We need Asper back on team
Idea Man would help Blue bring in some cash
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/12/2010 (5426 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Now, perhaps more than ever, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers need David Asper.
The Bombers will be moving into a new stadium but will be carrying a sack stuffed with $85 million of debt when they go uptown.
Business plan and current board of directors aside, the Bombers are deep in hock and require every break available to make this work.

The franchise will need to raise somewhere in the neighbourhood of $4 million a season for the next 40 years just to meet its stadium debt commitments.
For an organization that has slipped back and forth between making a little money and losing a lot — these are nervous times.
The danger of falling back into the charity case the club became in the 1990s is very real. The Bombers haven’t won a Grey Cup in more than 20 years and the prospect of needing to hold out a cup to make loan payments won’t help the team get over that sizeable hump.
Can the Bombers make enough money in a new stadium to answer the banker’s bell on a yearly basis? Maybe.
Can they make enough on top of that to arm themselves with all the advantages enjoyed by the league’s leaders? ‘Maybe’ is getting slim enough to call herself a supermodel.
Asper and his imagination and passion for the club could give the organization its best chance at swimming rather than just treading water — or perhaps even drowning.
The man who got this stadium ball rolling before being bumped out of the project wasn’t talking on Monday and no one could blame him if he is sour.
Asper poured his heart, soul and a significant amount of time and money into this deal only to come up empty in a bid to build the club a new home and become its sole owner.
The son of the late mogul Izzy Asper has seen his name and his intentions dragged through the mud while this drama played out in the media.
That’s society today, where ideas are open to criticism from anyone with a phone or a computer. Is it fair? No. But it’s life as we know and David Asper is a big boy with thick skin.
Asper has said all along that the Bombers getting a new stadium is what really matters.
Well, they’re getting the stadium and what matters now is that the facility not crush the club as they try to pay for it. It’s no good to be house-poor.
So why David Asper? For any number of reasons. He’s smart and creative and a dreamer. The Bombers need that kind of mind to market and promote and fuel the engine a new stadium can be.
The Goldeyes had Sam Katz and his knack for promotion, spinning off ideas that filled Canwest Park with fans and gave them myriad ways to spend their money once in the park.
True North Sports and Entertainment built a team that turned MTS Centre into one of the busiest buildings in North America.
The Bombers must follow the lead of their sporting counterparts. The race has just begun and how they run it is critical to what unfolds next.
There is potential for this to be a monumental disaster. There is also opportunity for a franchise brand that has taken a terrible beating to be restored.
David Asper knows the organization and the challenges it faces and, if he chooses, can help.
Asper shouldn’t be viewed as a saviour and all is not lost if he chooses to sit this one out.
But he started this fight and despite taking a standing-eight count he can play a major role in helping the Bombers off the canvas.
So where are you D.A.?
Your Blue and Gold need you. Get back in the game.
gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca