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Less than two years after the Ottawa Renegades collapsed under the weight of millions of dollars in losses, a group of Ottawa businessmen have committed to spend $7-million to get a team back.
The CFL yesterday awarded a conditional franchise to a group fronted by Ottawa 67's owner Jeff Hunt. The group includes three of the city's prominent businessmen in Roger Greenberg, William Shenkman and John Ruddy.
The deal hinges on the city rebuilding Frank Clair Stadium, the former home of the Rough Riders and Renegades, which had its south side stands condemned last fall.
Though a slew of owners have tried and failed over the past 25 years in Ottawa, CFL commissioner Mark Cohon believes the latest group offers a unique combination of local connections, business savvy and a proved history of sports operation. Ruddy, Shenkman and Greenberg are all real estate and land developers, while Hunt has made his name as the successful owner of the 67's, one of junior hockey's marquee franchises.
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"My job as commissioner is to find the right group and I think we've done that," Cohon said. "These are businessmen in this community who can call on friends and colleagues to support the team in sponsorship. They are community leaders who have deep roots here. And Jeff Hunt knows how to operate a sports franchise and we have an opportunity to leverage with the 67's office. Most often the teams that are successful have local ownership."
The awarding of an Ottawa franchise is somewhat of a coup for Cohon, who took over 10 months ago and has spent a good part of his first year dealing with implications of the Buffalo Bills playing games in Toronto.
In granting the CFL's ninth franchise to Ottawa, the league is able to look to the future at the same time Cohon works toward a coexistence strategy with the NFL, aimed at protecting the CFL teams in Toronto and Hamilton.
"I think it's very important we continue to show momentum," Cohon said. "The fact that we found a local ownership group and got a $7-million franchise fee are indicators of where this league is going. I've always believed it and now we have some facts to back it up."
The $7-million fee represents one of the largest price tags yet for a CFL team. But with the league in the first year of a five-year, $80-million television deal with TSN, owners of the eight existing teams weren't willing to part with a share of league revenue without a financial commitment from Ottawa. Also significant is the fact that the new owners are all living in Ottawa or closely tied to the city, whereas several past CFL efforts to find local investors had come up dry.
"We were one of the original investors in the Ottawa Senators and the Senators almost failed two and three times and then Eugene Melnyk came along and got a great opportunity — that happens in business," said Shenkman, who lives in London, England, but continues to do business in Ottawa. "We invested in the Senators and lost our money but it was something to add to the city and it put us on the map. The CFL isn't the same but it's Canadian, it's unique and it's an important part of life here. We're going to try our hardest and do our best and hopefully it works."
The city is in the midst of a year-long process to decide what to do with the stadium and the area around it known as Lansdowne Park, including launching a worldwide design competition.
Shenkman said his group has several ideas on how the stadium might be designed and financed but stressed the football team's existence does not hinge on his group winning the right to develop the stadium and land around it.
"I hear people saying these are greedy land developers," Shenkman said. "This is not an all-or-nothing land deal by any means. The facility is as bad as it can get and there's no reason for that. Ottawa deserves something world class."
Just how good Ottawa's new team will be may depend on when the stadium is ready. The formula for expansion is set out in the CFL's labour agreement, which does not expire until May of 2010. It allows each existing team to protect two quarterbacks, seven Canadians and nine U.S.-born players That formula has been blamed by some for making it hard for the former Renegades to compete.
