![\"Ottawa](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_4385.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: Ottawa Redblacks<\/p>\n
The Ottawa Redblacks made a fundamental change to their organization on Monday, as team president Adrian Sciarra left his post<\/a> after less than four years on the job.<\/p>\n One might assume that Sciarra was fired given the state of the club, but that\u2019s not true. He will remain at the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) as president and alternate governor of the Ottawa 67\u2019s of the Ontario Hockey League.<\/p>\n According to OSEG president and CEO Mark Goudie, it was Sciarra\u2019s idea to step away from the Redblacks and allow a new leader to take on the role of president.<\/p>\n 3DownNation Newsletter<\/p>\n \t\tToday\u2019s CFL news in your inbox every day at 3 p.m.<\/p>\n \t\tBy signing up you agree to receive daily emails from 3DownNation, as well as our \u201cAdrian came to me a couple weeks ago with, \u2018I think\u00a0we need dedicated leadership at the Redblacks\u2019 \u2014\u00a0dedicated\u00a0meaning somebody that\u2019s full time, 120 percent on Redblacks only, and that wasn\u2019t Adrian,\u201d Goudie told 3DownNation on Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cAdrian had multiple responsibilities within our organization, and so we talked about\u00a0what that looked like, and we talked about timing, and\u00a0agreed that we should do it now and not wait until the end of the season, so I can start putting together what the\u00a0organization looks like going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n As things presently stand, the Redblacks are a disaster.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s losing streak, which stems all the way back to 2025, grew to a modern CFL record 15 games<\/a> this past week. The club also became just the tenth team in CFL history to begin a season 0-9<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Rough Riders had some bad years but never lost 10 consecutive games to start a season. Ottawa will do exactly that in 2026, barring a miraculous win over the red-hot Montreal Alouettes on Friday night.<\/p>\n Fans might be somewhat accepting of the team\u2019s futility if it were a recent phenomenon.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not.<\/p>\n Ottawa has only made the playoffs once since the start of the 2019 season, going 27-85-1 (.243) over that time.<\/p>\n The losses have taken a big toll at the gate, as the Redblacks have averaged crowds of 15,124 through five regular-season games this year, a 16.6 percent decrease from 2025.<\/p>\n The club\u2019s previous average attendance low was 16,847, which occurred in 1996 \u2014 the last year before the Rough Riders folded.<\/p>\n Despite the team\u2019s current challenges, Goudie was adamant that fans have no reason to fear that the Redblacks are in jeopardy.<\/p>\n \u201cOwnership is\u00a0all-in on Redblacks. It\u2019s\u00a0the reason\u00a0(the original) Lansdowne (redevelopment)\u00a0happened (in 2014),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt started with, \u2018Hey, we need to bring CFL football back to\u00a0Ottawa.\u2019 We realized that there wasn\u2019t a stadium\u00a0capable of hosting CFL football \u2014\u00a0part of it was condemned \u2014 so knowing that\u00a0if we were going to get CFL football back, they needed to figure out how to rebuild a stadium, which we did.<\/p>\n \u201cWe then built all of the ancillary stuff around the football stadium here at Lansdowne, which has become\u00a0a great place in\u00a0our nation\u2019s capital that has\u00a0four million visitors a year,\u00a0but at the nub of it\u00a0is Redblacks\u00a0football.<\/p>\n \u201cI hate when I hear stories that OSEG\u00a0and OSEG\u2019s owners are not committed to football. It\u2019s the only thing they\u2019re committed to here. It\u2019s the most important thing they\u2019re committed to,\u00a0but I think people make up the stories that are convenient for their beliefs right now.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got an ownership group that is\u00a0all-in, and I think I\u2019ve got an ownership group that does sports ownership the right way. They hire people and they let them do their jobs, and they\u2019re not meddling in\u00a0their business. They like the people they hire, and they want them to be successful.\u00a0They want to give them the tools to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n The south grandstand at TD Place Stadium was replaced during the first Lansdowne redevelopment phase in 2014.<\/p>\n The north grandstand, which was built in 1967, is going to be demolished and rebuilt for 2031. Other parts of the $419 million redevelopment project, known colloquially as Lansdowne 2.0, include a new event centre, new retail space, and two residential towers.<\/p>\n The capacity of TD Place Stadium, which is currently close to 25,000, will be around 24,000 when construction is complete.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll have a brand new football stadium in four years, and we need to fill that stadium. To fill that stadium, we need a winning team, so Redblacks is going to be here as long as the CFL is going to be here, which hopefully is centuries,\u201d said Goudie.