UdeM studies viability of football team

Now that the Université de Moncton has a world-class outdoor stadium on its campus, the next question is easy: Is a football team coming next?

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The university has taken the next step into looking into the matter with UdeM president Yvon Fontaine striking a committee that will complete a feasibility study into the school starting a football program.

The committee gets to work next month and expects to decide sometime in the fall or by the end of the year whether it will proceed down the road of operating a football program.
If the university does decide to go ahead, no timetable has been set when it would join the Atlantic University Sport football conference.

The four-team conference currently features the Mount Allison Mounties of Sackville, Saint Mary’s Huskies of Halifax, St. Francis Xavier X-Men of Antigonish, N.S. and Acadia Axemen of Wolfville, N.S.

The committee is in its very early stages and all of its members have not yet been finalized. UdeM executive director of university relations Linda Schofield said the school wanted to wait until the completion of this month’s IAAF world junior track and field championships held at 10,000-seat Stade Moncton 2010 Stadium on campus before getting to work.

The committee will also analyse the Canadian Football League regular-season game between the Toronto Argonauts and Edmonton Eskimos Sept. 26, also held at the stadium.

“With the facility we have on our campus now and having a CFL game coming too, we have to look at all of our options. We’ve had some pressure and we’ve heard from some alumni and some community groups to see if we can look into it,” said Schofield, who is on the committee, as is UdeM athletic director Marc Boudreau.

“We have the responsibility to look seriously into it. At this moment, I can’t say what the outcome will be.

“The committee hasn’t decided yet the best way to proceed. It might be done in different phases and we might bring people in for different phases. It will involve people from the community at some point. We want to make sure we make the right use of their time and expertise.”

Starting a football program isn’t an easy. Big money and a large roster of players are needed in order to get a team on the field. Schofield said two of the major issues the committee will be analysing are the financial resources required to operating a potential football team and the recruitment of potential players.

“There is a lot involved in this and we have to make sure that if we did go ahead, it would be a feasibly sound project,” she said. “You can’t start a football program, you can’t start any varsity program, without having the financial backing.”

Schofield the committee will look at different models other Canadian universities use for football. The most successful has been at the Université Laval, where a board of directors run the football team in partnership with the university. The team, which receives substantial corporate support, has become a huge success on and off the field.

Another consideration is the recruitment of players, who would enroll in the French university. University football in Quebec has taken off in recent years with the addition of teams at French-language schools at Laval, Montreal and Sherbrooke.

“It takes a roster of about 90 players and they would be in a French institution. We have to analyse the pool of where we could recruit those players,” said Schofield, who co-authored A Winning Formula, a 2003 report on the future of sports at UdeM.

“And we would want a good team. We don’t just want to put together a team just to have a team. We would want to have a competitive team.”

Schofield said the university is proud of its current varsity athletic programs and doesn’t want to negatively impact its current teams by adding a football program. That will be considered in the feasibility study.

She acknowledged the addition of a football program would raise the profile of the university.
“Not only that, but it would be something for the alumni to be proud of and support,” she said. “It would involve all kinds of people in the community, it would increase the usage of the stadium and it would help with the recruitment of students, football players who aren’t coming here right now. Maybe we could make our mark at the national stage if we have a good team.”
Fontaine is on vacation and could not be reached for comment yesterday.