ABOUT THIRD AND NINE

Ty Reidy and Dale Weaver

Fans of Canadian Football

Welcome to Third and Nine, the exciting and interactive newsletter from www.fansofcanadianfootball.com. Just like the website this newsletter is made by the fans of Canadian football for the fans of Canadian football.  Inside you will find articles written by fans across the world expressing their thoughts and opinions on this great game and sharing many experiences they have had while following their favorite teams, players and games.  Also, you will find upcoming news and reports on related Canadian football events happening in your city.  Upcoming issues may also include interviews on players, management, and fan’s and maybe even the sausage and beer vendors where you have the chance to have your questions asked and answered. 

If you wish to participate in upcoming issues by submitting articles for other fans to enjoy please e-mail us at cflfans@hotmail.com for details. 

But for now sit back, relax and enjoy newsletter and if when you are done send it to some friends for them to enjoy.  Then come to fansofcanadianfootball.com and go to the fan forum where you can discuss articles you have read or share your own thoughts and opinions on this great game with fans across the world.

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VIEWS FROM TRUE BLUE

This is the point in the season when we should be looking at the Bombers and not believing that they could have 2 seasons at 14 wins.  At least that’s what we believed at the beginning.  There are lots of reasons or “excuses” for what’s going on, so I’m not going to delve into it to much.

The question is more of what we can do to right the ship.  At this time the Bombers had just beaten Sask in OT and are looking forward to the rematch back here in the ‘Peg.  We still have questions that need to be answered.  Our offensive line is in need of help.  Back up.  If a guy goes down, there really is no one.

But I think the biggest thing is consistency.  Play 4 quarters.  I can’t really think of a loss this year in which they didn’t play 2 good quarters but that doesn’t help much, does it?  Also, the West has turned out to be a fairly strong division.  Outside of Montreal, the East has nothing.  Sask has played a fairly good year and BC is looking oddly good.  Can Calgary repeat?  Nope but then again, I didn’t think they had a chance in Hades last year either.

This has turned out to be a wild year and we haven’t seen anything yet.  A West team will take a place in the East and have fits against Montreal in the final.  The West semis are up in the air.  We wouldn’t want it any other way, would we?

The Tigers’ Lair

Since the beginning of this year and the formation of the Tigers’ Lair, we have met with many successes!  Our Away Game Series’ have found numbers of Tiger-Cat fans gathering at a local business (one of our privilege sponsors) to watch the Cats play and participate in some draws and giveaways.  We have managed to raise small amounts of money at each of these events to put towards our final goal – The Tigers’ Lair Hospitality Suite at the Grey Cup.

Our bus trip to Toronto was a huge success, although the score certainly did not reflect the enthusiasm of the thousands of Hamilton fans in attendance.  Buddy’s Roadhouse at 1360 King Street East put on a fabulous breakfast for us and we appreciate their support.  The Tiger-Cats came through again with donations of many great prizes.

Besides the fans and our members, our most ardent supporters are the Hamilton Tiger-Cat administration.  With the donation of space at the game, a hot link to their webpage and quite a lot of merchandise to be used for giveaways, we can’t thank the Ti-Cat organization enough for their support.  It is, after all, a great benefit to the team to have representation at the Grey Cup, aside from on the field.

Our latest success was our Graffiti Revival dance that saw us net approximately $2,000, which will certainly make a big dent in our expenses in Edmonton.  There were 120 people there and all in attendance had a great time.  The donations we received from various community businesses made our event successful and kept our expenses down.  The big raffle prizewinners were Tami Anderson who won an autographed game worn  Ti-Cat jersey and Dan Wosley won the Beer Cap collector plaque donated by Labatt.

We are pleased with the partnerships that we have formed, especially with Fans of Canadian Football, particularily Dale and Ty and the Box J Boys.  They have assisted in promoting our events and helped with creating awareness.   During our short existence we have managed to find a lot of volunteers for Grey Cup bartending.  This will mean a lot to our bottom line and help us ultimately becoming self-sustaining as we can reap the proceeds of the bar in the Hospitality Suite.

Our membership is up to 135 members and we can use more members.  Membership is $25 and that gets you a great t-shirt and privilege cards, which gives you discounts at the privilege card supporters.  The bottom line is the monies raised will go towards funding our hospitality suite.  For membership information, please visit our web page at www.tigerslair.ca or call (905) 547-9417.

We will continue to work towards our goal and hope to see you at the Grey Cup!  By the time the Cup reaches Ottawa in 2004, we anticipate being the #1 attraction to the attendees!

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