blueandgoldguy

But if it's truly what you have done for me lately, what have the Riders done the last 5 years?

Perhaps that tweet deserves it own thread!

Great signing. If he lives up to the hype the Bombers will continue to have the top 1 or 2 O-lines in the league for some time yet.

The details of the stadium deal were shall we say less than ideal. However, the former government did get the Bombers a new stadium. Imagine if they had only agreed to limited finding...say $25 - $50 million to do a reasonably modest patch job on the old stadium (as Brodbeck suggested). That would have bought the team 10 - 15 years at most as parts of the stadium were already having significant integrity issues - something a cheap patch job would not fully alleviate. Unlikely the new PC government would have given the Bombers much needed funds to construct a new stadium given current austerity measures...and before you know it the Bombers would be having another stadium crisis in the 2020s.

So when are the Dukes of Hazzard and Married with Children coming back? How about the Cosby Show?

The Bombers were making their payments and had a surplus as well. This seems entirely unnecessary on the surface. They has also invested in the stadium so saying there was no capital investments in the stadium is not entirely true. The organization had removed seating and replaced it with additional loge seating, removed other seating and enlarged standing room area in the north end zone, expanded the Rum Hut. Then again, when it comes to major capital investments, perhaps the Bombers will not have the future surplus available for such expenditures. The video boards for example are coming up on their 6th year of use. How many more years can we realistically expect before they are obsolete and replacement parts are difficult to come by? Another 5 or 6 years? I would think replacing both boards would cost a few million at the very least. With the Bombers barely meeting their annual debt obligations their surplus would be severely reduced just for this one expenditure. And who knows what other major investments will be required in the next 5,10,15 years? Might require tens of millions the Bombers currently do not have. Forgoing annual debt repayments would allow them to increase their surplus to the point that such future expenditures would be feasible. Overall, I have mixed feelings about this. I guess in an ideal world, the Bombers average attendance is 30,000 year in and year out and they draw 3 - 4 concerts per year allowing them to easily meet their obligations and increasing their surplus by several million each year, thus allowing a reasonable cash flow for future stadium expenditures and no need for further government intervention. Sadly, that has not come to pass.

Well, the Bombers still control their destiny. Win out and the overtake Edmonton at the bare minimum in the West Division. I can see one victory in Edmonton, but two? Pretty unlikely given the struggles of the offence and the inability of the defence to hold good offences to respectable yardage and points.

I have read the Eskimos thread on the HFBoards Oilers board and at least a few there say the GM Sunderland does not have very good connections down south. Sound familiar?

BC is great at home. Whenever a team from the east has to cross three time zones to play in Vancouver it will always be an uphill battle. I expect BC to win their three remaining home games vs. Edmonton, Toronto and Calgary (last game of the season for the Stamps).

Good teams find a way to win. Riders defense has been good to dominant for most of the season. Their special teams are up there with the best in the league. Meanwhile the Bombers offense has been below average for most of the season while the defense outside a few games against weak teams has been 6th or 7th best in the league. Special teams has also been mediocre. Hence, our sub.500 record.

https://www.cfl.ca/2018/04/19/winnipeg-football-club-posts-operating-profit-5-1-million-2017/ Revenue reached a total of $32.5 million in 2017 (an increase of $2.9 million over 2016), and is owed primarily to increased attendance at Investors Group Field in 2017.

