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In Alberta we have a deficit of $6-7 BILLION dollars.... Just this year. You guys have it good. And the Flames want a new arena? Good luck with that. source? Well nothing concrete but with the price of oil dropping like it has that seriously impacts the governments revenues. Here's the thing about Alberta, there has been a massive population boom in the last 10-15 years and the Ralph Klein governments deferred a lot of spending in order to get out of debt. The result is that now there is a big need for infrastructure to replace old stuff and to accomodate all the new people so a lot of government spending is required. Couple that with the fact that Alberta has low taxes and no PST their revenue is really tied to the stuff that comes out of the ground. It's a boom or bust cycle that no one seems to care about trying to end.

Yeah we are happy to have him! We are already planning the Memorial Cup parade here. Already one of the top teams in the WHL and then add Morrisey and Draisaitl... yeah that's not a bad team there. Saw Draisaitl had 2 points in his first game there, such a shame he was ruined as a prospect or he might have had 4.

It's foolish and insane because he is one of our best DBs. He's better than Leggett, closer to Randle than you seem to think he is. Yeah He's one of the best players on the team. If we didn't have him you'd notice he was missing.

Phaneuf can be a useful player but if you expect him to be your best defenseman and any kind of leader on the team then you are in for a world of hurt. The guy is a grade A douchebag.

You shut your ***** mouth. As the #1 shameless Wild fanboi he is not easily replaced.

You sir are a liar. Washington is one of the biggest playmakers on this team and re-signing him is a HUGE positive. Or are you still all salty about some of the fumbles on punt returns? Get over it, the guy is a great defensive back. You sir are an obnoxious idiot. (Not sure why we need the name calling, but I like to reply to folks the way they post.) Are you planning to comment negatively on every post I make? You need to ignore Washington's downside to make him a 'Must Have', which you can't do. It's like saying Watson's a 'Must Have' receiver, if you ignore the fact that he's always injured. Washington would get offers from other teams if we didn't sign him, but that's not the same as a 'Must Have' either. Wild's the only one left on our list that I'd put in the 'Must Have' list. I didn't call you names, I called you a liar. His downside... you mean in the position he doesn't play anymore? Cause as a defensive back he's great. One of the best and most impactful players on the team. He was a must have to resign and your foolish notions that because he fumbled a few punts makes him lesser value is insane at best.

You sir are a liar. Washington is one of the biggest playmakers on this team and re-signing him is a HUGE positive. Or are you still all salty about some of the fumbles on punt returns? Get over it, the guy is a great defensive back.

He didn't want to go so I wouldn't worry about that. Did you know that rather than going back to Prince Albert to start the year if he'd been sent down Draisaitl would have gone to play in Germany? That's not best for his development. Neither is going to a **** team in PA that hasn't developed anyone of note other than Draisaitl and Morissey. Guy was sheltered like nobodies business in the NHL, not like they threw him on a top line and demanded he carry the team. The NHL may not be a development league but players can develop in it. Especially guys with size like that who might pick up bad habits in the WHL where they're bigger and stronger then everyone and can just dominate that way. With or without Draisaitl Germany was going to be a team that could likely have been relegated so for a few games where the team gets its ass kicked I dunno why people think it's such a great development tool. The Oilers make a lot of mistakes but not everything they do is terrible. I can recall talk early in the season regarding Draisaitl where it was talked about that the 39 game limit was more important than the 9 game one.

He's said many times that the Argo fan base is a suburban one. Downtown arenas might work for things like the Leafs where the support is all corporate and so many games are on week days. The crowd in Toronto for the leafs is a lot of suits, That's not the Argos demographic. Trying to compare Vancouver and Toronto is just silly. There's no mountains and oceans influencing how sprawled out the GTA can be. Now from what I can tell Toronto has a lot of commuting from the burbs going on, and considering that the downtown is on the lake anyway does that not make downtown the least centralized place? A city like Calgary or Winnipeg has expanded outwards in all directions from downtown, Toronto can't go outward in one direction, it goes outward from the lake, putting a stadium outside downtown would be more centralized.

The Sask hate for Edmonton doesn't go back to the 80s, it goes back to the early 2000s when according to Riderfans, the Esks were dirty rotten cheaters who just spent their way to championships to hell with the cap! The ironing is delicious considering the Riders are currently in a "to hell with the cap!" spree of their own to get championships.

Sports fans will always complain about reffing even if all refs are replaced with robots that never make a mistake.

If the Jets drafted first or second every year they would have less players playing in the WJC because those players would be in the NHL.

Does the year on the contract really matter? The only time that comes into play is if you want to have a cheap contract on a cup team so you can hire a few rented guns. That's not the situation the Oilers find themselves in. Sending him down before the team plays 39 games doesn't burn a year towards him becoming a UFA, so he is still an RFA for that extra season which will be more important in the long run. I don't buy that his development has been ruined, that kid has a good head on his shoulders and hasn't been as bad as the hype says. A lot of that is simply "herr derr Oilers suck!" Here's the things people don't take into account, He's played for Germany at the WJCs twice already, is 5 games there going to do anything for his development? Not bloody likely. The other aspect is he didn't want to go back to Prince Albert and the Oilers didn't want him to go back there either cause Prince Albert sucks. Since Kelowna is going to pick up his rights though, that's a better situation to send a guy to in the WHL, in theory get a nice long playoff run there and that's actual good development as opposed to Prince Alberta who basically did whatever Draisailt and Morrisey carried them to in the past. People like to pile on Edmonton and some of it is deserved, but they really turn the stupid up to 11 when they do it. Do you all know that since McTavish stepped aside and let Nelson coach that the team is 2-0-2? Hell even just since they fired Eakins they're something like 3-4-4 which might not be anything to brag about but it's a damned sight better than they were with Eakins behind the bench.

