Ottawa Redblacks



The Ottawa RedBlacks (stylized by the Ottawa ownership group in all-caps as REDBLACKS) (Le Rouge et Noir d'Ottawa) are a Canadian Football League (CFL) franchise that has been awarded to the city of Ottawa, Ontario. The team planned to begin play in 2010, until cracks in the concrete structure in the south stands of Frank Clair Stadium led to the demolition of those stands; the league later set a date of 2013 for the team's debut, but lawsuits forced the delay of construction on the stadium to be pushed back even further.

This will be the third CFL team to play in the city. The Ottawa Rough Riders, formed in 1876, was a founding member of the CFL in 1958 and played until 1996. A new Ottawa franchise was formed as the Renegades in 2002, and lasted until the end of the 2005 season.

History
On March 25, 2008, an ownership group led by Ottawa 67's owner Jeff Hunt was awarded the franchise. The team will play at a remodelled Frank Clair Stadium now called TD Place Stadium, and will begin play in 2014 if construction remains on schedule. While in 2008 the franchise was conditionally awarded the right to host the 2014 Grey Cup game, Jeff Hunt has indicated that he would like to postpone the game for a few years to give his franchise a better chance to play in the championship game and after lawsuits and delays, the stadium renovations will not be completed until 2014. Hosting the Grey Cup is a condition included in the agreement giving Hunt control of the franchise. A C$7 million franchise fee was reported to have been paid to the CFL.

The team had been in contact with previous Rough Riders owner Horn Chen regarding the Rough Riders name and the team "[knows] his price." The Rough Riders name still retains popular currency among football fans in Ottawa. The Rough Riders played for 120 years, during which time they won the Grey Cup nine times. However, in July 2010, Jeff Hunt announced that the Rough Riders name would likely not be returning due to the objections of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, though the team did successfully purchase the rights to the Rough Riders name from Chen.

Concurrently, Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk had announced plans to bid for a Major League Soccer franchise to play in Ottawa and to build a new soccer specific stadium near the Senators' Scotiabank Place in support of these plans. Depending on the stadium's design it could be used by a CFL team instead of the aging Frank Clair Stadium. However, the CFL and MLS groups have not indicated that they are co-ordinating their plans. Furthermore, municipal officials have questioned whether the city could support both a CFL and an MLS franchise.

In April 2009, the staff of the City of Ottawa presented a report to Council on the merits of the Soccer Stadium and Lansdowne proposals. The city held public hearings based on the report, which questioned the necessity of the spending, but gave a slight edge to the Lansdowne proposal. Councillors attempted to find out whether the SSE group would support sharing their stadium with a planned CFL franchise, but the SSE group rejected the possibility. On April 22, 2009, the City of Ottawa Council chose the Lansdowne Live proposal over the SSE proposal as its choice for an outdoor stadium. Over the next several months, negotiations were made leading up to August 26, where a presentation was made to Ottawa City Council would decide the fate of football in Ottawa in the foreseeable future.

On November 12 and 13, City Council held a public debate to discuss what should be done with the area at Lansdowne Park. Guest speakers included Mark Cohon and former Rough Riders Jock Climie and Mark Kosmos who presented their case as to why Lansdowne Live was an important contributor to the city of Ottawa. The following Monday, on November 16, it was reported that Ottawa City Council had voted 15–9 in favour of plans to redevelop Lansdowne Park to house a CFL team. The Hunt Group had until June 2010 to sort out the details of the redevelopment with construction likely to begin in the spring of 2011.

On June 28, 2010, after a 12-hour meeting, Ottawa city council approved the plan to redevelop Lansdowne Park by the same vote of 15–9, all but securing a franchise in the nation's capital. With construction on the stadium originally scheduled to begin in 2011, the earliest a team could play would be in 2013 under the original time line. After a failed legal challenge and a Ontario Municipal Board hearing on the Lansdowne Park redevelopment, construction on the stadium will not begin until 2012, with a completion in summer 2015, although there have been indications that the stadium could be opened for CFL football as early as 2014. Without a viable stadium, the debut of the team would necessarily be pushed back accordingly.

October 10, 2012, marked the final political hurdle that the new franchise had to clear as a 21–3 vote by the Ottawa City Council in favour of the redevelopment of Lansdowne Park passed. Construction on the north and south side stands was set to begin in October 2012.



On December 6, 2012, the CFL opened voting for the name of the team, up until December 16, 2012, on www.nameourteams.com. It was speculated that the team would be called the Rush, but this has since been debunked. The Rush name was nonetheless included in a list of five potential names (Nationals, Voyageurs, RedBlacks, and Raftsmen being the others) for the team in a focus group led by the team's owners in January 2013.

On January 30, 2013, Marcel Desjardins was named the first general manager in team history. Desjardins named former Montreal Alouettes scouting director and New York Jets pro scout Brock Sunderland as his assistant GM shortly thereafter.

On May 30, 2013, the website Sportslogos.net reported that the nickname REDBLACKS (and its French equivalent, Rouge et Noir) have been filed by the Ottawa franchise with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. On June 8, 2013, the name for the RedBlacks was unveiled along with the team's logo, an italicized version of the "R" that appeared on the Rough Riders' helmets from 1975 to 1991 (with artistic ink traps) surrounded by a red outline inside a black saw blade.

2013 CFL Draft
One year before the Ottawa franchise hits the field for the 2014 CFL season they were allowed to draft four NCAA junior redshirts (players who would participate in the 2013 NCAA football season). The draft took place May 6, 2013. Ottawa had the last pick in the first 4 rounds of the draft (9, 18, 27, 36 overall selections). They selected Nolan MacMillan from Iowa, Connor Williams from Utah State, Kalonji Kashama from Eastern Michigan and Tyler Digby from Robert Morris.

Expansion Draft
The 2013 CFL Expansion Draft was a three-round CFL draft held on December 16, 2013 which assign players from existing CFL teams to the new Ottawa team. The structure of the draft was announced on January 19, 2011, which described one round for selecting import players and two rounds for selecting non-import players. Additionally, if the Ottawa franchise begins play in 2014 they will be given the first pick in every round of the 2014 CFL Draft.

Ottawa selected three players from each of the eight existing teams for a total of 24 players. Ottawa was allowed to select eight import players and 16 non-import players with quarterbacks, kickers and punters eligible within their respective import/non-import categories. Ottawa was be able to select a maximum of two quarterbacks and one kicker/punter, but not select any two of these three players from the same team. The CFL Commissioner is authorized to resolve any dispute related to player eligibility for the Expansion Draft process.

The selections were announced live at cfl.ca on December 16, 2013.