Today was the CFL State of Franchise with the Al's, here is my reporting of the conference call:

Al’s 2006 – State of Franchise
Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006 – 1 :00pm

Larry Smith (President and Chief Executive Officer),
Jim Popp (Vice-President, General Manager, Director of Football Operations and Director of Player Personnel)
Louis-Philippe Dorais (Director of media relations ) are on conference call.

Head Coach Don Matthews isn’t available as he’s on a plane flight right now.

With a 10-8 season record last year, 2nd in East division, won the Eastern Championship in T.O. and represented the EAST division in what was “deemed” the best & most exciting Grey Cup ever, vs. Edmonton in BC, November 2005.

Louis-Phillipe Dorais: Thanked all national media & French media that was on-call.

Larry Smith: Focus in Off-Season is the 2nd Phase of Molson/McGill Stadium (5000 seats & deluxe suites to be added), which is necessary for long-term success for club & city !

Construction should start after regular season in 2006 & winter 2007, be ready for 2007 season. 24 Million$ are to be “injected” by 3 level (City, QC & Ottawa)

Now we are in “Consultation Public”, but city already gave OK for project. Usually, once the City O.K.’s the project, QC & Ottawa are not far behind.

20 players re-signed in Off-season, and players were a big part of the community:

Basketball game vs High School
Adopt an Alouette program
10 Hockey games
Junior Al’s camp with over a 1000 kids invited
Alouettes Classic Game that was played last week @ Concordia.

17400 Season ticket Holder, 2000 on waiting list, Sold out all major sponsorship.

Jim Popp: Resigned All Free Agent except T.White, which was let go. Talk about is performance.

Off-season acquired/signed Nealon Greene, Quincy Carter, Marcus Brady.. ..picked up Defensive guys from Ottawa dispersal draft…Dario Romero back in CFL after NFL stint…

Trade involving veterans starters: Brown, Durden, Vaughn, Malveaux, Curry, ect…

Offense: Same players/starters will be competing at camp for jobs, Thyron Anderson should fill in Vaughn departure.

Defense was “beef up” after Ottawa dispersal draft…

“Street” Free-Agent like Carter were pick-up.

A lot of competition at Camp for QB as Nealon Greene, Quincy Carter, Marcus Brady will fight it out for 2nd & 3rd QB. No promesses were meade to players, no jobs handed, they have to fight for it !

Canadian Draft is always a priority for the Al’s, to recruit new talent !

Popp very happy for camp, as he said, we look better on “paper” than the team that “played” last year.

Questions & Answer segment:

Radio Station in Hamilton:

Asked Larry Smith about expansion of Molson Stadium, which once done will be a little more than 25, 000 seats with a new video scoreboard on roof of Hospital.

Dan from Canadian Press:

QB Situation: Nealon Greene, Quincy Carter, Marcus Brady ???
Jim Popp confirmed ANTHONY CALVILLO IS THE STARTER, unless an injury happens !

Popp also mentioned there was some talked with Saskatchewan before Ottawa folded to have a trade between the team (I didn’t heard if it was for Greene especially), but “never closed the deal”. Ottawa then folded, Saskatchewan picked up K.Joseph in dispersal draft and talked with Mtl for Greene resumed.

Quincy Carter was on Al’s Negociation List, and Popp had been talking for a year to Quincy & his agent. Deal was done this winter for Training Camp.

Follow up question from Dan from CP:

Did it hurt Mtl not having a #2 established QB, over the last years? Popp explained it did hurt in 2001 when Calvillo went down during season. As for East Final in 2004 when Calvillo went down, White put up more points than Calvillo did on scoreboard…Calvillo is not on the way out (still has more years on his contract & his healthy) & usually grooming a young #2 QB is done when the veteran is on his way out.

Popp did talked about the missed defensive called in Grey Cup when “Malveaux” missed his play & Proulx did the “save”, but Popp never mentioned Malveaux name, but did mentionend the “spectacular effort” by Proulx.

Reason why Terry Vaughn was traded to Hamilton was because of high salary contract $$$$. Since they spent more than expected on Richard Karikari contract, they “had to let go” a high salary player. Popp knew in 2005 when he signed Vaughn, he would produce 1000 yards for an 11th season but might have to release him after the season. Vaughn had a slow start, but started to “gel” with Calvillo once Cahoon got hurt.

Popp talked about Thyron Anderson that can step in Vaughn shoes this season, but last year came in the season late because of NFL Saints Training Camp. Also mentionne Terrence Edwards (Roberts’ Brother), which he considers as a very strong candidate, and did good things on field last year. Also mentioned Dave Stala which stepped up and his “game level” improved week after week. Great young talent in Stala & Edwards, so they didn’t have any concerns to let go Vaughn.

Question from Hamilton Spectator:

Question about the dynamics of the league since Ottawa folded & what will be the “Eastern” Dynamics ?

Popp answered stating the league will be more competitive, but he doesn’t expect 1 team to break-out of standings (ie: 2004 – Al’s & 2005 BC)…All teams are very well balanced. Popp mentioned Hamilton “on paper” did some very big upgrades. T.O retained most of starters & signed Stokes. Mtl can’t argue for the fact they participated in 4 out of 6 Grey Cup… Winnipeg did some good changes, but it might take time for them to be on same page at first but don’t count them out !

Question from Shawn from National Post: Impact that the Ottawa dispersal draft will have on team “salary cap” ?

Popp mentioned the players they picked up from Dispersal draft didn’t have high $$ contracts.

Larry Smith mentioned that CFL had a nice growth for last 5-6 years, Salary control is critical for league stability. He considers 2006 as a “no-fault” year and 2007 will be the “year 1” of salary management. All GM’s & owners have the brain power to make the Cap work, but 2007 will be the real test for Cap compliance. 3.8 million$ in 2006 will be hard to make after the Ottawa dispersal draft. We’ll see in 2007 if all GM & owners are “willful” to make the compliance.

French Question from Phillipe from Mtl 690 Am Radio: New stadium is now in “consultation”, what did the Al’s did to improve the project.

Larry Smith replied they Al’s modified slightly the project so “everyone” involded would be happy. “Forestry” engenieers were hired to evaluate & tagged trees that are dead/sick, new proposal to plant new (a superior product Smith said), Al’S are part of the community & want to be “pleased” the community for the success of the project. This project is not only for the Al’s but also to have a much needed Downtown outdoor facility that can be used for other events.

Smith compared the Al’s expension project to the one in T.O. for 20000 seats. Mtl is going to cost 40 Millions$ compared to a brand new facility in T.O. that will cost 70 millions$.

Said Al’s have a good communication with everyone involved & project should go thru.

Conference ended !

Désolé si le texte est seulement en anglais, j'avais 5 pages de note et je ne voulais pas le traduire...ca aurais pris 10 pages !

http://www.cfl.ca/index.php?module=news ... y&nid=7943

Voici la version CFL...avec des clip audio de la conférence !

Here is the CFL version....with audio clips !