Too bad the IBL couldn't have also attracted teams from Kingston, Cornwall, Belleville etc. so it wouldn't just be Southern Ontario teams and Ottawa, all alone in the eastern 'hinterlands'.
Rumours are they are wanting to try Kingston, but with no Ottawa team that wouldn't happen.
I have it on good authority that Ottawa will be getting the Jays' AA franchise in Binghampton to start play in 2014!
Also, plans for the redeveloped stadium include a brand new video scoreboard, as well as a video board overlooking the highway which will display advertisements and team news.
The problem is, this makes too much sense. Regionalizing the Jays as "Ontario's team" and having the Ottawa audience so familiar with their farm club that they tune in everytime a local favorite gets a call-up is such a no-brainer that I can't see the idiots who run the Jays doing it.
The mayor should stay quiet. "Under promise and over deliver" If they don't end up getting the Jays then people will see it as a failure and you start things out on the wrong foot. Getting a team should be the selling point, if you can work behind the scenes to get the Jays affiliate then that's a bonus.
Just an update on the Fat Cats, they haven't folded just yet (although I believe that's coming soon). They apparently have a few weeks to work something out with the city, the deadline is "flexible" according to the commissioner. If nothing can be worked out (most likely nothing happening here) then they have the option to suspend operations for a season.
I think they should suspend ops and try to work something out for 2014. Some things - like paying other teams' expenses while they're in Ottawa - would have to go.
Lots of activity in the Twitterverse today reporting and denying that the sale of a AA club to Ottawa has fallen through. Where there's smoke there's fire, so there is obviously something going on though we don't know if it's good or bad.
