The bid for a tenth team continues to be a hot topic in the CFL. With the league and Halifax going in opposite directions, the CFL has plans to turn its attention to Quebec City. But, is Quebec City a viable option for a CFL team?
Last December, I wrote an article about why the CFL should consider expanding into the United States placing teams close to the U.S. and Canada border. Some like the idea while others didn’t.
In the article, I mentioned that the CFL should do what it can to place teams in Canada like Moncton, Thunder Bay, and Red Deer, but many fans kept pointing out Quebec City, which is a city I did not mention.
Quebec City is 262.4 kilometers from Montreal, or two hours and 41 minutes from each other. Quebec City is home to the collegiate powerhouse Laval Rouge et Or. They play at Telus Stadium which seats 12,817 up to 18,000 standing room only. The CFL requires stadiums to have 20,000 or more seats for them to put a team there.
In their history, Quebec City and Montreal had one of the most furious rivalries in the NHL. The Canadiens and Nordiques played each other from 1979 until 1995 when the Nordiques moved to Colorado and became the Avalanche. In that time, the Canadiens won the all-time series 79-53-12 including 17-14 in the postseason.
Last year, CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie met with businessman Jacques Tanguay, who helped launch Laval University in 1996. The Rouge et Or have won the Vanier Cup 11 times, the Uteck Bowls eight times, four Mitchell Bowl wins, one Churchill Bowl win, and 16 Dunsmore Cups victories. Tanguay was also responsible for bringing back the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts in 1997, which was bought by Quebecor in 2014, the company run by Montreal Alouettes owner Pierre Karl Peladeau.
However, getting a CFL team to Quebec City is a challenge because in an interview with Benoit Rioux of Le Journal de Montreal, Tanguay spoke about a future CFL team in Quebec City.
“Mr. Ambrosie is a kind and courteous man, but we cannot even think about a CFL team in Quebec at the moment because there is no infrastructure to accommodate a club in Quebec. It’s a project that could perhaps happen one day, but it would require new infrastructure and the investment won’t come from the private sector… For the PEPS, it’s made for 12,500 people [seated], and the reality, is that it is impossible to enlarge with what is around. It does not meet the standards of the Canadian League.”
For a CFL team to become a reality in Quebec City, either Telus Stadium expands its seating capacity, renovates the stadium to add more seats, or a new stadium is built which of course would not sit well with taxpayers. Quite frankly, no taxpayers should ever have to pay to build new stadiums.
The CFL has played two preseason games in Quebec City which had mixed results. The first happened on June 7, 2003, when the Montreal Alouettes beat the Ottawa Renegades 54-23 in front of 10,358 fans. The most recent game happened on June 13, 2015, when the Montreal Alouettes beat the Ottawa Redblacks 26-9 in front of only 4,778 fans.
My concerns for a Quebec City CFL team are while they are passionate about their Laval football team, they may not have that same passion for a CFL team. In order to see how a CFL team does in Quebec City would be to do a “test run” in which the league and the city come to an agreement on a two or three-year deal to have two to three regular season games in Quebec City featuring the Montreal Alouettes, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and Toronto Argonauts.
As I mentioned about the United States, CFL divisional teams play each other three times a season. The league could place one of those matchups on a neutral site and see how it goes. If the Quebec City fans respond well to it, then maybe there is a chance to get their own team in the future. If not, the league will know where it is not supported by the public.
Can a CFL team work in Quebec City? If the league can get Jacques Tanguay on board and the concerns are met, I think it can work. As for a potential owner of Quebec City, the league should try to reach out to Canadian businessman Steve Apostolopoulos, who tried to buy the Washington Commanders for $6 billion, and see if he would be interested in owning a CFL team.
I would like to see the CFL try to get people like Apostolopoulos to invest in the league whether it be owning a current team or an expansion team. If that can happen, the CFL could be in great shape to thrive in the near future.
