayers are happy because the city will keep the CFL team at the cheapest cost.

Owner Bob Young is happy because he now has a stadium in a place that is suitable to him, and he can end his fruitless search for a new location for the team. Now all he has to do is find a temporary home for one year while the renovations take place (probably Moncton).

And the CFL is happy because Bob Young is happy.

It seems no one remembers the damaging revelations made during the negotiations and squabbling about the team's future.

Originally, a new stadium was to have been built to meet Hamilton's obligations for Toronto's 2015 Pan American games. It seemed a perfect opportunity to provide the Tiger Cats with a long-term new home.

Instead, what developed was a three-way war between the City Council, Young, and the CFL.

Young denounced the new location for the stadium as unsuitable for transportation reasons, and threatened to move the team to a different city.

The CFL, particularly Commissioner Mark Cohon, backed Young to the hilt, denouncing the City Council and threatening never to return to Hamilton should the team leave.

Cohon also revealed that Hamilton has not been considered to host the Grey Cup because of the size of Ivor Wynne Stadium.

In light of that, please explain why renovating Ivor Wynne Stadium is the best choice for Hamilton.

The seating capacity will be reduced from nearly 30,000 to 25,000. It is still in the same location. How can Hamilton ever host the Grey Cup?

If the present stadium is not good enough to host the Grey Cup, how will this new model be better?

The Grey Cup can bring in big bucks for a host city. Every other city in the CFL has a better chance of hosting it than Hamilton. Even small Moncton, should it join the league, has a better chance.

Naturally, the three parties involved in this dispute are saying nothing now that they are all friends again. And Ivor Wynne Stadium is no longer "inadequate." It's now "historic."

While it is commendable for the City Council to think of the taxpayers, especially in regard to the fickle nature of professional sports teams and their owners, they also have an obligation to develop a facility for the long term.

The Pan American Games should have provided the opportunity for the Tiger Cats to settle for at least another quarter of a century, and to correct the inadequacies of the present stadium. 

This should have been an exciting time and opportunity for the fans, the owner, the City Council, and the CFL. Instead, peace was bought at any price, and ugly revelations were made.

The dispute has made hypocrites out of everyone who was a party to it.

The City Council was prepared to spend millions to renovate Copps Coliseum in order to please the NHL, a league that has always snubbed and degraded it. Had Jim Balsillie returned triumphant with a team, they still would not spend more than they had to on the one professional team they do have.

Young now gets a smaller stadium in the same location, instead of one that can be expanded and further developed. He still must find a temporary home for the Tiger Cats to play for a year.

And the CFL, which publicly denounced Ivor Wynne Stadium and said it was not suitable to host the Grey Cup, now gets a smaller model in the same location.

Of course, the CFL also accepted an Ottawa design that was less than 25,000 seat capacity and is supposed to be the league standard.

How can Hamilton ever host the Grey Cup?

Everyone just wanted to placate everyone else. The Tiger Cats have a new lease on life in Hamilton, but do they really have a future?

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.

If there is one thing the CFL doesn't need, it's the pathetic and unnecessary standoff between Hamilton Tiger Cats owner, Bob Young, and the Hamilton City Council about the location of a new stadium.

When one starts to probe this case, two things bubble to the surface:

First: Bob Young has few cards to play.

There is also the inconsistent double standard of the CFL.

First Young. He appeared on the TSN half time show on Friday night to explain his position.

When asked about his reasons for withdrawing from stadium talks with the city and his opposition to their choice of location for a new stadium, he was clear and direct.

When asked about where he would move the Tiger Cats, if he had to, his language became bureaucratic.

The truth is that unless he selects an American city, Bob Young has nowhere to move the Hamilton Tiger Cats.

In fact, the most realistic thing for Young to do, if he really is serious about moving the team, would be to shift it to Baltimore. The CFL still has fans there. They probably could still make a go of it, despite the NFL competition from the Ravens.

In Canada, he's got nowhere to move the team except Moncton.

Two bizarre places were named; Burlington and Milton.

