By Sean McIndoe
The organizers of a campaign to save Frank Clair Stadium have a message for Ottawa: if the stadium is destroyed, the city’s chances of hosting another CFL franchise will also be destroyed.
“It goes without saying that if they tear down Lansdowne Park, there is zero chance of the Canadian Football League ever returning here,” says Micky Green, who first spearheaded the campaign. “Once it’s gone, a facility of this type will never again be built.”
Green and other organizers held a public meeting on Sunday at Rick’s Cantina to jump start the campaign, aimed at bringing CFL football back to Ottawa. But organizers realize they have to save Frank Clair Stadium first.
The City of Ottawa is currently considering ways to deal with the estimated $1.5 to $2 million it says it loses each year on the Lansdowne Park complex. Those options could include tearing down part or all of Frank Clair Stadium.
An estimated 400 supporters attended the meeting, where the group unveiled a slogan — “Revive the Pride” — and handed out sign-up sheets to potential volunteers.
Harold Moore, one of the leaders of the movement and president of the 65 Roses Sports Club, is convinced the CFL will return to the region.
“There definitely will be a CFL team here some day, there’s no doubt in my mind about that,” Moore says. “It may not be this year, it may not be next year or even in the next couple of years, but there will be a team of some sort here.”
But Moore says that without a stadium, downtown Ottawa loses any hope of getting the team.
“If the stadium’s not there then (a team) will go to Gloucester or it will go to Nepean or Kanata,” he says. “But football will be dead as far as the City of Ottawa is concerned. We’ll never see it again.”
Despite the turnout to Sunday’s meeting, the group’s biggest challenge may be convincing skeptics that football in Ottawa isn’t already dead.
The campaign has received a lukewarm reception from some local media who say the chances of football returning, with or without a stadium, are slim.
After all, the Rough Riders’ demise two years ago was due in large part to a lack of support from the community.
But Green said a resurrection is financially viable, despite an estimated price tag of $10 million.
“I think it is realistic if you look at what the Canadian Football League wants to see before they’ll return here,” Green says. “Step one is strong community support, and we’ve always had that, without question.”
The campaign organizers say fans turned sour on the Riders only after years of poor teams and mismanagement. Green says a fresh start would lead to renewed fan interest, because “this city has always loved football, there’s no question.”
But the organizers of the movement say football isn’t the only sport affected by the proposed changes.
“Look at everything Ottawa loses if the complex goes. There’s soccer, touch football, the 67s, the Ottawa Gee-Gees, there’s a whole slew of things,” says Rick Sowieta, owner of Rick’s Cantina and president of the Rough Riders alumni association.
“Obviously we’d like to get the football back, but the primary issue is to save Lansdowne.”
Sowieta says while he understands the city’s concern over mounting revenue losses, he worries the value of a complex like Lansdowne can’t be measured in dollars and cents.
“I grew up in the Glebe, in Ottawa South, and I know the sort of vitality that sports can bring to that area,” Sowieta says. “If you lose that, the place can start to feel sterile.”