SpeedFlex27

In the deal with the City that fell through, the Flames wouldn't own the arena. The City would have. But they would have controlled concessions & revenue from the games & concerts.

Multiple All Star Center Bob Swift. He was the Center for Don Jonas, Chuck Ealey & Dieter Brock from 1971-77. Came into the league in 1964 with the Lions as a fullback rushing for over a thousand yards & named ROTY. Swift blew his knee out in the 1964 Grey Cup early in the first quarter & missed the rest of the game. He was able to come back as a player when his injury healed but his running days were over. The Lions converted him to Guard in 1965. Acquired by the Argos in 1966 where he also played Center. Traded to the Bombers in a positional swap. We traded our starting Center Paul Desjardins to the Argos for their Center Bob Swift prior to the 1971 season. He was a four time CFL Western Conference All Star in 1971, 72, 73 & 74. as well as an All Canadian in 1971, 72 & 74.

The Tsuu Tina are extremely wealthy. They are venturing into different businesses. There is a Costco on their land as well as a casino. They reaped in hundreds of millions of dollars from the Province & City of Calgary when they put the SW portion of the Ring Road thru their reserve. I'm not sure but I also believe they collect a toll (electronically) from the province for every car that drives thru their land on the Ring Road but I may be wrong. So, this band has a great deal of economic clout. Just an additional thought. There's been no word on whether this would happen. Nothing but crickets since the arena deal fell through so it's all speculation. The Flames may be negotiating in secret with the City of Calgary right now & we don't know it. No one here in Calgary knows how this will end. Elks game.

He may never play again.

Entrance & exit would require an upgrade but that's all on Tsuu Tina land & they would have the $$$ to do it. Again, don't see that as a deal breaker.

No. No C Train. If a deal is made to build on the Tsuu Tina reserve, I don't think that would break it. I mean, as you know we're a "world class city". We don't have a C Train line to Mount Royal University or our airport. Podunk.

Internet.

One way in & out entering & exiting onto two major multi laned freeways. One going nort/south. The other east/west. If the Tsuu Tina want to build an arena then I don't think that Edwards will want to deal with the City of Calgary. Neither side trusts each other. There'll always be animosity between the two. You can't get a good deal for both sides with so much hard feelings in play. The Tsuu Tina already have their casino there with nothing else around it. Bringing in the Flames & potentially the Stamps would spur development of an Entertainment District with bars, restaurants & hotels to go with the casino which is what I think the Band wants.

They want to put a team in Halifax & they.... never.... play a game... in... Halifax???

Did the person who colourized the photo not know what colours the Bombers were? Major screw up on the cover photo.

I think the arena may get built on Tsuu Tina land in the westwern part of the city. Two major freeways have access to the place. Hundreds of thousands of cars drive by everyday. And nothing but room unlike a downtown arena.

Unless you live in Edmonton. Everywhere else in Alberta, sports wise, no one's allowed to have any fun. Edmonton had CWS for the Commonwealth Games in 1978, three indoor practice facilities (fieldhouses), baseball stadium & now a new arena for the Oilers. Calgary is & continues to be a joke when it comes to facilities for pro sports & just in a sad state of affairs for amateur & community sports.

We went to a new Calgary restaurant yon Sunday. It's back to getting as many tables into a small space as possible. Tables so close that you can hear the conversations all around. One table next to me was ordering. The waitress stood less than 6 inches away from me over my left shoulder taking the order & talking. I felt very uncomfortable. Like you, I figure what's the point of wearing a mask anymore? My wife who is an RN says that each individual N95 mask has to be fitted properly to a person's face. So, most people are not wearing them properly.

Calgary is becoming like Vancouver. We believe we're too good for the CFL. That we should be an NFL city. Politicians keep saying we're "world class" but we're not. We're Podunk City. We have a fire trap for a baseball stadium that is not being used, sitting empty, literally condemened & allowed to rot on Crowchild Trail beside McMahon. The City of Calgary has been talking about a fieldhouse for 60 years & it still hasn't been built. The Stamps have no indoor facility to practice because their billionaire owner refuses to spend a penny on the team. During the smoke from forest fires last season, the Stamps had to cancel practice numerous times because it was too dangerous health wise to practice outdoors. The Stamps have always had to practice outdoors in all kinds of bad weather like it was still 1960 while other CFL teams can go indoors which is a big advantage for the other CFL teams. Edwards doesn't care. Same with a football stadium. Murray Edwards is probably the worst owner in the CFL. He is an absentee owner. He lives in London, England having left Canada when Trudeau got elected to avoid paying taxes. Owning the Stamps is a tax write off for him. Building a 35,000 seat stadium will never happen as long as he owns the team. So, our world class city has world class dump for football. Getting an arena built is a huge political football. Both sides, edwards & the City of Calgary are grandstanding by delaying the project. After they agree to finally get it built, a new stadium will be forgotten. There's no political will to get it done.

