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.
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