Hamilton TiCats say thanks, but no thanks to Bills

[3 minute warning]

http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/news_story/?ID=228878&hubname=

Interesting development.

[Bravo82]

suprised nobody commented on this...this is HUGE news.

[geargo]

suprised nobody commented on this...this is HUGE news.

Yes and Bob Young the owner of the ticats has almost as much money as ted rogers... he will have some clout in this

[RPM]

All that means is the Tiger-Cats are giving up their share of the pie...

other than that this has no other ramifications..

[NFLfan_to]

Who gives a rats *** about the Hamilton TiCats? They aren't even in Toronto.

[Ookie Mexico]

The Hamilton TiCats don't draw very well anyways. They are the worst team in the CFL. Hamilton is alot like Buffalo in size and blue collar enviroment.

The people who are TiCats fans weren't likely to afford the ticket package for the Toronto games anyways.

[TigerTough]

Here is what the Tiger Cat fans are saying on the team website.

http://www.ticats.ca/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=24491

[strummer50]

Who gives a rats *** about the Hamilton TiCats? They aren't even in Toronto.

According to the Hamilton Spectator today Hamilton is not only saying no thanks but also turning down the (bribe) of 5,000 seats. Those seats were to be Hamilton's to draw in Ti Cat season ticket holders. By saying no thanks Hamilton is also freeing up 5,000 seats.

Secondly Hamilton is making a stand. Bob Young does not want the Bills in Toronto. He supports the Bills being in Buffalo. Young wants the CFL to make a league wide stand on this before accepting the game. So if you care about the Bills in Buffalo you should give a rats bottom about Young making a stand.

Unrelated note that same article from the Spectator this morning mentioned Toronto's ticket allotment is 20,000. It did not say if that was split up between the 8 games or 20,000 seats per game.

[NFLfan_to]

According to the Hamilton Spectator today Hamilton is not only saying no thanks but also turning down the (bribe) of 5,000 seats. Those seats were to be Hamilton's to draw in Ti Cat season ticket holders. By saying no thanks Hamilton is also freeing up 5,000 seats.

Secondly Hamilton is making a stand. Bob Young does not want the Bills in Toronto. He supports the Bills being in Buffalo. Young wants the CFL to make a league wide stand on this before accepting the game. So if you care about the Bills in Buffalo you should give a rats bottom about Young making a stand.

Unrelated note that same article from the Spectator this morning mentioned Toronto's ticket allotment is 20,000. It did not say if that was split up between the 8 games or 20,000 seats per game.

Bob Young is just protecting his investment, and using patriotism to do it. The CFL owners are lazy, how about marketing your product better? The CFL has been taking tax money and getting grants since the beginning of time. If they cannot survive with the arrival of competition, then they don't deserve to be around anyways.

[strummer50]

Bob Young is just protecting his investment, and using patriotism to do it. The CFL owners are lazy, how about marketing your product better? The CFL has been taking tax money and getting grants since the beginning of time. If they cannot survive with the arrival of competition, then they don't deserve to be around anyways.

Won't find an argument here. Still his trying to protect the Cats may be helpful. Also here is the link listing ticket allotment.. Steve Milton's article
http://www.thespec.com/Sports/Local%20Sports/article/320023

Steve Milton
The Hamilton Spectator
(Feb 5, 2008)
The Tiger-Cats are right.

And that's not something you've read in this newspaper very often in recent years.

It must have taken some serious hand-wringing for the Tiger-Cats to turn thumbs down on the deal bringing Buffalo Bills games to Rogers Centre, but in the end, the decision was the correct one.

The Cats aren't necessarily flipping the bird at the National Football League (with which the Canadian Football League still has no formal agreement). What they're rejecting is the group, which wants to bring the NFL to town and doesn't care about running the CFL out. And that, folks, would be the inevitable result, however long it takes.
The language in the proposed agreement between the Tiger-Cats and Argos and Rogers Stadium Limited Partnership was indeed far too ***ue. And in business, '***ue' can turn to 'deadly' in a real hurry. If you climb into bed with a dragon, you'll eventually wake up with your pyjamas on fire.

