Quote Originally Posted by Argofans.com View Post
Nevertheless, it seemed the CFL was pretty dead in Ottawa for a time especially when I lived there while the Renegades were "suspended." Either people were in hibernation or Hunt did one hell of a job to galvanize the marketplace. I know of several people in Ottawa of the millennial generation who still won't give the CFL much of a chance (although they aren't outright hostile as argos1873 relates).

The inability to capture that market in Toronto remains the single biggest obstacle for the Argonauts, and what is the solution? It seems like the CFL hater in Toronto loves you to know he hates the CFL. How are you supposed to combat this?
I lived in Ottawa for the better part of 12 years (1988-2000) which included the death of the Rough Riders following the 1996 season. I always felt that there was a solid base of about 13k CFL fans in that city but getting more to buy in regularly was challenging given how badly run the team was from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. However, I always knew that with the right ownership, Ottawa could thrive again in the CFL and that is exactly what has happened. IMO though, Ottawa is a very different city and market compared to Toronto. Toronto has this unhealthy (IMO) need to be "world-class" that Ottawa doesn't have and "world-class" and "CFL" just don't seem to go together for far too many Torontonians.