The CFL and The Ottawa REDBLACKS are my favourite spectator sport and team. After that I love watching Tour de France style bike racing. I fell in love with watching The Ottawa Rough Riders when I was in my early twenties. Attending the games live was an intoxicating experience to me. Even though during that time we gained the distinction of having the worst win/loss record of any professional sports franchise in North America over a ten year span. I didn't care, I loved them and loved being there in the crowd cheering and shouting along with 18,000 other fans. I attend most games still and don't feel quite the rush being there live as I remember when I was much younger but I still have a blast shouting "DEFENCE!" louder than anyone.

We fans had to endure watching our team go banckrupt twice over the years, and close its doors. It is wonderful to us that we have our team back with solid local ownership, and eternal hope for winning that next game, and next Grey Cup. So you can imagine that the development of Lansdowne Park is very close to my heart. I am sure I am like many people and miss the days when that park hosted the Exhibition every fall. I love the idea of the NCC building a permanent fairground in the Greenbelt by the way. When the city and OSEG developed Lansdowne as it now is, I was thrilled that we had our stadium back but wasn't so thrilled with the stores and buildings that came with it. But it is better than the neglected big park it was not long ago. And they kept the large Cattle Castle, or Aberdeen Pavillion if you prefer its proper name, which is very historical. The Ottawa Senators played there over a hundred years ago.

I am now very much against this new proposal to re-develop it. I have several concerns. First off the new proposed North Stands does not have a roof. It is quite miserable to watch a game when you are getting rained on. Umbrellas are not permitted, and we have the option of staying dry in front of our television, or computer, at home. We had bad luck with games being on rainy days three seasons ago. Therefore for the past two seasons the crowd under the big roof in the old North Stands was always packed full, while the crowd in the much newer but uncovered South Stands was always less than half full. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why this happened.

I believe if they proceed to make a new North Side Stands with no roof much of the season ticket base such as myself will not renew their season tickets. Why risk having to sit in the rain when we have a large screen high definition television at home with as much lower cost beer and snacks at our side as we please? And therefore this will once again bankrupt our team since the volume of season tickets is vital to any CFL franchise. We don't have the luxury of a multi-billion dollar TV contract the NFL does.

My next biggest concern is the fact they are predicting the construction of the new stands to take two to three years. Construction delays are very common so this could become three or four. That means that The REDBLACKS will be playing in a construction zone for at least two seasons. Just the optics on television will be horrible. They have temporary end zone seats that will go up to try to make up for all the lost seating capacity. Do you think I and my fellow season ticket holders want to sit in the endzone? Nope that isn't going to happen. This alone could almost bankrupt the team.

I have suggested to the city and to OSEG that they should send the team out on the road for these construction seasons. Let The REDBLACKS play their home games in other cities that don't have franchises. We need a team out east, mainly in Halifax. Let them host some games and also get cities like Fredericton, Quebec City and even Saskatoon host some others. I think this would be a brilliant exciting way to promote my favourite game in other markets and hopefully spur more action towards them having their own franchise.

Ottawa and us fans would proudly welcome them back here when the new stadium is ready to go. Assuming they put on a damn roof.

My next biggest concern is the fact they plan to move the Civic Center hockey arena over to the east endzone of the stadium and tragically build it with much less capacity than the old one already has. This is another terrible idea. Our new women's hockey team will have its maximum capacity shrunk just as they are trying to build its excitement and ticket base. Who comes up with such horrific ideas?

Just tearing down the old big North Side roof and stands will take lots of time and lots of money. I would much prefer they keep it and the arena right where they already are. If it is all tested and proven to be structually safe still they should just renovate the stands and the arena. This would cost ten percent or less of the fortune they plan to spend of our taxpayer money. And the four hundred million or whatever the projected cost is doesn't include the large new condo towers. Nope, the new plan is only leaving the space for these proposed towers and hopes that some contractor takes care of that separate but attached mega project.