A highly-placed CFL source suggested to The Spec on the weekend that the Tannenbaum-Rogers bunch -- representing only about 95 per cent of the sports money in this shire -- wanted a general letter of support from the Tiger-Cats on their NFL concept.

Ticat president Scott Mitchell adamantly refused to comment on that, but it wouldn't be a shocker if it were true.

With suggestions already surfacing that the federal government should look at protecting a Canadian cultural institution -- the CFL can't truly be just a business when everyone expects to lose money every year -- it sure wouldn't hurt the Rogers Stadium Limited Partnership bunch to have a letter in hand that shows the condemned man agreed to the general concept of his own execution.

The Tiger-Cats are cutting that argument off at the pass, thank you very much.

It's a far different story for Argos' owners Howard Sokolosi and David Cynamon. After putting their hearts and souls and wallets into resuscitating a proud brand, their franchise is caught in the middle of this carpetbagging hurricane. It's happening with or without them, and with 20,000 NFL ducats at their disposal they can at least reap some benefit by extra season's ticket sales from the right to purchase NFL seats addendum.
Rogers is also ultimately their landlord, and a much more benevolent landlord than previous Argo regimes had. Still, it wouldn't necessarily be wise to cross them.

And the Cats and Argos have differed from the very start on how to handle the NFL threat.

In this case, each franchise is doing what it must do.

[strummer50]

Here's the other article mentioning 5,000 seats for the Cats http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/319987

February 05, 2008
Ken Peters
The Hamilton Spectator
(Feb 5, 2008)
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats say American football is not welcome on this side of the border.

The team issued a press release yesterday stating the club will not take part in a plan by the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League to play eight games over the next five seasons in Toronto.

As part of the proposal, the Ticats would have received 5,000 tickets for the eight contests to sell to their season ticket subscribers.

"Price is one issue," said club president Scott Mitchell, adding Hamiltonians who want to watch the Bills could make the one-hour trip to Orchard Park, N.Y., at a fraction of what the Toronto tickets would cost.

He says his team's season ticket-holders would have been charged as much as $2,000 for one ticket to see all eight contests.

"But we also don't feel as an organization we should support an initiative like this without a larger agreement in place between the CFL and NFL," Mitchell noted.

He also said the club wants to know what the NFL's long-range plans are for Canada.

"I think it is fair to say that a full-time NFL team in Toronto is probably not in our best interests."

Mitchell said he hopes Canadian Football League fans will appreciate the fact his organization is standing up for the league by refusing to support the Bills' initiative.

"At least until we know what the broader agreement is," he stated.

The Bills and Argos are expected to announce details about the NFL games at Rogers Centre at a news conference tomorrow.

[geargo]

Here's the other article mentioning 5,000 seats for the Cats http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/319987

February 05, 2008
Ken Peters
The Hamilton Spectator
(Feb 5, 2008)
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats say American football is not welcome on this side of the border.

The team issued a press release yesterday stating the club will not take part in a plan by the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League to play eight games over the next five seasons in Toronto.

As part of the proposal, the Ticats would have received 5,000 tickets for the eight contests to sell to their season ticket subscribers.

"Price is one issue," said club president Scott Mitchell, adding Hamiltonians who want to watch the Bills could make the one-hour trip to Orchard Park, N.Y., at a fraction of what the Toronto tickets would cost.

He says his team's season ticket-holders would have been charged as much as $2,000 for one ticket to see all eight contests.

"But we also don't feel as an organization we should support an initiative like this without a larger agreement in place between the CFL and NFL," Mitchell noted.

He also said the club wants to know what the NFL's long-range plans are for Canada.

"I think it is fair to say that a full-time NFL team in Toronto is probably not in our best interests."