Single game day seats for the Stamps are $80 to sit on the 30 yard line up high. Or thereabouts. Who wants to spend over $300 for a family of 4 to attend? Then there's food & drinks. Slap down another $70 for that. People aren't dumb. They'll just stay home & watch it on TV. I talked to the Stamps Ticket Manager about prices a few years ago. He didn't think the single game day prices were too high. I suggested the Stamps do what the Bombers do. Offer 3 & 4 game Flex Packs where fans can buy the same seat for games they want to see. He just laughed & said no. And so, the Stamps sit stuck at 22,000 people attending per game with 13,000 seats on average sitting empty for every game. It's like CFL teams just ignore the fact that every game is now televised & fans have a choice to go or not. That & the game day experience at McMahon Stadium isn't very good. People have tailgates but they're private affairs. People just can't walk up to a random group of fans, say hello & start drinking & eating the other fans food. The other thing I need to mention is that because of my arthritis & mobility issues as I walk with a cane & have balance problems, going to McMahon Stadium to watch a game has now become impossible. Climbing up & down stairs with no handrails over 50 rows is something I no longer can do. I'm slower than most fans so I'd have to wait until the stadium has cleared out before I could navigate the stairs. Afraid of stumbling & falling. Hard to get to concession s all in the concourse at the bottom of the stadium. No elevators or escalators. No thanks. IG Field has concessions in the upper deck & elevators to get back & forth from the seats I purchased. And I don't have to climb any more than 15 rows to get to my seats & the steps have handrails. I also have handicap parking in Sec U si I just have to cross the street. Calgary is stuck with an aging 62 year old stadium that needs replacing. It was state of the art when JFK was President & the Beach Boys were topping the charts with songs about surfing. But going to a game in Winnipeg over Calgary is eye opening. McMahon Stadium is a dump. More fans are staying away because of it. I'll never go there to another game.

Full stadiums add hugely to the atmosphere of a televised game. The CFL doesn't have that & the owners don't seem to want to change things to make that happen. Price gouging regular single game day tickets because they've discounted season ticket prices so much have made this so. The league should be finding ways to get the casual fan or the ones who don't want season tickets to games.

I think the term in the works is more accurate than in the making. They haven't started filming. The way things go, it may never be filmed. I just know that there is interest to make a movie. It may or may not get done.

Bombers are my team. Whether it's 3 or 4 downs, I'll always support them. Then they have the Jays.

When soimeone like Cody Fajardo says he's prepared to let it all be on him after he criticized players & coaches on more than one occasion last year, it means he isn't prepared to let it fall on his shoulders. Leaders lead ny example. Talk is cheap.

Sure, based on Fajardo's performance last season where he was a liitle Diva all season long.

He's not the worst player. He deserves to be paid what he's worth. The Randy Rule needs to go.

And therein lies the problem.

I would argue that it does as even if the 2 Global positions were split that would mean one at least 1 more Canadian player on a roster. That would mean between 9 & 18 jobs for Canadian players.

So was I. Not even a peep from the CFL. Over a hundred kids had to play football out of their area displaced. A lot didn't want to play anymore. Globals don't take away from Americans. They take Canadian positions.

My point is that it takes more than just a few players to garner interest internationally. The CFL has to market & market hard but we know they never will. Any resources spent should be spent in Canada first. Start by giving money to local football. A bantam team I helped start here in Calgary back in 2005 called the Falcons had their equipment stolen out of their storage shed about 3 years ago. Everything was taken. Thousands of dollars worth of equipment gone. The equipment was not insured because the club couldn't afford the premiums. A fund raising effort was started to replace the equipment but it felt well short. The team folded. Kids had to play elsewhere. Where was the CFL or the Stamps? You mean to say they both couldn't have donated the money needed to replace the stolen equipment?? I heard the amount need to replace helmets, shoulder pads & soft pads was between $25-30,000. Nope. Let's not help kids in a CFL community to grow the sport first. Let's talk about growing it in Europe, instead.