With regards to the quality of quarterbacking in the league, it's amazing how quickly things can change within a couple years. Flashback to 2016 - Nichols emerges as a legit starter in Winnipeg putting together several good outings. Jonathan Jennings has a phenomenal rookie season in BC. Looks like they will be set for the next decade. Ricky Ray did not play much during the season, but when he did he was still impressive for the Argos Collaros had just come off a fantastic season that was cut short by injury. While he struggled a bit in 2016, he still posted decent numbers and was considered an excellent QB. Reilly was already a great Qb for Edmonton. Franklin's limited snaps had many viewers drooling over his potential Same with Mitchell in Calgary. Burris just came off an MOP season in 2015 and put together a heck of a run to win the Grey Cup. Oh, his backup Trevor Harris, looked pretty good, winning eastern all-star accolades. Glenn was solid if unspectacular in Montreal although given what he had to work you couldn't expect much more. Better than anything they have today... Saskatchewan had a declining Durant. While not the same player he had been prior to 2014, he was OK and like Glenn, probably couldn't be expected to do much better given the lack of talent on the riders in 2016. Here we are in 2018... -Ray appears to be done due to injury. His replacements, Franklin and Bethel-Thompson...the former very disappointing so far while the latter will probably post no better than Journeyman-type numbers. -Jennings regressed massively in 2017 and has not regained his form. Could be one-season wonder. Lulay, the former starter is no longer the elite Qb he once was due to injuries. - Nichols has ranged between average and awful...basically playing like a backup for the most part -Collaros hasn't been any better looking shell-shocked for 2 seasons now. His days as an elite starter, maybe even an average starter, are over. Riders' backup Bridge is too raw and will never amount to anything more than a quick-fix..athletic with a good arm but little else. -Burris has retired. While Harris can be maddening with his inconsistency from game-to-game, I think we have seen enough to label him as a good QB. - Reilly is still elite and the MOP of the league yet again. Bidding war ensuing in the off-season and imo he will sign for in excess of $600 or 650,000 next year. - Mitchell is elite. Just ask him. He will also sign for over 600,000 next year. -MOntreal still desperately searching for a starter. Could Manziel or Pipken be the answer? Possibly, but will either of them be better then average? - Hamilton has been the only team that appears to have found a legit good starter that was relatively unknown a couple years ago. Masoli has shown flashes of greatness but appears to have difficulty finishing off drives and has a greater tendency towards brain farts then the greats in the game. All in all, it appear we have 4 good to great Qbs in the league at the present with a whole lot of question marks outside of that.

Most CFL players were screwed during the last CBA negotiations. Minimal bump in the league minimum and practice roster players and the ceilings for team salaries hardly increased .....even with the new TV contract that increased threefold. THe Bombers had 32 million in revenues last year, yet the players received around $5 million of that. That's around 17% of revenues. The players definitely deserve a larger cut during the next round of negotiations. Sadly, that may not happen.

I have no faith Nichols and the offense have the game to match Edmonton next week. We need to hope Reilly turns over the ball several times to have any chance in that game.

This is easily one of the best finishers of all time. Looks legit devastating - 200+ pounds crashing down on your chest and throat.

Jets game going on.,,,yeah, it's pre-season but I'm sure there were 13 - 14,000 people there. Many have lost faith in the Bombers this season. I can't blame them. No surprise there was less than 20,000 at the game.

Walters will have to bring in an international receiver to put some pressure on Adams then. Just use his vast network of contacts from down south.

Walby named Nichols the player of the game.

Heh, heh. Long-term injuries to those three will give the Bombers the perfect excuse to bring back all the coaches next season.

before that final Bomber drive with less than 2 minutes left they had 90 net yards on offense. Finished with 150. Not particularly great. Walby thinks the Bombers played a pretty good game. I disagree. Adequate comes to mind.

How about a positive thread for a change... Fritz Hanson - the first superstar in Bomber history and one of the all-time greats from the early days of Canadian football - will be inducted to the Ring of Honour. https://www.bluebombers.com/2018/09/18/ring-honour-inductee-fritz-hanson/ They called him ‘Twinkletoes’, the ‘Perham Flash’ and the ‘Galloping Ghost’, and every nickname just seemed to perfectly describe his enthralling skillset. Melvin ‘Fritz’ Hanson was the first superstar in the history of the Winnipeg Football Club, pre-dating all the legends in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ long and storied history, arriving decades before Stegall and Roberts, Ploen, Lewis, Gray, Tinsley, Brown, Brock, James and Walby. Hanson – the 2018 inductee into the club’s Ring of Honour – first appeared on the local football scene in 1935 during the Great Depression – spurring a $1,000 offer from the New York Giants to sign in Winnipeg instead for $800 along with a new overcoat and the chance to be close to his hometown in Perham, Minnesota. And he instantly put the franchise on Canada’s sporting map. The ‘Winnipegs’ – as they were known then, before the nickname ‘Blue Bombers’ was hung on them by Free Press sportswriter Vince Leah – had fallen in the Grey Cup semi-final in 1933 and were just 3-4 a year later when the Bombers added Hanson. The game was changing then, with more American college players migrating north to Canada and passing coming into vogue. Long overdue but I'm glad it's finally happening.

Murph sure caught a lot of long bombs for TDs back in the day. In fact most of them appeared to be of that variety. He sure as hell would have trouble getting more than a handful today given our current starting QB.

Edmonton has nearly 50 more net yards per game on offense. That is significantly better than the Bombers.

Every coach and gm, past and present, bring valuable things to the table - even the Mike Kellys and Kavis Reeds of the world. That's not a compelling enough reason to keep them. Do those valuable things outweigh all the non-valuable or bad things they bring to the table?

Where would this show with Omega be held? University of Manitoba?