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were toying with the idea of whether a Grey Cup made sense here in 2028 before we knocked down the old stadium. I thought that would be an awesome farewell to this stadium that served us really well for the last 60 years, but logistically with the construction, it was not going to work. As soon as we\u2019re able to open back up, we\u2019ll look forward to hosting a kick-ass Grey Cup like we did in 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n Sciarra\u2019s departure is the latest of a long line of changes in Ottawa.<\/p>\n Head coach Bob Dyce was fired following the 2025 season and most of his coaching staff didn\u2019t return. The club also allowed 22 free agents to leave in February.<\/p>\n Dru Brown, the club\u2019s franchise quarterback of the last two seasons, was unceremoniously traded away in June.<\/p>\n Defensive coordinator William Fields, who previously coached under Ryan Dinwiddie for three seasons with the Argonauts, was fired at the start of August.<\/p>\n A slew of veteran players have also been cut, including Eugene Lewis, Amari Henderson, and Demerio Houston.<\/p>\n None of the changes have paid dividends as the club remains in search of its first win.<\/p>\n For now, at least, it seems the exit door has been slammed shut as the Redblacks plan to let the dust settle on Sciarra\u2019s departure before making any further changes.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re going to take some time and\u00a0figure out\u00a0what we do and how we do it and do it right, so we\u2019re not back at this point again going forward,\u201d said Goudie.<\/p>\n \u201cThere (are no other changes) that are imminent. I don\u2019t want to go through person by person in our organization, but I will say that\u00a0I think Ryan Dinwiddie is a\u00a0very good coach, and I think he\u2019s going to be the cornerstone to what we build around going\u00a0forward.\u201d<\/p>\n In a press release, the Redblacks indicated they\u2019d like to hire a new president by the end of this calendar year, though it seems the timeline could be shorter if the right candidate emerges. Goudie indicated that he\u2019d like to hire someone with a football background.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we want to be creative and innovative in terms of what we\u2019re looking for. It can sometimes be a very small pool of people in the CFL, and I want to make sure that we get outside of that and understand what we\u2019re looking for, number one, and then figure out how wide the net needs to be cast to be able to get the person that we need in place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cMy expectation is I\u2019m going to get a lot of inbound inquiries on this as well, and that\u2019s one of the reasons that we made this announcement now versus in a couple of months. I want to talk to as many people as possible, and I want to be able to have open conversations about what we\u2019re looking for going forward as well, so I expect that there\u2019s going to be dozens and dozens of conversations and candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n Goudie was born and raised in Ottawa. He grew up attending Rough Riders game on the north side of the stadium with his father.<\/p>\n When asked what he\u2019d say to the team\u2019s frustrated fans, he was candid.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, they just want to see wins. They don\u2019t really care what I have to say. They just want to see wins. If I have their attention, what I would say is we are feeling this acutely,\u201d said Goudie.<\/p>\n \u201cWe carry a burden with their expectations every\u00a0week of the year, and it\u2019s not going to go away until we start winning games and we\u2019re able to give fans back what they deserve, which is a winning football team that they can be proud of.<\/p>\n \u201cI think back to 2016 when we won the Grey Cup, and having 60,000 people line Bank Street just uber excited about the first Grey Cup that we\u2019d won in\u00a0decades was\u00a0an amazing feeling, and the pride\u00a0that they had in their city, the pride that they had in their football club, that\u2019s what I want to get back to, and need to get back to.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re so inclined to be\u00a0listening to me, I\u2019d say stick with me. I feel it. We\u2019re gonna fix this. I can\u2019t tell you when exactly that\u2019s going to turn, but it\u2019s going to turn, and I\u2019m going to do everything in my power, ownership\u2019s going to do everything in their power to get the right infrastructure in place here to make sure that\u00a0these years weren\u2019t for nothing, and we\u00a0get back to a place where we\u2019re perpetually competitive, and we\u2019re seen as a model franchise in the\u00a0CFL.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t John Hodge is a longtime Canadian football reporter, insider, and podcaster for 3DownNation. Based in Winnipeg, Hodge is also a freelance television and radio broadcaster.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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