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A number of factors have led to this point in the Redblacks’ growth curve. Foremost, the novelty is gone. There is only one first-year experience for an expansion team, and fans packed the house nine times in 2014 to see the first CFL football played in the nation’s capital in nine years. A remodelled stadium added to the allure. Some fans found that even nine home games was a large commitment, when cottages and summer travel make it impossible to be at every game. They let their season tickets lapse.

Sellouts were a slam dunk in Year 1, but will no longer be automatic after the RBs barely maxed out the season opener on July 4, when a game-day surge at the ticket office got it done.

Now that most of the region has been to a game, sampled the experience and stadium fare, it’s on to Phase II, where the product on the field must get to the point where there is a buzz around town about the Redblacks.

It will come. Even the frustration expressed by fans in the first half against Edmonton was a sign that supporters know the game and care about their team. And, on a nasty, wet night, most of them hung in there throughout.

FIFTEEN MINUTES OF SHAME

As much as the Redblacks have improved over their rookie season, they continue to shoot blanks in the opening quarter. For a fourth time, Ottawa failed to score a single point in the first 15 minutes of the game. Good thing they’re a second-half club. (Some nights). In the first frame versus the Eskimos, quarterback Henry Burris completed one pass for two yards and the offence generated zero first downs. So much for a quick response to last week’s rout by the Eskimos. The Redblacks nearly got skunked for the first half, but getting a field goal with no time remaining was big, considering the Eskimos dominated the first half but produced just eight points. By the second half, as the rain worsened, gripping the ball was roughly the equivalent of securing a wet pig.