CFL Taking Ownership of the Montreal Alouettes

[Mightygoose]

I wouldn't be surprised if his terms and conditions for taking over the team were unreasonable for the BOG and the commish like some of the ridiculous offers we see from the dragons on the show.

Something that the floated around by Dave Naylor was the league wanted Danny Maciocia as part of a deal. DM apparently recruited these ownership groups together including separate ones for with Guzzo and Lapointe.

Guzzo was endorsed but him and Maciocia couldn't work out a deal. With the season starting and no way to implement his guys in both football and business ops, Guzzo decided to put the pause on things and the league has moved on to a new group who may be able to get Danny M in the picture.

Having Maciocia lined up to head the football ops seems to be putting the cart before the horse, Question I have is, if tings go sour will they able to fire him. Or at least put him in another role.

 

[Melrose Munch]

Their really is no demographics problem. I see fans from the Silent Gen, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z and Gen Alpha at all Ti-Cats games.

I don't know what games you're watching but here in Winnipeg there are all ages and races of fans. Of course there's going to be some older white guys as they are a segment of the population.

I beg to differ.

 

[Melrose Munch]

It appears Mr. Guzzo doesn't have too many nice words for the league in this sale process.



The latest rumour circulating is the league is in talks with a group where Eric Lapointe will be part of it in some manner though 'his group' is out of the running.

Too bad, I would have liked too see what Guzzo would have done with the team but backroom deals are where deals are made, not through the media.

I don't like all this picking favorities from the sports leagues recently. It never ends well.

 

[DowntownBooster]

I beg to differ.

When was the last time you attended a game at IG Field?

 

[LeHab]

Their really is no demographics problem. I see fans from the Silent Gen, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z and Gen Alpha at all Ti-Cats games.

Do you have data to support your claim? CFL seems to acknowledge challenges Attendance is down and few millennials are watching — so should the CFL be worried?

This is not limited to CFL, most sports face the same. Younger generations grow up with a lot of more entertainment options. Many don't even signup to traditional cable. Internet offers such much potential to enhance engament but when you can't even watch your team (blackouts) unless you also have a cable subscription there is a problem. Slowly things are changing...

 

[Kyle McMahon]

Something that the floated around by Dave Naylor was the league wanted Danny Maciocia as part of a deal. DM apparently recruited these ownership groups together including separate ones for with Guzzo and Lapointe.

Guzzo was endorsed but him and Maciocia couldn't work out a deal. With the season starting and no way to implement his guys in both football and business ops, Guzzo decided to put the pause on things and the league has moved on to a new group who may be able to get Danny M in the picture.

Having Maciocia lined up to head the football ops seems to be putting the cart before the horse, Question I have is, if tings go sour will they able to fire him. Or at least put him in another role.

DM should never be employed as more than a water boy by any CFL franchise. God help the Als if he gets brought in to rebuild the on-field product.

 

[Zenos]

As usual, I find talk of the (future) demise of the CFL to be to be quite exaggerated.
In the last decade we've seen Hamilton, Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, and Toronto move into basically brand new, fan-friendly stadiums, whilst Ottawa, Edmonton, and Vancouver's have seen significant renovations (both BC Place and TD/Landsdowne in particular are essentially "new" stadiums post-reno). And you still have the good TV deal with TSN pulling in strong ratings.

The Montreal situation isn't good, nor is Toronto's, but I don't think those are insurmountable problems. Particularly with MLSE's backing, I could see the Argos turn things around. No, they probably won't ever achieve the kinds of crowds common-place in the prairies, but they also don't have to.

 

[Fulham]

Football is Dead on the west coast. The School district I live in has removed HS football for safety reasons. And the UBC Thunderbirds no longer get university funding, its all alumni donations.

 

[PCSPounder]

MLS crowds in Montreal and Vancouver are noticeably down this year. If the BC Lions are decent this year, they will probably outdraw the WhiteCaps.

A good number of us in Portland do not like the Timbers GM Gavin Wilkinson. It is knowing that truth when I throw the curve at people to say Wilkinson is only the 2nd worst GM in Cascadia.

The Whitecaps are a mess, between their knack for signing retreads and their achingly slow acknowledgement of the problems with the lack of system to deal with the former perv coach of the women's team, current racist coach, and so on.

 

[Mightygoose]

Vince Guzzo and Danny Maciocia we're guests with TSN's Tony Marinaro at different times today. Continuing their barbs on it unravelled







Vincenzo Guzzo “MrSunshine” on Twitter

The league can't be pleased on how this is going down. If Ambroise is really pushing Maciocia in the mix, the board needs to step in and just simply focus on getting ownership first and let them work on football ops later.

 

[Mightygoose]

 

[Kyle McMahon]

Sounds like the CFL is better off without either of them. A team could certainly fill all of their Canadian roster spots with Quebec-born players without much trouble. But if Guzzo's vision was to shoe-horn local talent into positions typically dominated by imports, that would be a disaster. Not surprised to hear the Danny's ego was causing issues though. This idiot turned the New York Yankees of the CFL into the New York Mets in about two short years, but exuded unrestrained arrogance through every second of it. If Randy Ambrosie is really pushing for him to be prominently involved as a condition of sale, I've lost a lot of faith in him. I'm not saying nobody should ever get a second chance, but giving DM the keys to another franchise would be a colossal mistake.

 

[Melrose Munch]

this is already a mess.

