BlueBall

I never thought about it that way but yea you may be on to something.I always hold out hope at the start of the season but I have a sinking feeling our defense will play out like groundhog day when the game is tight or within reach. Giving up yardage and points consistently, killling momentum or sealing the game away. I hope our defense is committed to minimizing points scored against not just touchdowns. I don't exactly think we'll be terrible this year. Watching both games, I did get flashbacks from the first LaPo season. Back when we were the "best worst team in the league", always losing games by 2-3 points. Of course I'd like to win more than we lose but already it's a HUGE improvement over last season.

Really like the new look for the site but wasn't the Bomber Store webpage supposed to also get a huge facelift like, two years ago? That one's definitely in need of upgrades (and updates). Those poor, pathetic gnomes have been on clearance since the beginning of last season.

The transit deal was all but done several weeks ago, with both the Bombers and City declaring it a better solution. Then the Bombers board rejects the nomination of Sam Katz' buddy Jeff Rabb to a seat on the BOD. Now suddenly, "after careful consideration", the city decides to reject the transit deal. Big surprise.

The Bombers do the same thing. Raise ticket prices every year and charge $20.00 to park for one game (and just wait...that'll go up too!). They just haven't started asking for donations yet. As for selling shares like the Riders, we'll get there too eventually I believe. Once the team has exhausted all other possible ways of generating income via the fans, they'll start selling the imaginary "shares" in the team. The problem in Saskatchewan is that they're planning on building a stadium they have no way of funding without government money. Rumour has it that the team had hired the firm used to build the Dallas Cowboys stadium. That can't be cheap. If that's the way they want to go then reserve or no reserve, they need the taxpayer's $$ just like we did. Now that the hype of a new stadium being built has died down, Rider fans are waking up to the reality that they'll have to pay for most of it. How that new revelation affects the final design/build of their stadium remains to be seen.

I like the number font they used (in keeping with the logo) but really, other than that everything about this team so far, from their name (or sorry; their NAME) to their tacky-Canadian-stereotype mascot to their uniforms just seems silly and bland/generic to me. If they couldn't go back to being the Rough Riders, then even the Renegades theme would have been better than this. Whatever, at least there's another team in the league and hopefully the fans in Ottawa are happy with it.

Anyone know if the team has announced if/when they'll be hosting the annual fan forum this year? I think it's usually held around this time, but I haven't heard anything about it.

RedBlacks just unveiled their new mascot. I predict every child in Ottawa will never sleep again after meeting this thing: They're also taking ideas to name him. Yeah right. Like they took ideas to name the team...

Penton's tweeting that the CFL is releasing the 2014 schedule tomorrow morning.

From Lawless in this morning's Free Press: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/jets/winnipeg-lands--heritage-classic-235188251.html Very cool news. Big question now is, who gets first dibs on tickets? Bombers or Jets season ticket holders?

Hate to see someone out of work but with the state of the officiating being what it is in this league, and for all the times the Bombers got screwed because of the refs and all Higgins could muster after the fact was a "Yeah, that call should have been reversed, too late now...sorry Winnipeg!", can't really say I'm disappointed.

Any chance the announcement has anything to do with the city being awarded the Grey Cup? Normally a coaching hire announcement is just made in the Bombers media room at the stadium. Something seems strange about having a big press conference at the Fairmont unless it was big news involving the city...

If Walters is the best guy for the job then great. Problem is, he's not. Penton said it in his column the other day and everyone already knows this. Miller knows this. So why is he giving the job to Walters? Because apparently an "exhaustive search" in Bomber Land means leaving your office, walking down the hallway, running into anybody you recognize and asking "Oh hey, you know there's a GM job available, wanna do it? But if anyone asks, say you interviewed for it." This is the impression I get every time the Bombers need to make a new hire and claim they will be scouring the league looking for the best possible candidate for the job. Like they did for a head coach after canning LaPo right? They found the best possible candidate. In the ENTIRE LEAGUE. That's what we got. He was right under our nose the whole time. The problem is the attitude this organization seems to have every time we go through this. As long as a person is "adequate" or "good enough", they fit the bill. Forget RENEWED RIVALRIES, 2014's slogan should just be those two terms beneath our logo.

Since Ossama AbouZeid isn't heading the construction of any of these projects, it's a safe bet to say that all three stadiums will be completed on time, on budget and -- gasp! -- with the use of properly designed blueprints.

