Ottawa is living through the toughest chapter yet in Redblacks history. The team has now posted the longest losing streak of any CFL franchise in the modern era, a run bad enough that it's forced the people who run the club to speak directly to a fanbase that's clearly running out of patience.
Mark Goudie, CEO of Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG), the organization behind the Redblacks, TD Place, and the 67's, addressed the skid head-on this week. Goudie didn't try to spin the numbers or pretend the losses weren't piling up. Instead, he acknowledged the frustration boiling over among season-ticket holders and casual fans alike, while asking Ottawa to stick with the team through what he's framing as a rebuilding period.
A streak with no recent comparison
The CFL has seen bad seasons before, but Ottawa's current stretch stands apart. No team in the modern era of the league has dropped this many games in a row, which puts the Redblacks in genuinely unfamiliar territory. For a franchise that made it to three Grey Cup appearances within its first five seasons after joining the league in 2014, the freefall has been jarring for longtime supporters who remember the team's early success under the OSEG banner.
The losing streak has also reignited questions about roster construction, coaching decisions, and the front office's long-term plan — the kind of scrutiny that tends to follow any Ottawa pro sports team when results dip, given how tightly the Redblacks are woven into the city's summer sports identity alongside the 67's and the Ottawa Titans.
Goudie's message to fans
Rather than let the losses speak entirely for themselves, Goudie chose to get in front of the story, expressing his own disappointment while framing this stretch as part of a longer rebuild rather than a permanent decline. His comments suggest OSEG sees this season as a reset point — one that requires buy-in from the Ottawa fanbase even as wins remain scarce at TD Place.
That's a tough sell in a city where sports attention is split across multiple franchises and where patience for rebuilding years can wear thin quickly. Still, Goudie's willingness to publicly own the disappointment, rather than staying quiet through the losing streak, is a signal that OSEG is aware of how much goodwill is riding on how this situation is handled.
What it means for Ottawa fans
For Redblacks faithful who've packed TD Place through the good years, the losing streak is a gut check. Ottawa's football fans have shown they'll turn out for winning football, and OSEG now faces the challenge of keeping that base engaged through a rebuild rather than watching them drift toward other options in the city's crowded sports calendar.
Whether Goudie's message translates into on-field results remains to be seen, but for now it's a rare moment of direct accountability from the top of the organization — one Ottawa sports fans will be watching closely as the season continues.
Source: CBC