 

[Takuto Maruki]

The Whitecaps are a mess, between their knack for signing retreads and their achingly slow acknowledgement of the problems with the lack of system to deal with the former perv coach of the women's team, current racist coach, and so on.

Plus, the selling of Alphonso Davies to Bayern Munich (While a move that I probably would have made as well, and a move that does well for Davies' career considering the shit show that is surrounding the 'Caps) basically gave the white flag to most casual fans to stop caring for the team. The fact that the team basically had a farewell tour for the kid last year was honestly kind of hilarious and sad.

 

[Jeti]

Obviously on the revenue, I was talking about the basic expenses to operate a CFL franchise.



I don't think so. The CFL is quite strong on the prairies, Hamilton and Ottawa. TV ratings in the GTA, lower mainland and Quebec are great. The issue is trying to exist in the central city of the 3 largest (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal). If they had a stadium in Mississauga or Vaughan they'd be fine. Just a basic stadium like Hamilton's, $200 million. Same goes for Montreal. Football is insanely popular in Quebec, the location of the stadium is horrendous.

As a league the CFL really needs to start a capital fund to assist their franchises in building/upgrading facilities. Start by diverting a certain percentage of league revenues (TV, league sponsorships etc.)

How is the location of the Montreal stadium horrendous? It's at McGill. It's a short walk from both downtown and the plateau. It could be closer to a metro, but it's really not bad. There's no parking but Montreal is not Toronto - it's not a car city. A suburban stadium would be a disaster.

Unless you're referencing the Olympic stadium which for some reason several people have mentioned in this thread despite the team not playing there.

 

[PCSPounder]

Plus, the selling of Alphonso Davies to Bayern Munich (While a move that I probably would have made as well, and a move that does well for Davies' career considering the **** show that is surrounding the 'Caps) basically gave the white flag to most casual fans to stop caring for the team. The fact that the team basically had a farewell tour for the kid last year was honestly kind of hilarious and sad.

When you're a league like MLS- and it's only this year where the owners have finally acknowledged this- you have to be able to sell on young people and use the proceeds to find more players like Davies. Keep doing that and getting better at it, THEN you can start talking about keeping someone like Davies down the line.

In that vein, I think Davies wasn't around long enough to disappoint Lower Mainland fans with his departure. The more systemic issues are a bigger problem given what I've seen.

 

[Mightygoose]

Prospective #Alouettes owners the Lenkov brothers are at the #Alouettes #Eskimos game today with #cfl staff & commissioner Ambrose. Andre Reed and Vince Ferragamo are their guests. @CFLonTSN

Lenkov Brothers are from Montreal but are based in LA.

Not sure who else is part of this group. Doesn't seem to have enough deep local roots IMO. Then again it depends on who they hire to run the team.

 

[Newsworthy]

True but could the same thing be said about Major League Baseball or the PGA? Both of those organizations tend to have old white guys as their core customer. Seemingly only MLS and the NBA have solved this problem and that ties into the international nature of those sports. I suspect the CFL will have to MLB and the PGA to learn from their experience.

You are completely wrong about baseball. Baseball has tons of young fans. Hockey is no different than MLB.

 

[LeHab]

And now Al's GM gets the boot.

Alouettes keep reason for firing of general manager Kavis Reed close to vest



RDS reports Reed was paying businesses who would then pay players to circumvent the cap.

https://www.rds.ca/football/alouett...-kavis-reed-releve-de-ses-fonctions-1.6856200

 

[sexydonut]

Not sure about Montreal, but in Vancouver and Toronto, CFL is about as attractive and fashionable as aerosol cheese or carton wine.

Really doesn't help when the action at BC Lions games occurs in the second half--In the stands, with alcohol infused brawls.

 

[Mightygoose]

And now Al's GM gets the boot.

Alouettes keep reason for firing of general manager Kavis Reed close to vest



RDS reports Reed was paying businesses who would then pay players to circumvent the cap.

https://www.rds.ca/football/alouett...-kavis-reed-releve-de-ses-fonctions-1.6856200

How long has this circumvention been going on for? I have a hard time seeing Reed being able to pull this off by himself. I wouldn't surprise me if these practices we're going on for year with the Wettenhal's more specifically Andrew backing this and now being cleaned up under the league's ownership.

By creating these false companies and putting personal expenses and having the team foot the bill, losing 12 million and change last year as reported may make more sense.

Sad thing, circumventing and over paying players still put them at or near the league's basement.

A big mess to clean up for the Lenkovs should they take over.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Went from stable owners to nothing fast

 

[Boeser Fan]

Football is Dead on the west coast. The School district I live in has removed HS football for safety reasons. And the UBC Thunderbirds no longer get university funding, its all alumni donations.

The UBC part might be true but the rest is some fake news. High School Football is very much alive in British Columbia in 2019 with NFL Rules!

 

[EpochLink]

The UBC part might be true but the rest is some fake news. High School Football is very much alive in British Columbia in 2019 with NFL Rules!

I grew up in the Prairies and is and still support the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (currently 4-0).
Problem is with the BC market is that we have the Seahawks, Canucks, Whitecaps (who currently are nothing to rave about with their recent struggles) that occupy our time.

We have other things to do besides sports, so it's just meh.

 

[wildcat48]

Is Vincenzo Guzzo a Canadian version of Donald Trump? I just took a couple minutes to scan his twitter and he seems to be a rather eccentric person.