With Landing Atlantic relegated to the watery depths, the CFL seems set to go westward to Victoria

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Within the winter of 2005, I discovered myself sharing a stretched limo in Montreal with growly, kind-hearted columnist Jim Taylor. The legendary Vancouver Solar columnist suffered no fools, and would fortunately and ruthlessly dissect them word-by-word in his writings, however was he additionally a beneficiant spirit and performed an enormous position in ushering alongside the profession of a small-town journalist from an Okanagan newspaper.

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Additionally becoming a member of us on the way in which to the Wally Buono Awards ceremony was a really rich, very married, very munificent couple, whose names sadly have been relegated to the distant recesses of my thoughts — a dusty place solely accessible by a mix of sleep and caffeine of which I hardly ever remedy.

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However they had been the backers of what was going to be the following staff to affix the Canadian Soccer League, bringing soccer — lastly! — to the Maritimes. It was an thrilling second, to be on the within, to grasp the back-room negotiations, planning and pondering of a franchise. In any case, it had been 20 years of enlargement rumours to the area, and so they had been lastly about to return to life.

Yeah, so about that.

Right here we’re, almost 20 years after that evening within the limo, and there may be nonetheless no tenth CFL staff in Atlantic Canada.

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We briefly had the Atlantic Schooners in 1984 in Dartmouth, N.S., a staff with homeowners, a coach, and a common supervisor … however no stadium. The bid went down with all arms just a little over a 12 months after it was launched when no house could possibly be constructed.

The Schooners — model 2.0 beneath new possession — relaunched once more in 2017 and was working full sail earlier than the wind, when it was holed beneath the waterline after colliding with a large viral iceberg known as COVID-19. The ship didn’t sink instantly — loads of bilge was pumped by Commissioner Randy Ambrosie, who spoke eagerly of different quite a few traders prepared to return on board, earlier than Schooner Sports activities and Leisure formally scuttled the push in March.

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Ambrosie talked glowingly of a number of different traders in July. By the Gray Cup in November, he revealed negotiations with a single “extremely certified” potential proprietor, however his positivity was additionally punctuated with an underlying messaging: It was time to, uhm …. “defecate, or take away oneself from the rest room.”

Behind the scenes, the persistence of the CFL’s Board of Governors has been sporting skinny. If there was nothing concrete by their assembly this December, they’d lastly minimize bait with the Maritimes.

A lot of their frustration lies across the lack of a political urge for food for a brand new stadium, one thing soccer’s Canadian Premier League’s Halifax Wanderers — who’ve performed out of a semi-permanent stadium their whole five-year existence — additionally really feel keenly. Their $40-million proposal for an 8,000-seat improve to Wanderers Floor has been met with the identical apathy and slow-rolling by metropolis councillors that the CFL’s has been.

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Whereas a staff hasn’t discovered a house in Halifax, Moncton, Antigonish, Wolfville, or a bunch of different brainstormed websites, the sometimes annual Landing Atlantic sport has. Initially, a sequence of exhibition video games performed within the area from 2010, 2011 and 2013, then once more in 2019, the primary regular-season video games beneath the label occurred in 2022 and 2023.

The Landing Atlantic sequence was designed to ignite, gas and take a look at help for a staff within the space, but it surely seems the embers have lastly burned out for good.

The CFL and B.C. Lions despatched out a information launch on Tuesday, teasing a “Main Announcement” to be made on Wednesday on the Victoria Convention Centre, within the coronary heart of B.C.’s capital. All the massive weapons might be there, together with Ambrosie, Leos proprietor Amar Doman, Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto, and … kicker Sean Whyte.

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What I’ve been advised, together with a number of different CFL journos, is that this: Goodbye, Landing Atlantic. Hey, Landing Pacific.

The as-yet-to-be-confirmed regular-season sport will function the Lions vs. (information flash!) somebody, with Royal Athletic Park being the most probably venue for the sport. The pure grass facility matches the invoice, with a 3,800-seat grandstand, and capability expandable to 14,000 with momentary bleachers. It hosted some video games throughout the 2007 ladies’s FIFA World Cup.

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It might additionally mark the start of the sport being moved across the nation to non-CFL cities, to pump up extra curiosity within the league. A travelling, miniature Gray Cup competition.

Consider it. A summer season sport on the Apple Bowl in Kelowna? On the spot sellout. How about Yellowknife or Whitehorse? A sure-fire, licensed, cultural phenomenon. Saskatoon? Chicoutimi? Gimme a “Yeah, eh,” and a “Oui, s’il vous plait.” There are extra choices for sport websites than there are (*redacted for authorized causes*) for Corey Perry.

Showcase this sport. Generate that curiosity. And possibly this time, we gained’t have one other 40 years to attend for a brand new staff.

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