But how is battling QEW-403 traffic to Burlington any better than downtown, west harbor Hamilton?

What is in small town Milton to support a CFL team?

Besides neither place has anything even close to a CFL-size stadium.

Population-wise, the most realistic places to move the Tiger Cats are Quebec City, London, or Kitchener.

But though university football is popular in all three cities, there is nothing close to a CFL size stadium in any of them.

Besides, if there really was a serious effort to have CFL football, all three cities, which are big enough to support CFL franchises right now, would already have teams.

With proper stadiums and investors, all three cities could apply for expansion franchises.  Why do they need an established team from Hamilton?

Neither an investor, nor any attempt to build a CFL size stadium, has ever surfaced.

There are only two places in Canada with possible CFL stadiums for Young to move his team.

Put a team in the vacant Montreal Olympic stadium to compete against the Alouettes, or expand the newly opened Moncton stadium, the site of the upcoming Touchdown Atlantic game, in September.

So Young's only real hope is Moncton.

By rights, Moncton shouldn't even be in the picture.  It is only the 29th largest city in Canada.

But small Moncton has elbowed its way to the head of the line for a CFL franchise, ahead of at least ten other larger, logical places for a new team.

Moncton is the most ambitious city in the Maritimes, anxious to show that it is THE Maritime city, ahead of other eastern cities, like Halifax.

Once that is established, Moncton will probably want to show that it is the up and coming city in all of Canada.

First selling out the Touchdown Atlantic game quickly, and then landing a permanent CFL franchise, would be a great status booster in that direction for the city.

And as small Saskatchewan proved, quality of fan can make up in a big way for lack of population.

Unless Moncton comes through, Young is backed into a corner with time running out.

This situation is the complete opposite of the NFL.

When franchises like Oakland, Houston, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Baltimore, and St. Louis wanted to move, they had places already lined up, ready to give favorable deals to lure a team.

As for the CFL, there is a double standard that has emerged.

If you go to the CFL's website, or Internet CFL forums, or even in this column, probably the hottest topic that gets the most questions and responses is expansion.

People want to see the underdog league grow across Canada with more teams to make the league more interesting.

But as this column has pointed out in several recent articles, the league only takes baby steps.

Visionary CFL commissioners like Tom Wright and Larry Smith had their plans blow up in their faces.

So the league has reverted to taking baby steps.

Right now, the league is congratulating itself on the Grey Cup selling out in record time in Edmonton, on the expansion of Montreal's stadium, on Touchdown Atlantic, and finally getting Ottawa back in the league in 2013.

Now comes the irony.

It is the city's west harbor location of a 25,000 seat stadium, that is the baby step.

It is Bob Young's choice of an east mountain location, fully backed by Commissioner Mark Cohon and the CFL, that is the visionary choice.

That stadium is alleged to hold more fans, have easier access, and be expandable for Grey Cups.

Commissioner Cohon has gone as far as to write the city a letter which threatens to vacate Hamilton forever if Young's choice is not accepted.

Why the hard line stance against Hamilton?

The CFL claims that any new expansion team must play in a stadium of 25,000 seats.

But Montreal played in a stadium seating 20,000 for a decade and a half.

It is playing the Touchdown Atlantic game in a stadium that only seats 20,000, of which half of the seats are temporary.

It accepted a new Ottawa stadium that only seats 24,000 in a much larger city than Hamilton.

Why is a 20,000 seat stadium acceptable in Moncton, a 24,000 seat stadium acceptable in Ottawa, but a 25,000 seat stadium not acceptable in Hamilton?

Even if Young does move the team to Moncton, he would have to convert half the seats, and then expand the stadium by 5,000 to reach 25,000 - the same size as the west harbor stadium he finds so unacceptable.

So what will happen?

Unless Moncton comes through, or some new miracle offer makes a grand appearance, the issue will continue like an unnecessary soap opera until one side caves in, just before the Tiger Cats lease with Ivor Wynne Stadium expires in 2011.

