Perry Lefko

Perry Lefko keeps you connected to all the news in the CFL on Sportsnet.ca.

Ivor Wynne Stadium.

If Bob Young wanted to move the Ticats out of Hamilton after the 2011 season, there is some speculation the Canadian Football League would not put up much of a defence.

According to Sportsnet.ca sources, the multi-billionaire software owner, who bought the Ticats from the Canadian Football League after the 2003 season for $2 million and has invested at least $30 million into it, would be given leeway by the board of governors to move the team to a nearby municipality or perhaps another province if he chose that route.

The matter would need to be presented to the board and requires a unanimous decision to be passed.

Unlike owners in similar situations in the National Hockey League, National Football League and Major League Baseball who run into stiff opposition if they want to move a franchise, there is a feeling the CFL board of governors would sympathize with Young because, as one source said, "the man has been a good partner."

Right now it’s all a matter of whether or not Young and the City of Hamilton can bridge their philosophical differences over a proposed new stadium to be built for the 2015 Pan Am Games.

City council voted 12-3 on Tuesday, to build the stadium near the downtown core. While Young wanted it in a different direction just off of the highway near the mountain feeling it had greater accessibility, more room for parking and visibility for naming rights.

On Monday, in a move that surprised those close to Young, who has come across as a happy-go-lucky guy even during times of stress on and off the field, he issued a public letter to the Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger and the city council that he is opting out of negotiating the team would play out of Ivor Wynne Stadium until its lease expires after the 2011 season.

"I’ve never seen him that way," one source said. "He must have been really, really upset."

One source said Young may have been under additional emotional stress because his wife’s sister passed away.

CFL commissioner Mark Cohon refused to speculate about the Ticats leaving Steeltown if the situation between Young and Hamilton city council couldn’t be resolved.

"The league is in a much different place than it was five years ago, where there is more interest in other cities," Cohon told Sportsnet.ca. "We want to find a resolution for keeping the Tiger-Cats in Hamilton, which has been around for 141 years. I’m going to continue to support the efforts of Bob. I’m going to make phone calls where I can to support our franchise and to support the Tiger-Cats."

"As the spokesperson for the league, I just want to make people understand how important the franchise is to the city and I want to reinforce that point. There is some risk around that, and I want to make sure people are crystal clear about that risk."

Sources also say if he chose to move the team elsewhere, he could go to nearby Burlington, and the cost of building a stadium wouldn’t be prohibitive.

In B.C., a temporary stadium seating 27,500 was built for some $15 million this year to house the Lions while B.C. Place was being renovated. It took only four months to do it.

Sources have already told Sportsnet.ca that Young has received expressions of interest from Burlington and nearby municipalities in Oakville and Mississauga.

There has also been speculation Young could move the team to Ottawa, where the CFL is hoping to replant a team there for the third time in three years, pending final approval from the city for a group seeking to redevelop land around Lansdowne Park. Theoretically, Young could receive the expansion fee that is expected to be at least $7 million – and it could include further monies from Grey Cup profits, if the team plays host to the championship game, which the ownership would surely want to do.

Laval, Quebec, which has an 18,000-seat stadium that would need to be expanded, has also been speculated as a possible destination.

The next two to three weeks will unveil another chapter in the stadium issue, one which could go various ways.

According to the plans drafted by the 2015 Pan Am Games bid committee, the stadium has to have legacy use beyond the event. In very specific language, the legacy aspect included the words professional football, specifically the Ticats. The legacy use would include federal and provincial funding beyond the $60 million the city has budgeted.

Pan Am Games chief executive officer Ian Troop is scheduled to meet with Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger some time in the next few days and will point to the legacy issue and the monies attached to it.

After that meeting, Troop will make a report and take it to the Pan Games Host Committee (Hostco). Sources say Hostco will not allow a 15,000-seat stadium in Hamilton because if it does not include the Ticats, the money will be used elsewhere. The track and field stadium would be built at York University, which would include 5,000 permanent seats and between 5,000-10,000 temporary ones.

So, in that case Hamilton could build its own stadium in the downtown core using the monies it’s committed, but without the Ticats an anchor tenant, or it could choose not to build a stadium, or it could change its thought and move to the location Young wants.

Right now, the people of Hamilton are about evenly divided in their support of city council and Young, and in the middle is the future of the franchise and possibly a movement to another city.