The CFL in St. Pete?

First, a quick one paragraph history of the CFL. Canadian football dates back to 1884 and the creation of the Canadian Rugby Union. In 1909, the Governor- General of Canada, Lord Albert Henry Earl Grey, donated a trophy to be awarded to the team winning the Senior Amateur Football Championship of Canada. Originally, only university teams and other amateur organizations competed for the Grey Cup, but they eventually withdrew from competition. The name "Canadian Football League" was officially adopted in 1958. Today, the Grey Cup championship game continues to be the greatest single day sports attraction in the country.

In 1991, the CFL began investigating the possibility of putting teams in the USA. There was talk about adding teams by early as 1992, however, the expansion actually began for the 1993 season. It was felt that adding teams south of the border would increase exposure and television revenues. At the time, three of the league's eight teams were losing money.

NFL vs. CFL

The NFL traveled north of the border to play exhibition games against CFL teams seven times from 1950 to 1961. While the Buffalo Bills were an AFL team when they lost to Hamilton, it was reason enough for the NFL to end the series.

8/12/1950 - N.Y. Giants 20, Ottawa 6

8/11/1951 - N.Y. Giants 38, Ottawa 6

8/5/1959 - Chicago Cardinals 55, Toronto 26

8/6/1960 - Pittsburgh 43, Toronto 16

8/2/1961 - St. Louis Cardinals 36, Toronto 7

8/5/1961 - Chicago Bears 34, Montreal 16

8/8/1961 - Hamilton 38, Buffalo 21

One of the earliest ideas floated was adding a Southern Division including St. Petersburg, Orlando and Jacksonville. Fort Myers was considered for a fourth team, then Gainesville and Tallahassee were mentioned. A letter from Ed Rodriguez, president of St. Petersburg based Group One Promotions, Inc., to CFL commissioner J. Donald Crump discussed the idea. "Consider this proposal in the light of what it would do for relations between the United States and Canada," the letter stated. "Florida already considers itself the second home for thousands of Canadians."

Rodriguez felt the Florida Suncoast Dome could house a team and have seating for 38,000. The building was then home to the Arena Football League's Tampa Bay Storm and was soon to be home to the National Hockey League Lightning, but he thought any conflicts could be worked out.

CFL Chairman Phil Kershaw, after discussions with expansion committee members said, "That is very intriguing to us. There's no question that there is a tremendous number of Canadians living in Florida. On top of that, I'm convinced that the southern states are more interested in football than are the northern states. When you look back at the WFL (World Football League) and USFL (United States Football League), the experience was that the best draws were in places like Jacksonville, Tampa Bay and Orlando." On Tampa Bay Kershaw did say the league "Probably is not going to go into markets that are NFL oriented and I'd consider St. Petersburg to be an NFL market."

While the all Florida division concept fell by the wayside, St. Petersburg and Orlando continued to be mentioned as expansion sites. One factor that expedited the expansion into the United States was the NFL decision to drop the US based teams in the World League of American Football (later called just the World League and now known as NFL Europe). Al Howell, the CFL's expansion coordinator, stated "This has developed so quickly because of the World League thing. There is a window of opportunity that has presented itself right now, and it's a window we think we should move through."

Howell also considered St. Petersburg and Tampa to be "two geographic areas," adding "We wouldn't put a team in Tampa, just like we wouldn't put one in another NFL city, say, Atlanta. But St. Petersburg is a separate town." Rich McKay, then a vice president with the Buccaneers, did admit that, "Any time you bring in a competitor it's going to eat into your market somewhat." McKay also added, "It's hard for me to believe the CFL is going to expand into the southernmost part of the United States."

For the 1993 season, the CFL did expand into the United States. Despite all the talk about Florida, and many thought that Portland would also get a team, the Sacramento Gold Miners were the first team added. In 1994, the Baltimore Stallions, Las Vegas Posse and Shreveport Pirates joined the league. In 1995, the Memphis Mad Dogs and Birmingham Barracudas were added, while Las Vegas folded and Sacramento relocated to San Antonio and were renamed the Texans. The League realigned the divisions on a north-south basis with the five US clubs playing in the American Division against the eight clubs in the Canadian Division. The Baltimore team became the only America team to win the Grey Cup in 1995.

While the game did get decent support from the US cities, a lack of a major television contract hurt marketing and revenues. The owners of the US teams were losing money and wanted out. In the February 1996, the league's Board of Governors decided that the league would revert to its original all-Canada format. The Baltimore team did end up relocating to Montreal.

After three seasons, the CFL experiment in the USA was over. Today, as the only professional sports organization to operate wholly within Canada in nine major cities, there is little doubt the Canadian Football League will survive and will do so without teams in the United States.

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