Questions swirl on Maroons Road
Jan. 1, 2009
What next? That’s the question supporters of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are asking themselves in light of what has transpired on Maroons Road of late.
Questions about the team’s future actually began several months ago when the Big Blue stumbled to an 2-8 start after being pegged as Grey Cup contenders. Despite a 6-2 finish to the regular season, the questions continued after team came up short in a 29-21 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos at Canad Inns Stadium in the CFL’s East Division Final.
The fall guy for the team’s shortcomings this past season was head coach Doug Berry, who was “relieved” of his coaching duties on Nov. 12.
That’s the same Doug Berry who was a finalist for the CFL’s coach of the year award when he guided the team to a 9-9 record during his first year with the club in 2006. It’s also the same Doug Berry who helped the Bombers make it all the way to an appearance in the 2007 Grey Cup in Toronto.
General manager Brendan Taman was hardly let off the hook, either. While he is still employed by the football club, he has been demoted to a lesser role.
Those two moves aren’t likely to stop the questions. In fact, they raise even more questions.
If Berry and Taman are to blame for what ailed the Bombers this season, shouldn’t president and CEO Lyle Bauer share in the blame, too?
After all, it was Bauer who hired Taman, who in turn hired Berry. And while no one can argue with the success the Bombers have enjoyed off the field during Bauer’s tenure — erasing more than $5 million in debt, hosting one of the most successful Grey Cups in CFL history, significantly increasing corporate sponsorship — the team has yet to win three-down football’s Holy Grail during that time.
That said, how much more rope does the team’s board of directors give Bauer before deciding that changes are required at the very top?
Perhaps that’s a moot point if media mogul David Asper has his way and takes the reins of the team. After all, it’s hardly a secret that Asper and Bauer don’t exactly see eye to eye. Should Asper take control, would it come as much of a surprise if he wanted his own man in place, despite his public support of Bauer?
And that leads to two of the most important questions of the off-season, and perhaps in team history:
Will the keys to the 78-year-old community-owned franchise be turned over to a private owner in the person of Asper? And will a new football stadium ever be built?
Still, for fans of the Winnipeg Football Club, the most compelling question is this: When will this football club win another Grey Cup?
It’s been 18 years since the Blue and Gold last sipped from Earl Grey’s silver chalice. Isn’t that long enough?