Then the usual speeches will come from one side congratulating the other for making concessions that the other found acceptable, so that people's faces are saved.

No one will mention that the concessions could have been made months earlier. The project could have started and completed by the time they finished talking.

Until then the Tiger Cats will remain in limbo, a boring non-issue, that most fans, should best ignore.

The City of Hamilton and Hamilton Tiger Cat owner Bob Young have backed each other into a corner.

A stadium crisis that has erupted within the last month threatens to leave Hamilton without a CFL team.

To recap, Hamilton was awarded a share of the upcoming Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games.

Hamilton was to host the track and field events in a new stadium which would then be expanded to become the Tiger Cats' new home.

Owner Bob Young objected to the downtown location of the new stadium, claiming that it could not handle the amount of vehicles and fans necessary to make a profit, and pressed for a new location on the east mountain.

Then CFL Commissioner, Mark Cohon backed Young in a letter to the Hamilton City Council, arguing that the city's choice of location would not allow the stadium to be expanded to be adequate for possible future Grey Cup games.

The letter then went on to promise future Grey Cups if Young's choice was agreed to.  It also promised the CFL's full support if Young should move the team, and stated that the CFL would probably never return to Hamilton with an expansion franchise.

Then Toronto withdrew the track and field events from Hamilton.  The principal reason for building a new stadium was gone.

The lease for Hamilton's existing Ivor Wynne stadium expires next year.

Things have since taken a more militant turn.

With some dissenters, the Commissioner's letter was received by most Hamilton fans with anger.  They felt that Young and the CFL were blackmailing them.

Then Young withdrew from discussions with the city and made threats to move the team.

And yesterday, the city council, who see the downtown location as a start of urban renewal, with bitter memories of being treated poorly by the NHL, and viewing Young's stand as blackmail, voted 12-3 for their own choice of location.

For now there is a frozen stand off.  Several councillors want to negotiate with Young, but he has refused renew contact with them.

There are also rumors of a $17 million deal to move the team to Quebec City.

Look around and you will see no winners in this situation.

Young is a loser.  While many fans support him, remembering how he saved the Tiger Cats, and agreeing that his choice of location is better, and sympathizing with him because the Tiger Cats lose money, many others feel he is a blackmailer who is thinking of the good of team and not the good of the city.

That image won't help the team sell tickets, with or without a new stadium.

The fans are losers because they could lose their team.

The city council is a loser.  Many fans who sympathize with Young because he loses money operating the team believe that Young's choice is correct, and blame the city council for the wrong choice and being obstinate.

If Young does move the team, the city will be stuck with a new stadium and no tenant either now or in the foreseeable future if Cohon's threats hold true.  If that happens, several political careers could be in jeopardy.

It will be football's version of Copps Coliseum.

The CFL is a loser.  Cohon's threats have drawn mostly negative reactions from people who resent his interference and see him as a blackmailer too.

Adding Ottawa while losing Hamilton is not a step forward for the CFL.  It will lose a team that is 141 years old, full of tradition and CFL memories.

It will not help keep and grow the CFL's fan base and market in Canada, particularly southern Ontario.

People will ask how a 24,000 seat stadium is acceptable in Ottawa, and a 25,000 seat one not acceptable in Hamilton.

It also could make southern Ontario even more amendable to the NFL which has a big following there already.

There is also the ridiculous situation of the CFL Hall Of Fame being in a non-CFL city.

Cities like Quebec who want government funding for a new NHL arena or other sports projects are also losers.

Taxpayers will point to Young as a model for the blackmailing owner who pulls out when things get tough.  They will say no thanks to any government funding or perks that sound like they will help a rich sports owner.

As for Young moving the team, there is not another Canadian city that currently has a CFL-size stadium, unless it is Moncton, which has a new half-temporary-half-permanent stadium, that is 5,000 seats less than the CFL's stated minimum of 25,000.

Quebec City?  There's no CFL-size stadium there.  University football is hot there because of Laval University.

How come no local Quebec City investor has approached the CFL about a stadium and and an expansion team?

