This article has been submitted by Alex “No Joke Today” Jackson.

“Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot”
-Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi

What do all sports fans have in common? No, not a love for the game; rather, a love for complaining. While winning is nice, it seems to be bad for barstool discussions and newspaper (and blog) rants. Honestly, how tiresome was all that talk, in the weeks leading up to the Superbowl, of how great the New England Patriots were?

Fans from cities like Cleveland, Seattle, Philly and Buffalo are so passionate, but so bitter at the same time. Losing and unfortunate situations have built the proverbial “character,” the quality that allows you to be jaded and passionate. It has reached a point that people love compiling lists of the “Most Tortured Sports Cities.” The Big Lead has done it. So has ESPN. And Fox Sports.

I understand that these lists are heavily influenced by the American sports landscape, and more consideration is given to cities with several “Big Four” teams; but I feel as though all of these lists don’t adequately reflect what it is like to be a sports fan in the Ottawa area.

Come. Listen to a story.

Before 1991, if you were an Ottawa sports fan, you likely cheered for the Ottawa Rough Riders and some combination of baseball and hockey teams from Montreal and Toronto. For me, my baseball team was the Expos; sure I hopped on the Blue Jays bandwagon, buying ball caps and t-shirts, but my heart was always with Les Spos. I had the Ottawa Rough Riders of the CFL and Montreal Expos of MLB.

In 1991, the NHL announced a slew of expansion teams, including the Ottawa Senators, a team that would begin play the following year. A short while later, the International (Baseball) League awarded a AAA franchise to Ottawa for the 1993 season, a team that would be the farm team for the Expos. Sports, for a short period, were booming in Ottawa.

Unfortunately, around the same time, things began to spiral out of control for the Rough Riders; on July 26, 1991 the CFL assumed ownership of the club. A short time later, the father-son combo of Bernie and Lonie Glieberman, Americans, purchased the club from the league for $1, and assumed almost $1 million in debt. Under the Gliebermans, the Rough Riders became the league’s laughing stock; firing GM Dan Rambo on the eve of the 1993 season, signing the washed up, NFL banned, coke addicted Dexter Manley, and then pressuring the coaching staff to play the former All-Pro. Unimpressed with ownership’s meddling in coaching decisions, assistant coaches Jim Daley and Mike Roach quit in disgust.

The Gliebermans were ridiculed by fans and media alike and eventually would sell the Rough Riders, in 1994, to Bruce Firestone, who founded the Senators but sold them following the 1993 season. Unfortunately, because of financial difficulties, Firestone would only be owner for one season; selling the club to Chicago restaurant owner Horn Chen in 1995. Unstable ownership led to shaky management which saw the Rough Riders draft Derrell Robertson in April 1995. Unfortunately, he had died in December 1994. Poor management and absentee ownership saw the city lose confidence in the club and attendance plummeted, which led to the league revoking the Ottawa Rough Rider franchise following the 1996 season.

Similarly, two hours down the road in Montreal, a mass exodus of Expos was occurring under the ownership of Claude Brochu after the 1994 MLB strike. In 1995, Brochu had instructed GM Kevin Malone to not retain many of the Expos star players; Larry Walker was not offered arbitration and left as a free agent; John Wetteland was traded to the Yankees, Ken Hill to the St. Louis Cardinals and Marquis Grissom to the Braves. This set in motion a terrifying trend for Expos fans. Malone believed whole heartedly that he was in the “building business, not in the dismantling business,” and resigned following the 1995 season. The resignation led to Jim Beattie becoming GM, which saw further stars leave the club. Moises Alou and Mel Rojas left following 1996 season and Pedro Martinez was traded shortly after winning the Cy Young award in 1997. By allowing quality players to walk or trading them for ten cents on the dollar, fans in Montreal began to sour on the Expos and their ownership.

