From crisis to credibility
Ticats owner Bob Young has dumped tens of millions of dollars into his football team over the past decade, but says the latest $5 million feels more like an investment than a bailout. It should also be his last. “When I got involved in 2004, what frustrated me as a Ticat fan was that the team lurched from financial crisis to financial crisis,” Young said Tuesday as the CFL club announced new developments at Tim Hortons Field. “This money does not relate to propping up the team, this is an investment.”
The funds will go toward improving football-oriented facilities such as the team’s lockerrooms, though undefined improvements to the “fan experi- ence” are also included.
The Cats also announced they have set a record for season ticket sales and are closing in on 15,000.
All corporate suites and club seats are sold out and president Glenn Gibson said the team plans to cap season tickets at 16,000. The $146-million stadium will hold about 24,500 f ans for CFL contests. The first home game is set for July 26 and Gibson said it’s his “expectation that the stadium will be ready.”
Things are also looking up for Young. In addition to the new stadium, the league has a lucrative new TV deal with TSN and the team is coming off a successful season and Grey Cup appearance. Young says it’s been 40 years since the Ticats were in as good a position.
It was early in fourth quarter of a late-October Canadian Football League game last season. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats were down 13 points to Montreal, with a home playoff date on the line. They had lost the week before to these same Alouettes and their promising season seemed about to come undone.
In one play, everything changed. Hamilton’s Brandon Banks took a hand-off and blazed 45 yards to the end zone, dodging a litany of de- fenders as he went. The Ticats still trailed but a nervous crowd was instantaneously electrified, as if they knew — knew — their team was going to win. The momentum had shifted. Final score: Hamilton 27, Montreal 24.
On Tuesday, the Ticats made a bunch of announcements surrounding the new stadium. Owner Bob Young is investing (another) $5 million to upgrade the football f acilities. The team has already set a record for season tickets while selling out their corporate suites and club seats. The food might actually be good and the parking (somewhat) plentiful. All of this is good news, of course, as were the unofficial updates on the stadium construction: Tim Hortons Field may still be missing a bit of paint here and there but it’s looking more and more likely that it will be football ready by the July 26th home opener.
But, beyond the specifics, there was a sense of something more sig- nificant at play: that the Ticats organization just might have momentum on its side. Finally.
Since Young took over the team in 2004, there have been long stretches of futility on the football field and financial frustrations off it. Virtually every element of stadium debate was acrimonious in the extreme and there may still be some very real short-term challenges if the facility turns out to be any combination of late or over budget. But Tim Hortons Field will be a reality this summer and it will be packed with fans — and neither of those things were anything close to a certainty even as recently as five years ago.
And, while the CFL is anything but predictable, the on-field product looks well-positioned for a run of success that would satiate the long-suffering fan base. Under the stewardship of football uber-boss Kent Austin, the Ticats have a team and an organization that seems built for both short-term and longterm success.
Austin drew a straight line from Young’s $5 million to wins on the field.
“Players want to know that the organization is committed to winning, committed to their success, and Bob epitomizes that. It doesn’t go unnoticed,” Austin said.
“It encourages everybody else to be as committed.”
Combine all that with a league enjoying its greatest run of stability in at least a generation, a new TV deal about to kick in and — assuming the league can get a new collective bargaining agreement signed with the players — the Ticats seemed well-positioned for continued success on virtually every level. Young says it’s been 40 years since anyone has been able to say that.
“It’s one thing being able to survive and it’s another thing to be able to run at a level of excellence,” he said. “Today, the team will not only survive, but we will be one of the most successful in the league. We will be able to invest in our athletes and facilities the same way other teams do. That’s what’s exciting.”
The Ticats have always played an integral role in the social f abric of the Hamilton community, so perhaps its not surprising that the team’s resurgence coincides with the city’s gradual reversal of fortune. The team, like the burg it represents, has struggled, then grown and now seems poised to enjoy the bounty extracted from all those painful lessons. There’s cautious optimism being replaced by optimism alone.
Banks’ touchdown against Montreal sparked a rally that started a four-game winning streak that took the Ticats all the way to the Grey Cup.
Momentum, at the right time and in the right circumstance, can be all but unstoppable. Young’s been around this team, and this city long, enough to know one thing to be true.
“It’s a really good time to be a Ticat fan.”