CFL USA

Encyclopedia : C : CF : CFL : CFL USA

In 1993, the Canadian Football League decided to add teams in the United States. This venture would last until the end of the 1995 CFL season, and was known as CFL USA.

Contents

1 History
2 Future prospects
3 CFL USA teams
4 External links

History

When the World League of American Football (WLAF) announced in 1992 that it was suspending operations, the Canadian Football League started to consider franchise applications from American cities. Two former World League owners, Fred Anderson of the Sacramento Surge and Larry J. Benson of the San Antonio Riders, "crossed over" to the CFL and were awarded new franchises for 1993. Anderson’s team would play in Sacramento as the Gold Miners; Benson's team was scheduled to play in San Antonio as the Texans.

Before the season began, however, the Texans withdrew due to financial difficulties. The Gold Miners were forced to go it alone as the only U.S. team in the CFL for the 1993 season. Playing in the West Division, the club posted a respectable 6-12 record, winning one-third of their games in their first year in the league.

1994 saw the entrance of three additional American teams: the Baltimore CFL Colts, the Las Vegas Posse and the Shreveport Pirates. Along with Sacramento, the Posse were placed in the West Division while the Colts and Pirates played in the East Division. The most successful of the US teams was Baltimore, who had to lose the name "CFL Colts" in the middle of the year because of a dispute with the National Football League's Indianapolis Colts. The Baltimore CFL's went all the way to the Grey Cup title game, losing by only three points. Sacramento improved to 9-8-1, but did not make the playoffs. Shreveport and Las Vegas finished last in their respective divisions.

Commissioner Larry Smith's vision of someday having a 20-team league containing ten Canadian and ten US teams came closer to fruition in 1995. A South Division was created which contained all the U.S. clubs, while the North Division was created for the Canadian teams. Having endured four-digit attendances, Las Vegas folded after an unsuccessful move to Jackson, Mississippi. The Gold Miners moved to San Antonio and became the Texans. The Birmingham Barracudas and Memphis Mad Dogs were added while Shreveport and Baltimore remained from the previous season. The alignment ensured that there would be three US teams around in the post-season. Once again, Baltimore, renamed the Stallions, proved the most successful US team, winning the Grey Cup 37-20 over the Calgary Stampeders. San Antonio, led by quarterback David Archer, and Birmingham, with league-leading passer Matt Dunigan, also made the playoffs in 1995.

In the three seasons in which US cities hosted CFL teams, fan support and interest was limited. Only Baltimore produced consistently large crowds, probably because they were winning. Without a major U.S. television network contract, CFL USA teams were forced to rely on their fast paced brand of football to lure fans. However, many of those fans were unwilling to embrace the subtle nuances of the Canadian game. As the 1995 regular season drew to a close, Birmingham, Memphis and Shreveport were suffering from poor attendances and tremendous financial losses and it was becoming likely they would all either move or disband. However, few believed that Baltimore (with its strong attendance) and San Antonio (with its committed ownership) would not be around for the 1996 season.

That perception changed abruptly in November 1995 when Art Modell, owner of the NFL's Cleveland Browns announced his franchise would move to Baltimore for the 1996 NFL season. The move proved to be one of the most controversial in the history of professional sports, especially in Cleveland where Modell remains a hated figure to this day. However, the move was also unpopular with many Stallions fans in Baltimore, at least at first. Unfortunately for the Stallions however, the immediate result of Modell's announcement for them was a dramatic drop in gate receipts for the team's two home playoff games, with a record-low 21,040 attending the divisional semi-final. Although attendance at Memorial Stadium improved to 30,217 for the divisional final, Stallions owner Jim Speros knew by then that his team could not co-exist or compete with the NFL.

When it became obvious that the Grey Cup champion Stallions would not be remaining in what had been the CFL's strongest U.S. market, the franchises in Birmingham and Memphis quickly ceased operations. Shreveport owner Bernard Glieberman attempted to move his team to Norfolk, but was unsuccessful in doing so. After looking into a few U.S. cities, such as Norfolk and Houston, Speros decided to move his champions to Montreal. Fred Anderson opted against going it alone as he had done in 1993 with the Gold Miners, so he folded the Texans for good. CFL USA passed into the realm of what might have been as Canadian football retreated north of the border.

Future prospects

For the past year, the Glieberman family (owners of the now-suspended Ottawa Renegades) have mooted plans to put a franchise in Windsor. The franchise (if awarded) would play its regular-season home games in Windsor and possibly their playoff games in the Pontiac Silverdome, former home of the NFL Detroit Lions. Current CFL commissioner Tom Wright met with Windsor mayor Eddie Francis about possible expansion to Windsor during the run-up to Super Bowl XL, in which Windsor played a major role although the game itself was held in Detroit.

Since 1997, the CFL has had a working relationship with the NFL, and as of 2006 the Canadian league is not believed to be seriously considering expansion to other American cities.

CFL USA teams

External links

[CFL in Detroit-Windsor]

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.