I'm in Moncton where it's cloudy and grey after promising to be sunny and warm (the forecast was great all week.)

There seem to be quite a few Ticats fans here. There were a gaggle of them at walk through (though not a "couple hundred" as one commenter alleged) and there's a Ticat flag flying in one of the windows at my hotel. The gathering spot for Ticat Nation appears to be the Old Triangle Ale House which is just down the street from where I'm staying. Planning to stop by later.

I've got a full preview package which I'll post shortly but thought I'd preview my feature on the East Coast's prospects for a CFL team a little early. It throws a little cold North Atlantic sea water on the idea – not that it's impossible, just that it's not immenient.

CFL’s hopes still afloat on East Coast

But very much adrift without a big stadium, big-pocketed owner

By Drew Edwards

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French writer and aviator

MONCTON – On Saturday, the CFL will hold its third regular season game in the Maritimes in the past four years but a permanent, vibrant and stable franchise in this part of the country appears to be no closer to reality than it was when the Touchdown Atlantic series began.

That’s not to criticize the city of Moncton, an excellent and genial host, nor dismiss the concept of a tenth team based on the East Coast, which remains an intriguing idea despite significant hurdles.

But it won’t be easy and it certainly isn’t happening any time soon.

The first two and most obvious barriers are the lack of a CFL-worthy facility and the absence of anything resembling an interested and deep-pocketed owner. Any discussion regarding the addition of the double-digit team — no matter where it is — begins and ends with those two issues and there are no easy fixes for either of them.

The stadium at the University of Moncton is fine for one-offs but it’s ill-suited to host a franchise on a permanent basis. Even at its current configuration at 16,000 seats — 4,000 less than the last time the Cats were here — there is far too much end zone seating and not enough of what makes modern stadiums rake in the cash: social seating areas, club seats and suites. The new CFL economics allows for smaller buildings but where and what those seats are matters a great deal.

There are also legitimate questions about Moncton’s ability to sustain a franchise given its small population — about 138,000 — and it’s relatively small corporate base. The 2011 Touchdown Atlantic wasn’t a sellout and there were, as of this week, still several hundred tickets available for Saturday’s game. The street festivals and tailgate parties which gave the 2011 event a mini-Grey Cup vine are noticeably absent this time around. It feels like just another road game and the city, the league and teams appear to be treating it as such.

There are less obvious issues in the way as well. A tenth franchise means a smaller slice of the TV and sponsorship pie for the eight (and soon to be nine) existing teams, something which can only be offset by an increase in revenue. But does an East Coast franchise appealing to relatively small audience make the CFL more attractive to large corporate advertisers and, just as importantly these days, to potential TV rights holders? Unlikely.

With all these barriers facing an East Coast CFL team, it begs the question: what are the Ticats doing here again this Saturday?

Unlike past Touchdown Atlantic games, which were the sole property of the league office, this game is controlled by the “home team” Ticats, who made a significant investment and absorbed some of the risk to make the game happen. A portion of the cost is being picked by the city, which put up $150,000 to cover expenses and the province, who invested in $100,000 for marketing.

It’s the Ticats, however, who will take home whatever profit is generated and even with less seats at University of Moncton Stadium, the team is expected to come out ahead financially. In a season where they are playing their other eight games in a 13,000 seat facility at the University of Guelph, every little bit helps.

But there is still an element of altruism to the endeavour: if the league ever hopes to put a tenth team out here, maintaining a presence is vital. And despite the barriers, there are some hopeful signs that the East Coast may one day become a viable location.

Over the past several months, Halifax’s new mayor Mike Savage has expressed a promising degree of interest — including speaking with league commissioner Mark Cohon — about building a facility for his city that could host a CFL team. With no obvious premier event in which to draw provincial and federal government interest — in 2012, the city withdrew its bid to host the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup and put a stadium project on hold — one possible model is the public-private partnership utilized in Ottawa.

At Landsdowne Park, the city provided the land and a cash infusion while the Red Blacks ownership group is developing commercial properties around the stadium site, with a portion of the revenues directed back to the city. The Shannon Park area of Halifax, a decommissioned military housing area still owned by the federal government and in desperate need of redevelopment, is an oft-mentioned potential stadium location.

Still, the project required a major initial commitment from the city of Ottawa — almost $130 million — and a deep-pocketed, sports-savvy ownership group. If such a person or persons exists in Halifax, they’ve yet to emerge. Even a community owned team, often floated as a Maritime solution (and of which there are currently three in the CFL) would require significant seed money and committed group of organizers. So far, that’s not happening.

But if the CFL is to come to the Maritimes, it will likely have to be to Halifax (though the good folks of Moncton would vehemently dispute this.) The regional population is 420,000, twice the size of Regina, while the total Maritime region, as of 2007, was 2.3 million. Any team, no matter where it is, will have to garner broad base fan support in order to be successful.

In August, an East Coast market research firm released a survey showing that 65 per cent of people in the Halifax area would support a CFL team, though “supporting” a team and “paying for a stadium with tax dollars” are entirely different questions.

One other thing the East Coast has going for it: Cohon has said it’s a priority for him and he’s accomplished pretty much everything else he’s set his mind to in his five-plus years as commissioner of the league. A lucrative TV deal, an expansion franchise in Ottawa, new stadiums either built or on the way in several markets — the man in the expensive skinny jeans has a knack for succeeding where countless others have failed. While the mythical tenth team of the Maritimes may be beyond even Cohon’s considerable powers, that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t try.

“The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.”

— Vincent van Gogh, artist