Let's not hold up Vancouver as some sort of typical city, there's a lot of physical barriers in that city that don't exist in many other cities in Canada.

You went into your whole thing where you think that because they're not hiring the guy you want that it's the wrong move. It must be because they're cheap! It must be because they don't know what they're doing! It's tiresome because you don't know half as much as you think you know. Benevides and Hall are both guys who have had plenty of success in the CFL as defensive coordinators, why get hung up on one guy or the other? If it were me I prefer Benevides as well, but I'm not so arrogant as to think I know more than Mike O'Shea in this case. If he thinks Hall is the guy for him then I'm not going to waste time arguing about it.

what a crock of **** post. It's the holiday season, it's a brand new year and you pull the Debbie Downer crap? Come on now. Would it kill you to be positive for once?

This is the first I've heard of a meeting between the Bombers and Claybrooks.There was a rumour from one of our media guys (can't remember who) that Claybrooks was in town shortly before Etch was fired.This is the tweet by Scott Mitchell of the Calgary Sun that said Claybrooks had been to Winnipeg:Scott Mitchell ‏@SUNMitchell Dec 17 According to a source, DeVone Claybrooks was in Winnipeg recently for a "meeting." #CFL #Bombers ow ow ow ow.... Well, in their defense... No everyone reads all the boards posts like we so... plus, attention spans are at an all time low for this.generation.. What were we talking about? apparently Claybrooks was in Winnipeg for a meeting

Did you complain that much and consider it a waste when you made your mortgage payments? I'm not complaining. I'm glad they made their payment. But we all know $4.5 million will be extremely difficult to pay back every year. As far as mortgages go, you qualify & then make a either a single monthly or bi weekly payment you can afford based on your income. And your income is based on your bi weekly or monthly paycheques which are the same. Not if the economics of the CFL are working & if people buy tickets to see the team play based on winning vs losing. Or league tv money, concert & advertising revenues. In other words, revenue streams will vary from year to year. As this is the first payment & there are 39 more to go, we have no idea if this is affordable for the team or not. Sellinger put the team into this position like no other in the CFL. Once again, glad they made their payment. Don't read anything else into what I said, please. But if you lose your job and can't get one that pays the same maybe your mortgage isn't affordable anymore. Maybe you're like me and don't get a regular paycheque and instead get paid a daily rate for the amount of days worked. It is the same kind of deal. The Bombers made a commitment based on what they expect their revenues to be just like you and I and everyone else takes out a mortgage based on what they expect they can afford. You really are bitching for the sake of bitching. They made an investment in their stadium which should improve their economics, what's the problem? Other than you just wanting someone to have given the Bombers a handout on the stadium. You're not a communist are you?

all I know is my gut says maybe

Did you complain that much and consider it a waste when you made your mortgage payments?

Have you seen a doctor or hospital for that concussion of yours? Their fanbase is embarrassingly low on iq, football knowledge or even common decency.. Yet Riderfans is probably the best fan forum out there for CFL discussion. It most certainly is not. There's some quality posters there but the quality to absurdity ratio is way way too high. Too many homers makes it too much of a pain to read the quality posters. I still say this place has the best ratio. Yes there are unabashed Bomber homers here, but there are more CFL fans here who may favour the Bombers but have a real good appreciation of what is going on around the entire CFL not just their favourite team.

Milt was clear that his success was all about determination and conditioning. He said that he was rarely the fastest guy on the field for the first 20 or 30 plays but after that he rapidly became the fastest player. Milt for all his bluster and bravado in the media was very humble. Yeah his determination and conditioning were big reasons, but he was fast too, and topping it all off was how smart he was. He's said himself a big part of why he and Khari had so much success is that they could read the defense pre-snap and both make the same adjustments. Guy was one of the smartest players without question.

Fill out the coaching staff and let's see what the scouting department and hell even free agency turns up, then we can actually make a prediction about the team.

Honestly I think it's less about racial barriers as socio-economic barriers. Now the fact that one demographic is over represented in the poor may make it seem like a racial issue but I really don't see it as one. Anyone from a poor background is going to have trouble getting past some of the barriers. A good coach is going to be able to get through to people from a wide range of backgrounds. Here's the problem though, when there's an over abundance of one race that are poor they'll often be very racist themselves and blame someone else for their problems. That might be the racial barriers he talked about, but at the same time if you hired a black guy with a middle class upbringing he likely doesn't connect with those players from the lower class background anyway because that is where the biggest difference is. Just making it about race is a massive over simplification.

Stewart took forever by import standards to be good enough to start here in the easiest position in the secondary and then was carried by the strength of the rest of the group, then went to Hamilton and played a harder position and got exposed badly in the playoffs. He was never as good as some people thought he was here.