Seriously, I hope they don't waste time on this. Fire the guy NOW. There's no reason to wait until after Grey Cup. It wouldn't be fair to Burke, who's a classy guy and doesn't deserve to be left dangling, wondering what's going to happen.

Agree with everything being said. I remember the "Reinebold Era" being bad but it was also when the organization was trying to get themselves turned around and become relevant in the city again and avoid bankruptcy. Maybe it was because we had just lost the Jets at the time, but people still loved the Bombers even with the terrible record. This era, and maybe because the Jets are back, is a whole lot scarier than last time. People at the games I noticed just don't care anymore. Tickets are being GIVEN away. There's this sense that coming to the games now is more of a chore than fun. There's absolutely nothing to cheer for at a game. Even our new stadium seems boring and old now. Losing over and over again has just taken the lustre off and seems to have aged the place already. So yeah, this is probably as bad as it's been for the Bombers. And not just because of the team itself but because of everyone responsible for the team. The coaches, management and the BOD. Huge overhaul of everything needs to happen next year.

Jumbotron in the south end zone was burned out at the top too. Brand new and it couldn't even make it to the last game before it broke. Guess by that point the audio/visual guys just didn't give a crap anymore.

Got a nice little e-mail from the team today recapping 2013 and reminding me to renew my tix for 2014. Long story short: "Opening of our beautiful new stadium, challenging time on the field, organization working very hard behind the scenes to fix the team, please be patient, we're the greatest fans in the league, thanks for your loyalty, please join us in 2014 when we move to the West and, oh yeah, we've jacked up ticket prices again." Not that this wasn't expected but I was kind of hoping we'd get at least 2 or 3 seasons at the new place before being asked to fork over more $$ for tickets. Heck, 2 or 3 WINS at the new place at least. Still think the endzones are over priced and it looks like P7 got hit with the biggest hike, over $50 more for next season. http://www.bluebombers.com/2014-season-ticket-centre

A few interesting names being tossed around. Kinda on the fence about Murphy. I wonder if the Duane Forde talk will start up again? Bottom line is we gotta get things right this time, no more screw-ups. Whoever gets the job has one heck of a mess to clean up and we cannot afford another 2-3 years of "rebuilding". God, I'm so sick of that word...

From TSN; Burke feels he deserves another season to turn things around. Blames the lack of talent on the team for this year's performance. Just about fell over when I read this: http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=433757

Tim "Take-A-Knee" Burke...sums up his whole miserable career as a head coach.

Very strange screw-up on Reebok's end. How does something like that happen and no one spots it? Anyway, those royal blues are probably one of the best looking outfits in the league. Hope they become permanent as apparently they brought us some good luck.

Hands down the best day of the season so far. We won twice tonight as far as I'm concerned.

Okay, I gotta ask -- are you trolling? Or is this just a prank you're pulling on everyone? What's the deal here? It's been a few weeks of this nonsense so I'm curious. Do you just don't know anything about the game of football? Do you know what a quarterback is? To be honest, it seems you really don't know which player on the team is Buck Pierce. Have you ever actually even seen a Bomber game? Let me know... other peoples opinion dont always equate with nonsense BB, no need to be dickish, is there? You're right, it did come off as dickish and I apologize to TUP. A little harsher than I meant it to be. This season is starting to wear on me. But as I said, it's been a while with this defending of Buck (from Burke as well) and I just can't see the logic behind the argument. If only our OL protected Buck this much. It's one thing to share your opinion but quite another to keep repeating your point of view that clearly defies reason and facts. Buck's record speaks for itself. His stats don't lie. To say you like Buck Pierce is fine. To (repeatedly) say he's a good QB and gives us our best chance to win when it's evident that this isn't the case, simply comes off as carrying on an argument just for the sake of arguing. But in any case, my post was disrespectful and I'm sorry again TUP. To each their own.

Okay, I gotta ask -- are you trolling? Or is this just a prank you're pulling on everyone? What's the deal here? It's been a few weeks of this nonsense so I'm curious. Do you just don't know anything about the game of football? Do you know what a quarterback is? To be honest, it seems you really don't know which player on the team is Buck Pierce. Have you ever actually even seen a Bomber game? Let me know...

After today, no point keeping him anymore. But that OL is as bad as I've ever seen & they have to share equally in this **** show. Why no new OL being brought in??? Until the 5 up front start doing their jobs, it's pointless offensively. Absolutely. With no protection from the OL, whoever the QB is will just continue to get pummeled and sit out like Hall today. But hey, at least with our new "veteran" Boltus we'll have a QB to use for every quarter of the game.