HAMILTON - The CFL's board of governors gave the group looking to bring pro football back to Ottawa more time to secure a deal with the city on a new stadium.
CFL commissioner Mark Cohon said Tuesday the board gave the Ottawa group until Sept. 18 to complete negotiations with the City of Ottawa on a stadium deal. In March 2008, Cohon awarded Ottawa 67's owner Jeff Hunt and local businessmen Bill Shenkman, Roger Greenberg and John Ruddy an expansion franchise on the condition it secure a place to play.
The Hunt group is looking to renovate Frank Clair Stadium as part of a re-development of Lansdowne Park. Trouble is, Ottawa civic officials also have a proposal from a local group headed up by Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk for a new 20,000-seat soccer-only venue in nearby Kanata, Ont., to be home to a Major League Soccer expansion club.
Ottawa city council is weighing both offers and will ultimately decide which one to follow through with.
"There's a window of opportunity now where we have a committed group of owners there who want to get this deal done," Cohon said. "You're in an economic environment now where there's potential stimulus money from the government to make it happen.
"It's incumbent upon the City of Ottawa now to make some decisions."
The CFL's conditional franchise agreement with the Hunt contingent was set to expire March 18.
The Hunt group is attempting to bring a third CFL franchise to Ottawa. The former Rough Riders club folded after the '96 season while the Renegades returned under new ownership in 2002 but was suspended by the league four years later.
The Ottawa CFL group has maintained its stadium proposal would allow for a revamped Frank Clair Stadium to be shared with an MLS franchise. However, the facility in Kanata would be for soccer only.
Cohon said he hasn't dealt with Ottawa councillors about the stadium issue but was hopeful it would be resolved sooner rather than later.
"I'm not going to speculate whether we would have to extend it another six months," he said. "But clearly this is an indication that the time is right now to act upon on the opportunity.
"We owe it to our fans in Ottawa not to drag them along. We have an opportunity now for the city to react to an ownership group that is willing and able and has a great plan for the city."
The CFL-MLS stadium debate in Ottawa has prompted some verbal jousting, with Melnyk saying a CFL franchise might not remain in Ottawa 25 years from now. There were also suggestions it would take as many as six Grey Cup games to draw the $50-million this year's world junior championship event drew in Ottawa or the estimated $50-$60 million annually an MLS team would bring to the city's economy.
That prompted Cohon to issue an open letter to the people of Ottawa to share some facts of the league as well as clear up misinformation he said had surfaced as a result of the stadium debate.
Cohon and Hamilton Tiger-Cats owner Bob Young also told reporters the CFL board also voted in favour of amalgamating the CFL's website with its member clubs. It would form one big network that will make it easier for football fans across Canada to navigate through the various team sites due to increased shared content.
From a league perspective, this would make it more attractive for advertisers due to increased consumer traffic as a result of the amalgamation.
