Why not play in Brampton in the interim? Has that ever been discussed? Too far?
Too far, local interest was low even when Brampton had a team of their own and traffic is awful that way. Heck, people in Mississauga have traffic issues getting to their own arena at times, never mind people from Hamilton making it to games, and if the plan is to move back, it doesn't really build up the Bulldogs in any way.
There is a substantial Brantford presence at Bulldogs games as it stands now; with a noticeable amount of Brantford 99ers gear floating around, so a temporary move their would generate some goodwill in that regard. It's a lot closer and generally the route that way only clogs in the morning, not the afternoon and only clogs going back to Hamilton during rush hour. You also have the added benefit that you might be able to prime the city into investing in an arena for another OHL team to one day have a shot there.
Technically Brantford itself is still a rumor as well, but to me, it makes more sense. Playing out of a packed 3,000 seater makes more sense then playing out of a 2,000 (if you are lucky) filled 5,000 seater.
Frankly, if not for having too small an arena, Brantford is one of the four cities I would look to expand to if we ever got the perfect OHL size of 24 and alignment (The other three being Cornwall, Chatham and Belleville getting the Bulls back.)