The Brochu group eventually sold the club to Jeffrey Loria following the 1999 season. Under Loria, confidence in the club spiraled downward and the Expos attendance averaged fewer than 10,000 per game during the 2001 season. In December 2001, after one of the more bizarre ownership shuffles ever, the Boston Red Sox were sold to John W. Henry, the then owner of the Florida Marlins. At this point, the Marlins were sold to Loria, who in turn sold the Expos, for $120M, to a consortium owned by MLB owners. Loria subsequently moved the Expos management and coaching staff to the Marlins, leaving the Expos with nothing. Needless to say, the subsequent three years were the last three years of the Expos in Montreal.

But all was not bleak; the Ottawa Lynx won the Governors Cup, the IL Championship, in 1995. The Lynx also provided a great opportunity for fans to watch some of the baseball’s top up-and-comers, including Rondell White, Cliff Floyd, Matt Stairs, Milton Bradley, Ugueth Urbina, Kirk Rueter and FP Santangelo. Unfortunately, as has been a common theme thus far, things began to unravel when original owner Howard Darwin sold the team to Ray Pecor following the 2000 season. This new, American ownership, coupled with the uncertainty over the future of the Expos, saw the Lynx change affiliations, becoming a farm team for, first, the Baltimore Orioles and then the Philadelphia Phillies. These switches were a prelude to an announcement Ottawa sports fans have become all too familiar with: Your team is leaving. The Lynx moved from Ottawa after last season, and will begin 2008 as the Leigh Valley Iron Pigs of Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Within this time, the Ottawa Senators built a perennial regular season contender who faced their own bankruptcy issues in 2002 and the CFL awarded an expansion franchise to Ottawa. The CFL’s Ottawa Renegades began play in 2002 under the ownership of Brad Watters, management of Eric Tillman and coaching of Joe Paopao. Despite having some nice players on their roster, including Kerry Joseph, Josh Ranek, and Jason Armstead, the Renegades were unable to put it all together. After three disappointing-at-best seasons, the Watters ownership group fired Tillman after the 2004 season and gave Paopao control over both management and coaching. A short time after losing key players Kelly Wiltshire, Mike Abou-Mechrek, Alexandre Gauthier and Anthony Malbrough, ownership fragmented; the team was for sale. With owners and executives jumping ship at an alarming rate, the CFL was in panic mode; in May 2005, the league turned to the two people who they knew they could count on, for better or worse: the Gliebermans.

With questionable marketing approaches and poor personnel decisions, the club was headed towards a flatline. After another disappointing season, Lonie Glieberman announced, prior to the final game of the 2005 season, that Joe Paopao and his staff would not be back in 2006. In the aftermath of another disastrous season, it was revealed that the Gliebermans had lost close to $4 million during 2005, but would agree to continue running the team if they received a $2 million bailout, essentially holding the league hostage. The league refused, and the team suspended operations on March 22, 2006. On April 9, the league decided not to seize ownership and control of the club, effectively ending the short, rocky history of the Ottawa Renegades.

To an extent, it was a good thing; it was a mercy killing, an attempt to end the pain and suffering of Ottawa fans. Unfortunately, as recent news has shown, the CFL and some Ottawa football people just “can’t let sleeping dogs lie.” Yes, the CFL is “close” to negotiating a deal that would see a team in Ottawa for the 2010 season, owned by Ottawa 67’s owner Jeff Hunt and local developers Roger Greenberg, John Ruddy and William Shenkman.

Will I cheer for the team? Yes. Will I go to the games? Yes, if feasible. But how many others will do the same? Will they still keep coming out as the team struggles through the “expansion growing pains?” What will happen when the owners realize that the league hasn’t been truthful, and their planned business model isn’t sustainable? What impact will that have?

I like being able to say I’m a tortured fan. What I don’t like is living it. I would not be surprised if, by 2014, I will have seen five of my favorite teams leave the cities and regions that loved them, including three Ottawa football teams. Joni Mitchell was right, “You don’t know what you’ve got til its gone.”

This article has been submitted by Alex “No Joke Today” Jackson.