CFL Stampeders Expected To Have New Owners On Wednesday

CFL Calgary Stampeders Owner Michael Feterik is expected to sell the team for about C$6M Wednesday to a “group of owners consisting of local businessmen, former Calgary players” and former CFL Commissioner Doug Mitchell, according to Allan Maki of the Toronto GLOBE & MAIL. Sources confirmed the deal “just needs signatures.” The group is headed by John Forzani, a former Stampeders player whose company, Forzani Group, owns the sporting-goods chain Sport Chek; Ted Hellard, who owns an Internet advertising firm; and Mitchell. Other members include former Univ. of Calgary football player Paul Colborne and former Stampeder Dave Sapunjis. Maki writes the new owners have a “cache of influence, credibility and money along with an understanding of what the Stamps mean to the city and what the team needs after three losing seasons. In Feterik's hands, the Stampeders were as clownish as The Three Stooges on laughing gas.” The Stampeders are “slightly ahead of last year's season-ticket sales count” with more than 10,000 season tickets already purchased (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 1/11).