How come the CFL hasn't followed this up if Quebec is ready for a CFL team, and announced expansion plans for a 10-team league?  Where is this coming from so suddenly?

Somebody has to back down and a compromise needs to reached.  There is now one more barrier to a satisfactory solution—loss of face.

There's quite a contrast going on in the CFL now, with the delicate, kid-gloves approach to Ottawa, and the militancy in Hamilton.

Tempers are rising in Hamilton, and positions are being assumed, which if become frozen, may leave the CFL without a team in the city.

The National Post is reporting that Hamilton Tiger-Cats owner Bob Young is threatening to move the Canadian Football League franchise should the city not begin to respect the team's opinion on building a new stadium on an East Mountain location or in Confederation Park.

In a detailed and venomous letter to Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger, Young stated that he is unsure as to why the city refuses to cooperate with the team in the building of the new stadium planned for the 2015 Pan-Am Games, and added that the location the city is leaning towards (in the West Harbour area) will not allow the owner to run a sustainable franchise. As such, he will not be able to keep the team in the city.

"I cannot be part of a process that destines us to financial failure before a shovel is even into the ground," the letter states.

It also threatens to be a major financial failure for the city, should the stadium be built without the Tiger-Cats agreement.

"We note that even in the city's own report, that without a tenant you are well beyond $60-million short of building a 25,000-seat facility."

In a short sentence that says it all, Young's letter reads, "We will play out our days at Ivor Wynne."

Hamilton City Council is set to vote tomorrow on where the stadium should be built, and it's obvious that now Young has the city by the throat in making a decision.

The East Mountain site was viewed as a compromise site (after the Confederation Park option was dismissed), but the mayor and city councillors stated that the stadium should focus on community building and not private business interest.

Though no other city is named for where Young would possibly move the team, it is obvious that he is serious in his threat to move the team.

The letter, which can be found in the National Post  article, reads as follows.

The idealized new home of the Hamilton Tiger Cats, as shown in the above photo, is a thing of the past.

Politicians, bureaucrats, and CFL owners and officials have made the proposed project cloudy, if not dead, before it ever got off the ground.

To recap, Hamilton got attached to Toronto's 2015 Pan American Games bid by agreeing to build a stadium for the track and field events, usually the showcase of any major summer athletic games.

It was then decided that after the Games were over, the stadium would be expanded and become the new home of the CFL's Hamilton Tiger Cats.

What should have happened to make this idea a smooth sea to sail on was that the location, size, and other details about the stadium should have been settled LONG BEFORE the bid for the games was ever submitted.

Instead, since Toronto was awarded the games, every politician, bureaucrat, owner, and official has crawled out of the woodwork to virtually kill the project.

The city envisioned the new stadium in a location to spark a downtown revival.

Instead, TiCats owner Bob Young claimed that the chosen location would kill the franchise and opted for a site on the east side of the Hamilton mountain.

A website and a Jim Balsillie-like campaign have been started to gain support for Young's position.  The CFL is advertising it at its website.

To placate the city, Young proposed donating money to build a new velodrome and amphitheatre at the city's chosen site.

Now comes the news that the track and field events are being withdrawn from Hamilton, the reason being that the journey from Toronto to Hamilton was too long for the athletes.

Why such a fundamental decision should be made AFTER the games were awarded only highlights the ugly truth that politicians, bureaucrats, and officials only want these games to draw attention to themselves, reward friends and supporters, and find new ways to loot the till.

Such policies are the reason why Ontario has become a "have-not" province, why Toronto is now called the "Poverty Capital of Canada," why there are crushing new taxes that will push more people into poverty, and why over one million people in the GTA alone have to use food banks.

But the decision to relocate means the reason to build a new stadium is gone.

To salvage something, Young now proposes to combine the new football stadium with a soccer field for the Pan Am Games and for a future MLS franchise.

Young has since been joined been Commissioner Mark Cohon in an open letter to the Hamilton city council on July 30.

