Vancouver Sun

No news Friday on CFL team in Halifax

Ambrosie still hopeful, but work to be done

- TIM BAINES Twitter: @TimCBaines

After plenty of tire kicking over the years, Atlantic Canada will have to wait a while longer for an announceme­nt that it’s getting a CFL expansion team.

There was talk the CFL would make the huge announceme­nt Friday during the final stop of Randy ’s Road Trip: CFL commission­er Randy Ambrosie’s journey to the home of each of the nine franchises, plus Halifax, which hopes to become the 10th.

While there was no blockbuste­r announceme­nt, the momentum continues to roll and it sure looks like this is going to happen.

“I feel like this has been part of the conversati­on for a very long time,” Ambrosie said. “When do we get a team in Atlantic Canada? I feel like it’s different this time, I really do. I have a feeling there is momentum here ... I don’t think we have a completed CFL until we have this franchise in place. It’s like the national railroad, you just aren’t done until you’re done.”

Ambrosie, Anthony LeB lanc and Bruce Bowser — two of the partners in Maritime Football Limited’s bid to bring a franchise to Halifax — answered questions from some of the 350 or so on hand for Friday ’s forum.

“Patience as a businessma­n is not my strong suit,” said Bowser, CEO of AMJ Campbell.

“If I had my way, we’d be playing this season. We’ve talked to the CFL, we’ve been talking to developers, we’ve had lots of discussion­s with all three levels of government. We’ve had discussion­s with stakeholde­rs. We have all these moving pieces we have to line up. We haven’t hit many roadblocks. We hope within months we can sit here and make announceme­nts. This region deserves a worldclass stadium, a place where we can host world-class events, world-class concerts and a CFL team.”

There are skeptics. Fans have heard this song and dance before. But there’s a strong sense of optimism from the group.

Ambrosie said fans across Canada were asking him about the Maritimes.

“The No. 1 question I get is when are we going to get a team in Halifax and how quickly can we do it,” said Ambrosie.

There have been no firm timelines set. But last month, LeBlanc said if everything went down perfectly, shovels could be in the ground for a stadium before the end of 2018 and a team could be on the field as early as 2020, but more likely in 2021.

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Randy Ambrosie

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