This article was in the Citizen a few days ago, but because most of the headlines in regards to the positive vote were similar, it appears I overlooked it. It is essentially confirmation of things we already suspected but are now able to discuss with a bit more confidence.
By the way, I have seen questions about why the CFL did not make a bigger deal of this. Well, the franchise is still conditional. OSEG must obtain a commitment from the league within 90 days as a result of the vote. When that is settled, and the franchise moves from conditional to official, you can expect the league to make a big production of it at that time.
OTTAWA — The votes had barely been counted around the council table Monday and a resume landed in Jeff Hunt’s inbox from someone looking for work with the Canadian Football League team that had just moved a step closer to the nation’s capital.
Ottawa city council’s decision to push forward with the redevelopment of Lansdowne Park likely means work on refurbishing Frank Clair Stadium will begin next June, and the stadium would be ready for football in time for the 2013 season.
And that means Hunt, the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group’s frontman for the still unnamed team, can expect a deluge of job applications.
As it is, he’s working on a timetable to put the team’s key football people in place sometime between the 2011 and 2012 seasons, more than one year before the CFL returns to Ottawa for the first time since 2005.
“Three years is a long way to go before we play,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “But it’s also a major asset for us. Having that kind of runway to launch a franchise, one we want to last 50 years and more, is tremendous.
“Sometimes you wish the day was here — you wish it would come quicker. But it will come fast enough.”
Hunt said most of the people who have contacted him so far are looking for lower level positions_— trainers, equipment managers and scouts.
They are all going to have to wait. Hunt said his first hire will be the big one, someone with full control of the on-field product.
“More important than the timing of the hire is the man we hire,” he said. “We want to make one really good decision and when we get our guy, everything else will take care of itself.”
Hunt says he and his partners have never seriously discussed any names for the job. They’ve been too caught up in developing a site plan that would meet council’s approval.
“But now as we move deeper into the process, we can start looking at a priority list and maybe we could do something even after this season,” he said, especially if the team gets a chance to “hire that special guy we don’t want to let pass by.”
If everything goes according to plan, and work on the stadium begins next spring, Hunt would like football operations up and running throughout the 2012 season so the team will have a scouting and recruiting plan in place.
The league wants Ottawa to be competitive in its first year, and is on record as saying it will find a way to stock the team beyond the usual expansion draft full of castoffs who can’t help other teams. The details are still to be worked out.
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/return+Ottawa+step+closer/3217521/story.html#ixzz0sR0AZIq9