Mitchell said he hopes Canadian Football League fans will appreciate the fact his organization is standing up for the league by refusing to support the Bills' initiative.

"At least until we know what the broader agreement is," he stated.

The Bills and Argos are expected to announce details about the NFL games at Rogers Centre at a news conference tomorrow.

Yea why would ticat fans drive to toronto and pay all that money, when buffalo is only about an hours drive. toronto is about 45 minutes from hamilton so for 15 minutes they can save a lot of money by going to buffalo. This is why it does not make sense for alot of Canadian fans to pay the prices they want, when Buffalo really is not that far away and for less then half the price

[Ookie Mexico]

Yea why would ticat fans drive to toronto and pay all that money, when buffalo is only about an hours drive. toronto is about 45 minutes from hamilton so for 15 minutes they can save a lot of money by going to buffalo. This is why it does not make sense for alot of Canadian fans to pay the prices they want, when Buffalo really is not that far away and for less then half the price

You have the bridge traffic to deal with to cross to Buffalo. It's not that hard to get on a Go train and go to Toronto.

[geargo]

Won't find an argument here. Still his trying to protect the Cats may be helpful. Also here is the link listing ticket allotment.. Steve Milton's article
http://www.thespec.com/Sports/Local%20Sports/article/320023

Steve Milton
The Hamilton Spectator
(Feb 5, 2008)
The Tiger-Cats are right.

And that's not something you've read in this newspaper very often in recent years.

It must have taken some serious hand-wringing for the Tiger-Cats to turn thumbs down on the deal bringing Buffalo Bills games to Rogers Centre, but in the end, the decision was the correct one.

The Cats aren't necessarily flipping the bird at the National Football League (with which the Canadian Football League still has no formal agreement). What they're rejecting is the group, which wants to bring the NFL to town and doesn't care about running the CFL out. And that, folks, would be the inevitable result, however long it takes.
The language in the proposed agreement between the Tiger-Cats and Argos and Rogers Stadium Limited Partnership was indeed far too ***ue. And in business, '***ue' can turn to 'deadly' in a real hurry. If you climb into bed with a dragon, you'll eventually wake up with your pyjamas on fire.

A highly-placed CFL source suggested to The Spec on the weekend that the Tannenbaum-Rogers bunch -- representing only about 95 per cent of the sports money in this shire -- wanted a general letter of support from the Tiger-Cats on their NFL concept.

Ticat president Scott Mitchell adamantly refused to comment on that, but it wouldn't be a shocker if it were true.

With suggestions already surfacing that the federal government should look at protecting a Canadian cultural institution -- the CFL can't truly be just a business when everyone expects to lose money every year -- it sure wouldn't hurt the Rogers Stadium Limited Partnership bunch to have a letter in hand that shows the condemned man agreed to the general concept of his own execution.

The Tiger-Cats are cutting that argument off at the pass, thank you very much.

It's a far different story for Argos' owners Howard Sokolosi and David Cynamon. After putting their hearts and souls and wallets into resuscitating a proud brand, their franchise is caught in the middle of this carpetbagging hurricane. It's happening with or without them, and with 20,000 NFL ducats at their disposal they can at least reap some benefit by extra season's ticket sales from the right to purchase NFL seats addendum.
Rogers is also ultimately their landlord, and a much more benevolent landlord than previous Argo regimes had. Still, it wouldn't necessarily be wise to cross them.
And the Cats and Argos have differed from the very start on how to handle the NFL threat.

In this case, each franchise is doing what it must do.

You what the joke is? The Argos were ready to move to a new stadium shared with the Toronto FC but rogers offered them Free rent so they would not leave the dome. As a result the Toronto FC built the stadium but with a smaller seating capacity since the Argos decided to take the rogers deal. And you cant blame them.. But now rogers has them by the ba**s and they must concede to his whims now, since they really dont have anywhere else to go.