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Ottawa Yoga classes, Ottawa Yoga studio, Ottawa yoga teacher - ASTANGA yogadirectorycanada.com |
The Ottawa Canadian Football League team is an unnamed conditional CFL franchise that has been awarded in the city of Ottawa. On March 25, 2008, an ownership group led by Ottawa 67's owner Jeff Hunt was awarded the franchise. The team is expected to play at Frank Clair Stadium if the stadium can be remodeled, and would play in the 2012 CFL season[1] and has been conditionally awarded the right to host the 2014 Grey Cup game.[2] A Can $7 million fee was reported to have been paid.[3] The team originally planned to begin play in 2010. This will be the third CFL team to play in the city. The Ottawa Rough Riders, founded in 1876, was a founding member of the CFL in 1958, playing until 1996. The Ottawa franchise was reborn as the Renegades in 2002, but only lasted until the end of the 2005 season.[3] This new unnamed franchise is a continuation of the Renegades franchise. The situation of Ottawa has been compared to that of Montreal, which went nine years without a team and had its franchise fold twice before the arrival of the Alouettes, and where ice hockey is the number one sport.[4] The team has been in contact with previous Rough Riders owner Horn Chen regarding the Rough Riders name and the team "[knows] his price."[5] The Rough Riders name still retains popular currency among football fans in Ottawa. The Rough Riders were founded in 1876 and enjoyed a 120 year history, during which time they won the Grey Cup nine times.[6] Concurrently, Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk had announced plans to bid for a Major League Soccer franchise to play in Ottawa and to build a new soccer specific stadium near the Senators' Scotiabank Place in support of these plans. Depending on the stadium's design it could possibly be used by a CFL team instead of the aging Frank Clair Stadium. However, the CFL and MLS groups have not indicated that they are co-ordinating their plans. Furthermore, municipal officials have questioned whether the city could support both a CFL and an MLS franchise.[7] In April 2009, the staff of the City of Ottawa presented a report to Council on the merits of the Soccer Stadium and Lansdowne proposals. The city held public hearings based on the report, which questioned the necessity of the spending, but gave a slight edge to the Lansdowne proposal. Councillors attempted to find out whether the SSE group would support sharing their stadium with a planned CFL franchise, but the SSE group rejected the possibility. On April 22, the City of Ottawa Council chose the Lansdowne Live proposal over the SSE proposal as its choice for an outdoor stadium. Over the next several months, negotiations will be made leading up to August 26, where a presentation will be made to Ottawa City Council which could ultimately decide the fate of football in Ottawa in the foreseeable future. On November 12 and November 13, City Council held a public debate to discuss what should be done with the area at Lansdowne Park. Guest speakers included Mark Cohon and former Rough Riders Jock Climie and Mark Cosmos who all presented their case as to why Lansdowne Live was an important contributor to the city of Ottawa.[8] The following Monday, on November 16, it was reported that Ottawa City Council had voted 15-9 in favour of plans to redevelop Lansdowne Park with the purpose of housing a CFL team. [9] The Hunt Group has until June 2010 to sort out the details of the redevelopment with construction likely to begin in the spring of 2011. Given this timeframe, it is probable that the new franchise would not be activated until the 2013 CFL season, however, there is still an outside chance of a 2012 activation. [edit] References
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