Quote:
Originally Posted by Hackslack
The US expansion was overall a failure, but there certainly was a very bright light our of Baltimore. Correct me if I am wrong because I was very young at the time, but wasn't it in large part of the CFL success in Baltimore that the NFL returned?
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Yes. Baltimore was the only truly successful US expansion franchise. A lot of it was motivated by a love-hate stance with regard to the NFL, i.e. they wanted to show the NFL what it was missing by rallying around their new CFL team, and it worked to the point where the Browns ended up moving there.
That said, the other situations were not total busts as the popular myth goes. Sacramento was working reasonably well but only fell apart when they couldn't reach a deal for a new stadium, so they moved to San Antonio. The San Antonio franchise only shut down after it became apparent that the other US teams were not going to operate after the 1995 season.
Shreveport was reasonably well supported considering what a basketcase team they were and they could have possibly pulled through had the other US teams stuck it out.
Las Vegas was obviously a total failure and Memphis and Birmingham were not that great either.
The thing I don't get with the US expansion teams in the CFL, or with the startup leagues like the XFL, is how they expect to be successful right off the hop. It's not like the NFL was playing in front of 75,000 fans a game right from day one... it takes years to build up a fanbase. So how guys like Fred Smith in Memphis or Art Williams in Birmingham expected to have packed houses for an unknown product right from the get-go is puzzling to me.