As the annual league meetings began, the conversation was clearly going to be centred around the problem in Kansas City. Luckily, Ryan Jameson was quick to come forth with a potential opportunity.
Over the 1969 season, Jameson had been looking for other options as it became clear that the stadium in Kansas City was not going to be finished in the near future due to the project’s dormant state. He started with further discussions with the city’s Baseball club to potentially share the stadium temporarily, but they would still not budge on their initial desire not to share the stadium. Jameson would return to a couple of secondary options from the original expansion considerations. Omaha still was reluctant to house the team if it would only be temporary, and Jameson was unable to give a confident answer if it would be a permanent team. Des Moines remained noncommittal to a team, especially with the uncertainty of how permanent the team would be, and Grand Rapids was almost as far away from being able to host a team as Kansas City.
Quebec City would creep back into the conversation for Jameson, but there was still a desire to continue to build out the Western markets, and because they essentially promised Minnesota that they would have a team out there with them. Jameson’s next plan was to visit some markets that already had teams. He ventured to Chicago to meet with the Chicago All-Pros owner, Larry Winfield, about the possibility of either fitting a second team in the city or even if Winfield may be interested in the NAAF as a whole. Winfield was very kind in his rejection of the offer, as he was happy with the current state of the GLFL. However, Winfield would ask Jameson, politely, to steer clear of the other GLFL markets. He wished Jameson not to ask any other owners in the league, stating that there were concerns being voiced by his fellow owners about the NAAF’s expansion out west. While Winfield has done his best to reassure his fellow owners, he does not want to create more problems with Jameson poking around. Jameson, of course, understood and granted Winfield’s request, keeping their conversation between them and moving on to other options. However, the options were becoming increasingly scarce. Jameson did eventually find himself in conversations with a potential owner in Denver, CO. However, the city also had uncertainties over a stadium as well as the market with very few professional sports occupying it, so Jameson tabled those discussions for a later date.
Jameson was certainly getting worn from all of the travelling and meetings, but he didn’t give up. After his conversation with Larry Winfield, Jameson had been a little hesitant to speak to any other leagues about potential locations, hoping to not disturb them, but at this point, he had to take a shot in the dark.
Jameson would head North, arriving in Winnipeg, MB during the summer months. He met with Winnipeg Falcons owner, Ed Morrissette, and attended a Western Football Union game between the Falcons and their rivals, the Regina Wheat Kings. Watching the Falcons take down the Wheat Kings, 27-6, was a nice break from all the hard work that he had been doing, but once the final whistle had blown, Jameson was back to business. Following the contest, Jameson and Morrissette had a long discussion about the situation the NAAF was currently in which was quite similar to the conversation Jameson had with Winfield in Chicago. However, this time, Morrissette showed interest in the potential that the NAAF had and invited Jameson to join him in the team’s trip to the West Coast for their game against the Vancouver Wolves. There, they would bring the discussion to Wolves owner, Mark Livingston.
A week later, the conversation continued in Vancouver and Livingston was very intrigued by the potential of an agreement. After the Wolves-Falcons game, the 3 remaining WFU owners would join them in Vancouver to get everyone involved. Jameson would have discussions with the owners for several hours, and by the end of it, there were some owners very interested and others a little more hesitant. Jameson didn’t press further but ultimately invited the 5 owners to come to Ottawa during the NAAF’s league meetings in the fall to further the discussion. The owners accepted and would spend the next while continuing to have conversations amongst themselves.
Jumping back to current events, after Jameson brought forth the possible partnership with the WFU, the league meetings would be devoted to coming up with a proposal for what the partnership could look like heading into next season. Jameson had discussed some aspects with the WFU owners back when they first met, so that became an outline to build off of. The first week would fly by as the league’s representatives worked hard at putting together the deal. On the following Monday, the 5 WFU owners arrived in Ottawa.
The guests received a warm welcome and got the opportunity to meet with the NAAF’s owners and players. Once they got settled, it was back to business. The NAAF would come forward with their proposal.
A summary of the proposal highlighting the 6 most important points:
- A 2-year agreement that would make the WFU teams partial members of the NAAF for the 1970 and 1971 seasons.
- The WFU teams would compete in the NAAF, using hybrid football rules.
- The 5 teams would join the Minnesota Serpents in creating a 6-team West Division and would be able to compete for the McCallister Cup.
- Due to partial membership status, the teams will not participate in the league’s draft but will retain the ability to sign players out of college from the Western College Athletics Union without those players needing to go through the draft.
- Trades and free agency moves between the clubs would be allowed, but if the agreement comes to an end and the sides agree to part ways, any players who have NAAF memberships, which are acquired when players sign contracts with NAAF teams and enter the draft, would be able to leave their WFU teams and rejoin the NAAF if they so choose. Of course, the same is true for players coming from the WFU.
- The WFU teams would also be included in the partnership with Patterson Athletics and receive new uniforms for the 1970 season.
Ultimately, should the two leagues agree to the deal, they would be able to renegotiate the terms of the deal after the first season, however, both must commit to playing in the same league for both seasons, unless extreme circumstances occur.
After Jameson laid out the proposal, the WFU owners continued to discuss and ask questions of the NAAF representatives. The whole situation proved to be very helpful in ironing out some of the finer details, like the WFU still having a competition for their own trophy, the Mackenzie Cup. After a couple of days, the WFU owners would return to Western Canada to hold their own meetings and make a final decision, leaving the NAAF to continue with their own meetings and await the results.
