Dave Neuman was thrown for a loss after he said:
 DN> I certainly agree that the NFL is sitting pretty right now.. I was
 DN> actually thinking of the CFL when I mentioned the thing about
The CFL is no example for anyone except to show how stupid a league can be. 
Their problems have nothing to do with instability, it has everything to do 
with the owners' stupdity. The league had the US to bail them out but instead 
of taking it slowly, they granted franchises to anyone who had the money or 
the inkling of money. They gave a franchise to Las Vegas, even though most of 
the people in that city thought it was laughable (Terry May even went to far 
as to predict how stupid this was when it first happened and all those 
Canadians who didn't live in Las Vegas like Terry did wouldn't listen). All 
the owners saw was $3 mil franchise fees and by the end, they were even 
waiving that because they wanted to get teams into the league.
 DN> payed any attention to it since 94.  Instability was so bad the *Grey
 DN> Cup Champions* FOLDED in the off-season!!
Which champion is that? If you're referring to Baltimore, they moved because 
the NFL was on its way. Despite the fantasies that some people held about 
Baltimore as a viable CFL franchise, even with the NFL, the fact is the team 
had NO chance with an NFL franchise in town. Baltimore didn't FOLD, they 
MOVED. Had they not moved, they would have drowned NOT because of the CFL's 
instability but because the NFL was too strong.
 DN> I think the Ravens (a no-brainer, Baltimore has such rabid NFL fans..
 DN> although one might question the moral issue of Modell's move) and the
 DN> Raiders have been outright successes..  the other two?.. ehh.. it's up
 DN> for debate, but the NFL is far from my forte.
Baltimore's fans were no less rabid than Cleveland's. Modell moved because 
the city refused to build him a new stadium. Now that the team is gone, they 
are forced into not only building a stadium, they are also going to have to 
pay over $300 mil in franchise fees.
The Raiders an outright success? You haven't been paying attention because 
the team still hasn't drawn like it SHOULD. The PSL issue has been a very 
sore point with most of the fans and the city has been forced into buying up 
unsold seats. The Raiders have threatened the city because of what has 
happened and if Al can find a way, they might find themselves in a new city 
in less than 5 years.
 DN> And the fact that they drew 1000-2000 fans for their 2nd home game of
 DN> the season.
What do they care if they get paid by the city?
 DN> Colorado and been huge successes both on and off the ice.. and
 DN> therefore, you see nothing wrong.  I see a small market franchise in
 DN> Canada leaving for big bucks in the States.  For me, it's more of a
 DN> moral issue.
That's THEIR problem. The NFL is even talking about having its established 
franchises help with the next expansion bunch as far as funding so that 
cities would be more receptive. If these NHL cities would have built new 
arenas or just added luxury boxes, they wouldn't have lost their teams. Don't 
think so? The Calgary Flames got their franchise from Atlanta by merely 
promising to build a better arena than what they had in Atlanta. The Flames 
didn't do that badly as far as attendance, however, they could do a lot 
better in Calgary. Houston lost its football team to a MUCH smaller city so 
don't give me this big city/little city garbage (Quebec lost to Colorado, 
which has a slightly larger arena and only 16 luxury boxes but are in the 
process of building them one that will seat 2,000 more than Quebec and with 
84 luxury boxes). If these cities would have ponied up to the bar, they'd 
still have their teams but now, it's BOO HOO HOO. Sorry, I don't sympathize 
(BTW, I didn't sympathize with Modell's excuse that they lost money when it 
was obvious that they didn't but I did sympathize with his talk of revenue 
imbalance).
--- TrekEd 1.00
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