The recent comments made by the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, regarding the Olympic Stadium caught my attention. Thus, he mentions the challenge of moving from a negative symbol to a positive symbol.
In my case, I will point out, without wanting to be sloppy, that the Olympic Stadium has long been a great positive symbol for me. I therefore carefully keep at home a championship ring on which the magnificent Montreal stadium and its famous leaning tower are engraved. It’s a special jewel that only a few Quebecers own, including Randy Chevrier, Miguel Robédé, Jonathan Lapointe and me.
It was in fact at the Olympic Stadium that I won the Gray Cup in 2008 with my Calgary Stampeders teammates. I won’t dwell on the subject since we defeated the Alouettes by a score of 22 to 14 that year in the final. And you have every right to hate me for it.
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That being said, I would especially like to remind you that there were more than 66,000 spectators on site for this football match. It was sick!
Large-scale projects
Obviously, and Mr. Legault himself admitted it, it will cost a lot of money to renovate the Olympic Stadium. However, the population should not underestimate the impact that a large functional stadium can have for a city like Montreal. The Olympic Stadium is a Quebec flagship.
Football is also one of the sports that could benefit from the presence of a new roof at the Olympic Stadium. We could dream again of hosting the Gray Cup in Montreal because currently, that is not a feasible scenario at Percival-Molson Stadium.
The Alouettes could also host certain home playoff games there. Imagine more than 45,000 people on site to watch a game like the Eastern semi-final scheduled for November 4. The organization would take advantage, with this one meeting, to ensure that it is afloat in its annual budget. And why not possibly present an NFL game there? The new playing surface is already an asset for the Olympic Stadium.
The message from the Tiger-Cats
You have to allow yourself to dream! Until then, we’ll meet at Percival-Molson Stadium on Saturday, where the Alouettes will finish their regular season against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, a team they will meet at the same place the following week in the semi-final. from the east. Even if there is no real stake, this weekend, it is clear to me that the Ti-Cats will want to use this game to send a message for the next one.
Concerning the Alouettes, they can repeat the words of my former head coach John Hufnagel which are inscribed on the 2008 ring: “We got them right where we wanted“. Hufnagel said these words at halftime, when we were trailing 13 to 10… For the 2023 Alouettes, they have the Tiger-Cats exactly where they wanted them by facing them at home.
–Comments collected by Benoit Rioux