While Commissioner Cohon has little choice but to back scarce, committed CFL owners like Young, this letter is a startling reversal of policy by the commissioner and the CFL.

Gone is the vagueness, and bureaucratic language that many Bleacher readers commented about during my recent Bleacher interview with him about CFL expansion.

The letter is an ultimatum, full of bribes, threats, and dire consequences.

A league that went on its knees to Ottawa to get a team back there, that is willing to accept a design that only seats 24,000 in a much larger city; a league that for years has accepted Montreal playing in a stadium that only had 20,000 seats, and only this year surpassed the CFL's stated minimum of 25,000; now objects to a new 25,000 seat stadium in Hamilton at the city's choice location.

The letter states that the CFL had wanted to award Hamilton the Grey Cup many times in the past, but always backed off because of the size of Ivor Wynn Stadium.

It holds out the bribe of many Grey Cups in the future for Hamilton, if Young is given his way.

It also unveils a new CFL policy that states that the Grey Cup MUST be played in a venue that seats a minimum of 45,000 (can the new Winnipeg and Ottawa stadiums be expanded that much?).

Then come the threats.

The letter goes on to state that if Young were forced to move the team, the CFL would never return.

That would be ironic—Hamilton would be left with the CFL Hall of Fame and no team.

If I were a Hamilton taxpayer or city official, why would I want to spend money on a new stadium, now that the main reason for building it is gone?

Hamilton has already been slapped in the face by the NHL over a hockey arena.

Now it is being slapped again by the CFL over a football stadium.

If I were a Hamilton taxpayer, I might be tempted to reply with two words that I won't write to end this article.

Almost everybody thinks that Hamilton is an improved team from last year and are ready to take a step forward to challenge Montreal for the eastern title.

General Manager Bob O'Bilovich swallowed the majority of opinion (excluding myself and a few others) that the Hamilton offense with Kevin Glenn at the controls was adequate.

Last year, I wrote that Quinton Porter should be developed as Hamilton's quarterback and Glenn regulated to backup duties.

Based on the first game of the season, I see no reason to change my opinion.

Glenn showed again why he has never won a Grey Cup.  He is too streaky and inconsistent. He was that way in last year's playoff game and was the same again in this year's first game.

Quarterbacks' bad statistics are usually measured in interceptions, fumbles, and sacks, but they don't apply to Glenn who seldom commits them.

Glenn's bad statistics are measured by first downs. Usually, he doesn't accumulate many of them.

What happens in a Kevin Glenn game is that the offense doesn't get many first downs, the opponent's offense gets chance after chance to try an establish something, and finally the team's defense breaks down from sheer fatigue.

Such was the case again against Winnipeg where the impotent Hamilton offense wasted a spectacular effort from its special teams.

I said last year that quarterback was Hamilton's main problem, but O'Bilovich and the coaching staff ignored it in the off season.

All they've done is reverse last year's scenario in which Quinton Porter was going to be developed with Glenn coming off the bench when necessary.  Now the plan is to make Glenn the starter and bring Porter along slowly.

There was no attempt to bring in new quarterbacks in the off season to challenge Glenn and Porter's status.

Hamilton is going nowhere with Glenn at quarterback and Porter on the bench.

If Porter is untrustworthy, then new arms should have been brought in.

Based on the first game, it looks like Winnipeg, not Hamilton is ready to challenge Montreal.  After last year's horrible season, Winnipeg did a complete makeover including sacking their incumbent quarterbacks and getting a consistent starter, Buck Pierce, from the B.C. Lions.

Some Hamilton fans think it is too early to push the panic button.  Sorry, it is.

The only consistency that Glenn has displayed during his entire CFL career is that he is a streaky quarterback.  Hamilton will not make any progress with him at the controls.

Hamilton should either hand the ball to Porter and let him learn, or scour the NFL camps for any promising arms that are stuck on the bench.

But that probably won't happen.

I expect a season about what has to happen before the quarterback switch occurs.

Hamilton may end up imitating Winnipeg, and bringing back Michael Bishop in desperation.