Canadian football Hall of Fame running back Eric Lapointe and his group have been in discussions with the CFL to purchase the Montreal Alouettes, according to Le Journal de Montreal reporter Marc De Foy.
Commissioner Randy Ambrosie and the board of governors were having exclusive conversations with one potential group in recent days and it’s led by Lapointe. The Alouettes were officially sold to the league on Friday, May 31.
The CFL and Wetenhall family indeed have been working for several months to identify and assess potential new owners and that process is ongoing. To facilitate the process, the CFL has been involved in the club’s day-to-day operations in recent months.
Lapointe played the last six seasons of his CFL career for the Alouettes and believes the franchise can thrive in La Belle Province.
“It’s a smaller business obviously than the Montreal Canadiens, it’s even a smaller business than what we have right now for most of the people that are in the group. Yes, there’s different aspects to it. There’s obviously football ops, there’s administration and then the coaching and the actual game, which is three different things,” Lapointe said on TSN radio in Montreal in March.
“I know exactly where to start. It’s an interesting business, but don’t get me wrong it’s not a passion investment for me: I believe there’s potential. I’ve seen numbers in the past and I’ve talked to many teams in the league also. It’s probably not a team that you could make 10 millions of profit every year… but as a group if we bring different type of people, different type of expertise, we can do great things for a small organization.”
It’s possible Lapointe, the Montreal native, will get the opportunity to own the Alouettes.
Or not. The one and only Herb Zurkowsky has set the record straight.
The twists and turns in the Alouettes sale process are better than any soap opera in the country.
