I wasn't there, but all the reports indicate my hometown of Windsor has been having a great time as unofficial co-host of this year's Super Bowl. Friday night, my Mom enjoyed a charity event at which Doug Flutie's band was playing, and took this picture:
Meanwhile, Mayor Eddie Francis is arguing that Windsor should have a CFL expansion team. CFL commissioner Tom Wright says he favours Halifax for the 10th team, as it makes the league coast-to-coast. Still, Windsor hasn't been ruled out entirely. On one hand, Windsor has nearly the population of Halifax and is a good sports town. The 2001 census has Halifax as the 13th ranking metro area with 359,183 people versus Windsor ranking 15th with 307,877. Additionally, there are 5 million Americans within an hour's drive and I do believe some of them would come over with the right marketing... particularly with some former University of Michigan or Michigan State stars on the team. On the other hand, putting a team in Atlantic Canada instead of a 4th team in Ontario certainly makes sense. Windsor is very USA-focused and a lot of conversion would need to take place to build CFL interest. As well, Windsor has spent the past 25 years talking about building a new arena for the Windsor Spitfires and they're still playing in the "barn". It would be nice to see the town get a bit of national attention, however. |
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