Editing Canadian Baseball League (section)

==History==
The CBL was the brainchild of [[Tony Riviera]], a former major league scout, and the face of the league.  It was backed by former [[Microsoft]] product developer [[Charlton Lui]], and later by former [[Yahoo!]] president, and part owner of the [[San Francisco Giants]], [[Jeff Mallett]].<ref name="vancourier">{{Cite web |url=http://www.vancourier.com/issues03/103103/sports.html |title="CBL receivership not a fall classic", Vancouver Courier, August 4, 2004 |access-date=October 6, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061021045352/http://www.vancourier.com/issues03/103103/sports.html |archive-date=October 21, 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref>  [[Canadians|Canadian]] [[Baseball Hall of Fame]]r [[Ferguson Jenkins]] was brought in to act as the league's Commissioner.

Riviera's vision had big goals, and he followed suit by making big promises.  Riviera stated that the CBL would be "AAA quality",<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ballparkwatch.com/stadiums/IL/jetform.htm |title=Ballparkwatch.com, September 5, 2002 |access-date=October 6, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060513052354/http://www.ballparkwatch.com/stadiums/IL/jetform.htm |archive-date=May 13, 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was rumoured to have approached the [[Winnipeg Goldeyes]] about switching leagues, and even nominated [[Pete Rose]] for the [[Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame]].<ref>[http://static.espn.go.com/mlb/news/2003/0224/1513515.html No Rose, but former Blue Jays slugger Carter voted in, ESPN.com, March 13, 2003]</ref>

The big plans initially appeared to be possible. The league announced a national television deal with sports channel [[The Score Television Network|The Score]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.channelcanada.com/Article151.html |title=Canadian Baseball League gets National TV deal, Channelcanada.com, January 23, 2003 |access-date=October 6, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061029001631/http://www.channelcanada.com/Article151.html |archive-date=October 29, 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref> while a crowd of 5,100 took in the league's inaugural game in [[London, Ontario]].<ref name="CBLdeath">[http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0703/0703cbl.htm enterstageright.com, Jackson Murphy, July 21, 2003]</ref>

===Quick demise===
However, despite early promises that the league could, and would, average over 2,000 fans per game, it was clear that the CBL was not remotely close to projections. Only two markets averaged over 1,000 fans per game:  [[Victoria, British Columbia|Victoria]] at 1,700 and [[Calgary]] at 1,000.<ref name="EFOD">[https://thetyee.ca/News/2004/04/05/Empty_Field_of_Dreams/ Empty Field of Dreams, thetyee.ca, April 5, 2004]</ref> Four teams averaged fewer than 300 per game: [[Kelowna]] (271), [[Saskatoon]] (256), [[Welland, Ontario|Welland]] (181) and [[Trois-Rivières]] (163).<ref name="CBLdeath"/> The national TV deal was cancelled after only six weeks after the CBL was unable to find enough sponsors to cover the production costs.<ref name="EFOD"/>

The Montreal franchise never played a game in that city due to a lack of a playing field, as they were denied a lease at [[Olympic Stadium (Montreal)|Olympic Stadium]]. Their home games were played at [[Stade Amedee Roy]] in [[Sherbrooke]] instead.

The Abbotsford Saints relocated to Trois Rivieres, Quebec before the season started.

The CBL's swan song was the All-Star game, held at Calgary. Unwilling to absorb any more losses, Mallett pulled the plug on the league, suspending operations the day before the game. A crowd of over 5,700 (the largest crowd to come to Burns Park all season) watched the East and West All-Stars play to a 5-5, ten-inning tie. Following the game, a home run derby was held, in which Jamie Gann of Kelowna hit the only dinger, thus giving the West the victory.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/image/486440363/ CBL all-stars get one final chance to shine, Calgary Herald, July 24, 2003, p. E5]</ref> Despite losing as much as $4 million on the CBL,<ref name="EFOD"/> Mallett initially promised to bring the league back in 2004. However, the remaining assets of the league were quietly auctioned off on December 1, 2003 in Vancouver and the league never returned.