One other Gray Cup title could be good, however so would affirmation that there will probably be a 2020 CFL season regardless of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Possibly the silver coin that may sit beneath the brand new turf on the TD Place stadium can present some luck and assist make a Canadian Soccer League season occur within the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, the Redblacks held a ceremony to bury a 2016 silver greenback within the sub-surface of the sector, hoping to channel the Gray Cup karma of the 2016 championship staff for future editions of the membership. The thought goes again to 2014, when a 1976 silver greenback was put beneath the turf, with a nod to the 1976 Tough Riders, the final earlier Ottawa staff to win a Gray Cup title.
So about that CFL season, which has been pushed again to September, if it occurs in any respect. Requested if he was optimistic CFL groups would play in 2020, Ottawa Sports activities and Leisure Group govt chairman and managing companion Roger Greenberg mentioned: “I’d say it’s 50-50. We’re into a really tight timeframe. I don’t assume the governments will permit us to play in entrance of followers, and, sadly, we’re a gate-driven league. It’s not just like the NHL or the NFL and even Main League Baseball, the place they get tons of cash from TV. We don’t. There’s an ask into the federal authorities, there’s an ask of the CFL Gamers’ Affiliation, in addition to all of the groups, to contribute so we are able to play.
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“(The monetary losses) will probably be substantial. We all know we’re going to lose cash, the query is which method can we do it that works greatest for everyone that loses us the least quantity. We’re a price range league. Now we have to keep in mind that and stay inside our means.
“As an proprietor I can let you know, we 100 per cent need to be enjoying in 2020. It’ll be fan-less stadiums, which sucks, nevertheless it’s higher to be seeing it than in no way.”
The underside line for Greenberg and the OSEG possession group has by no means been all concerning the backside line. The franchise has misplaced cash whereas making an attempt to do issues the best method. Greenberg grew up as a Tough Riders fan, sitting within the higher deck of the south facet on the 35-yard line together with his dad. He was additionally in Toronto for the 1976 Gray Cup win.
“One of many first questions I used to be requested once we utilized for the CFL franchise again in 2007, 2008: ‘Why are you doing this?’” Greenberg mentioned. “My reply was, ‘To create reminiscences.’ This isn’t to become profitable. We’re dropping quite a bit. That is to assist create reminiscences for the younger youngsters. It’s not simply that we’re lacking the soccer — that’s an enormous half — however I miss that the gamers and coaches aren’t right here and we are able to’t do the issues we do out locally.”
If the coin can’t save the season, possibly it no less than supplies good karma.
“This (silver coin) labored the primary time round,” Greenberg mentioned. “Two years later, we’re within the Gray Cup. If not for a success on (quarterback) Henry (Burris’s) arm, we might have gained that (2015) Gray Cup. Then the following 12 months, we gained it. You possibly can’t go unsuitable with good luck. I’ve spoken to Marie (Lemay, president and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint), and she or he’s promised me it’s a good-luck coin and she or he didn’t say when, however she did say it will carry us a Gray Cup.”
The unique thought got here from fan Scott Bradley, who despatched Jeff Hunt, then OSEG’s president of sports activities, a silver coin lengthy earlier than the Redblacks performed their first recreation in 2014.
“I discovered the 1976 silver greenback in a drawer and it immediately introduced again reminiscences of that great Ottawa Gray Cup victory,” Bradley mentioned on the time. “Then I believed concerning the Fortunate Loonie that was frozen into the ice to carry luck to the Canadian males’s and ladies’s hockey groups on the 2002 Olympic Winter Video games and questioned if we might do one thing comparable for the Redblacks.”
Redblacks participant Antoine Pruneau shows the 2016 coin that was buried underneath a brand new enjoying floor at TD Place stadium on Tuesday.
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It appears extremely unlikely there will probably be any soccer at TD Place in 2020. If there’s a CFL season, it will in all probability be performed in a hub metropolis, maybe Winnipeg, however the Redblacks will take any karma they’ll get.
“I hope it doesn’t take us two years (to win one other Gray Cup), I hope it’s proper now,” mentioned defensive again Antoine Pruneau, a member of the Cup-winning staff in 2016. “It’s not the coin that’ll make the distinction, it’s the work we’ll must put in. I believe it’s factor to look again at our soccer historical past and keep in mind the place this all got here from.”
The unique subject turf has been eliminated and will probably be changed with FieldTurf Core, a multi-layer floor engineered to offer a extra grass-like really feel. Work ought to be accomplished by subsequent month.