{"id":562016,"date":"2026-03-26T12:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T12:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/562016\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T12:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T12:16:14","slug":"quebec-city-by-far-the-best-option-available-for-cfl-expansion-danny-maciocia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/562016\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec City ‘by far the best option available’ for CFL expansion: Danny Maciocia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo courtesy: Laval Rouge et Or<\/p>\n

The Montreal Alouettes are continuing their mission to reach fans from across the province by hosting training camp in Quebec City this year<\/a>. However, if Danny Maciocia had his way, loyalties would be considerably more divided.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Alouettes\u2019 senior vice-president of football operations and general manager stated that he is a staunch proponent of CFL expansion to the provincial capital, believing it to be the league\u2019s best chance at a 10th franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on at the league level. I don\u2019t know what level of interest, if there\u2019s a group or if there\u2019s an individual who wants to bring a team to Quebec City. But it would be, by far, in my opinion, the best option that\u2019s available,\u201d Maciocia told the media via videoconference.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a market that supports their sports teams, and\u00a0I think it would be a great fit for the CFL. It\u2019s just a question of whether there\u2019s enough interest there to bring a team, but I would think it would be a huge success, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time that Maciocia has backed the viability of the Quebec market<\/a>, but his comments come at a point when the idea of expanding there has never been more popular. After a proposed Atlantic Schooners franchise fell through in Halifax, former CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie began to float Quebec City as an alternative, and his successor, Stewart Johnston, has continued to cite it as a possibility<\/a>, despite taking a longer-term approach to expansion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cooperation with the Universit\u00e9 Laval and its powerhouse Rouge et Or football program, backed by reclusive investor Jacques Tanguay, has long been viewed as a prerequisite for any meaningful exploration of Quebec expansion. As recently as 2023, Tanguay told local media outlets that there was \u201cno appetite\u201d for a CFL team in the city<\/a> from either the private or public sector. However, the new training camp agreement, which will see the Alouettes utilize Laval\u2019s Pavillon de l\u2019\u00e9ducation physique et des sports, better known as PEPS, this summer, has been viewed as a step in the right direction on that front.<\/p>\n

Despite repeated trips to Quebec City while making arrangements, Maciocia admitted that he has not spoken with Tanguay in a long time and does not know if his opinion on the CFL has changed. What he does know is that the province\u2019s current football culture can be traced directly to his investment in the Rouge et Or.<\/p>\n

\u201cHim and his group, what they\u2019ve been able to do in Quebec City has been unbelievable,\u201d Maciocia said. \u201cIf Quebec football is where it\u2019s at today, it\u2019s not the return of the Montreal Alouettes in 1996. It\u2019s what the Rouge et Or have been able to put in place. I think they\u2019ve been the driving force behind the success of football in the province of Quebec.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rouge et Or\u2019s fanbase stands head and shoulders above any other in Canadian university football, regularly selling out Stade Telus at PEPS and setting an attendance record of 20,903 in 2024. They are also far from the only successful sports franchise in the city. The Quebec Remparts lead the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League in average attendance, as do the Quebec Capitales in baseball\u2019s Frontier League.<\/p>\n

Previous forays into the market by the CFL have been less well-received. A 2015 exhibition game between the Alouettes and Ottawa Redblacks drew just 4,778 fans at Laval. In 2003, a crowd of 10,358 attended a preseason clash between Montreal and the Ottawa Renegades. Still, Maciocia believes those disappointments were a product of a different era.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at the Montreal Alouettes the last three years, we\u2019ve participated in Grey Cups. We\u2019re a team that wins games, that has had success on the field,\u201d he said in French, beautifully illustrating his next point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also a team that has a different face than the one that last played in Quebec. You look at the number of players from Quebec who are part of our roster, as well as the number of Quebecois decision-makers who are part of our organization. I think people in Quebec can identify with this team, not just the players who wish to one day play professionally for the Alouettes, but also the people who wish to one day work for the organization. It is really two different teams, two different organizations, and I think it speaks to Quebecers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any Quebec expansion franchise would need to follow a similar homegrown model, but standing in its path is the absence of a long-term stadium. While PEPS may offer \u201cpro-quality\u201d facilities for a CFL training camp, Stade Telus officially seats only 12,750 fans, partly on bleacher-style benches. Attendance above that number is standing room only, which doesn\u2019t fit the needs of a professional football team.<\/p>\n

However, Maciocia believes the facility could accommodate a CFL tenant with the use of temporary bleachers in the short term, before they hopefully transferred to a new venue. That could be a boost for the area\u2019s entire sports scene, potentially hosting a soccer team or other field sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would hope that the stadium would be multidimensional. It wouldn\u2019t just be a football stadium, the whole community would benefit from it, and if it\u2019s the whole community that benefits from it, it makes it a little bit more of a valid argument to build one,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead of it becoming a stadium that holds maybe 10 events, it could be a stadium that holds many more events. I\u2019ll leave that to the politicians, whether it\u2019s the city, the municipal government or the provincial government. That\u2019s above my pay grade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the infrastructure is concerned, I don\u2019t know about all of that. As far as the level of interest, I think it would be a huge success. There\u2019s no question in my mind that that\u2019s a football market.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Maciocia\u2019s ideas remain purely hypothetical<\/a>, but few understand football in the province as he does. As head coach of the Montreal Carabins for nearly a decade, he got frequent up-close looks at Laval\u2019s rabid fan base, and believes a CFL version of that storied inter-city rivalry could be something special.<\/p>\n

Considering all the different factors, he\u2019s certain that a Quebec City team would work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the Rouge et Or. It\u2019s all the amateur teams. It\u2019s all the people on the business side that I think would involve themselves in a 10th team, particularly in Quebec,\u201d Maciocia said. \u201cWith that type of support, I don\u2019t know how they couldn\u2019t have success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Laval Rouge et Or The Montreal Alouettes are continuing their mission to reach fans from across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,50470,3179,49,48,7028,521,522,520,118182,22551,527,216999,12694,2002,2338,906,24738,168680,82],"class_list":["post-562016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-alouettes","tag-als","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-danny-maciocia","tag-expansion","tag-football","tag-jacques-tanguay","tag-laval","tag-league","tag-montreal","tag-quebec","tag-quebec-city","tag-rouge-et-or","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}