Are Halifax, Moncton, Quebec City, London, Windsor or other Canadian cities viable homes for CFL teams?

Question

It hits me that the CFL will always be vulnerable to implosion if membership floats between 7 and 9. Are there other canadian cities that are viable? Is there local community support? Sufficiently sized stadiums (=28 to 40+K)?

Canadian cities mentioned as potential candidates or that have recently campaigned for expansion slots:

City - Metro population

Halifax, Nova Scotia- 400K

Moncton, New Brunswick- 130K

Quebec City, Quebec -700K

London, Ontario-460k

Windsor, Ontario-320K

Other large Cities that might make sense for expansion

City - Metro population

Mississauga, Ontario-704K

Brampton, Ontario-430K

Surrey, British Columbia-400K

Laval, Quebec -370K

Victoria, British Columbia-330K

I have posted this on a board that deals with college football realignment because the posters there are very business savy, but am posting it here as well to try to get imput from CFL fans.

http://ncaasports.proboards10.com/index.cgi?board=nfl&action=display&thread=1987

Answer 1

I think if Hamilton, ON can support a club for so many years, then why not some of the less densely populated cities in Canada.

Answer 2

None of the Ontario cities could support another team because Hamilton and toronto would then lose much of their fan base. Also even though BC is a higly populated province I feel it can only support one team, same with Quebec. The only city where I feel another CFL team could be started is in Nova Scotia. Many fans will come out the first couple years, but if the team is eventually bad then it will defenitly be hard to support a team.

Answer 3

Brampton and Mississauga are suburbs of Toronto, almost as close to Hamilton as to the Toronto stadium. Surrey is a suburb of Vancouver --- are you aware of that?

These other cities have no stadium. A few have university stadiums, but they'd need to be expanded by at least three or four times their current seating, not to mention boxes, scoreboards and parking.

A novelty would pack them for a while, but after that there'd be competition with other entertainment forms. How many of the cities you've listed have had professional hockey and baseball, and how many still have them, major or minor league?

Answer 4

This depends on a lot of things mostly how are they going to get the money for a stadium and if they do how much money will they make during the season, and how much fan support will they have.

Answer 5

ew brampton. hahah that's to close to GTA.

anyways knowing about these places i would say that you'd need to have a team in a neutral area so that two cities suport them.

quebec city could support it's own franchise...but i doubt people would go to games, and they're already trying to get a hockey team there. for the southern ontario area if you combined london and windsor, you could easily have a sustainable franchise there. football is popular in those areas.

i doubt laval would get a football team...

and there can be another football team in the bc area...but it depends on where they're stationed. they'd have to do the same thing i suggested about the windsor/london area.

Answer 6

I believe an East Coast CFL team is long overdue and would probably be met with more success than people might think.  The truth is, that part of the country is mostly ignored by big money entertainment and sports.  The stumbling block of where to play would be the most significant but, if located in the right place a CFL team there could draw from three provinces so somewhere near the NB and NS border would probably work best.

Answer 7

in the 80s,  halifax got a team, but couldn't get it together to get a statium, so the team folded before a game was played,

Answer 8

I think that London Ontario could support a CFL stadium and teem.  I mean just look at our other sports centers, we have the JLC (John Labatt Centre), home of the London Knights, which seats about 10,000 people, Labatt Stadium (the world oldest continually used baseball park, the Forest City Velodrom (one of only 3 in Canada) and TD Waterhouse Stadium (home of the Western Mustangs).  If we can support all of these then we can defiantly support a CFL stadium.

Answer 9

i would like to see Halifax have a team

Answer 10

i think that halifax and quebec city wuld be....lots of people from the maritimes wuld love to have a team near by...as for london and windsor.. ontario is having enough problems with ottawa and toronto doesnt have a great amount of fan support for the amount of people that \live there

Answer 11

I think Quebec City and Halifax are viable candidates along with Ottawa provided they have competent ownership.  There is a rich football tradition in Ottawa going back more than a century.  There is a ready fan base in all three cities.

Expansion into the USA was a mistake and I hope the CFL isn't going to try it again.

Answer 12

GO BC LIONS!

Of those you mention, I think perhaps Halifax