Montreal Alouettes Matthieu Proulx speaks to the media in Edmonton (REUTERS)
The talk on Friday is all about rooms; Locker rooms and hotel rooms. Matthieu Proulx and Etienne Boulay of the Montreal Alouettes believe the hotel the Als are staying is substandard. The duo also wonders why Montreal is stuck with the tight quarters of the visitor’s dressing room while Saskatchewan is enjoying the Eskimos renovated locker room. The two Montreal safeties believe the answers to these questions may be because the CFL wants the Riders to win the Grey Cup.
Do I believe the CFL is making life difficult for Montreal because it wants Saskatchewan to win? Absolutely not. The hotels are booked before the Grey Cup finalists are determined, so if Toronto and Calgary were in the final, the hotel arrangements would be the same. As far as the dressing room situation, when a western city hosts the Grey Cup the west division champs are the home team which means they stay in the home team’s locker room. When an eastern city hosts the final the eastern champs are the home squad and they stay in the home team’s locker room.
But that doesn’t mean I think it’s right. First of all, the CFL knew Edmonton was hosting the 2010 Grey Cup two years ago. How hard is it to book adequate hotels well in advance? I don’t know if the hotel Montreal is staying at is inadequate for a CFL team, but it’s the kind of publicity the league definitely doesn’t want. Secondly, and a lot of people will disagree with this, I think if the defending champs get back to the final they should decide which locker room they want. It’s one of the perks of being the defending champs, especially when it’s a re-match of last year’s final. What has Saskatchewan done to earn the right to a more comfortable room? If the defending champs don’t make it back to the Grey Cup then use the current dressing room rule.
That’s my two cents for today. I’ll have a couple more tomorrow.
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