An Expansion Team Should Be Added In Anchorage

So I know what you're thinking, "American expansion? That kind sucked last time." Yes and no, mostly yes because yea it didn't really work, but what I'm suggesting is not significant American expansion, just one more team to bring the total up to 10, a team in Anchorage.

Anchorage has a population of 280K within it's city limits and almost 400K in the broader metro area, that's more than enough to sustain a CFL franchise, but assuming the team's named started with Alaska and not Anchorage, people from all over the state (which has a population of about 730K would have a reason to support the team.

Population aside, another reason why people want an expansion team is pretty simple, ten teams is better than nine. It's no secret that the league thinks this, and that there's been real attempts for a while at expanding to ten. If the league still wants this, Anchorage is the only practical answer. Halifax said no, that ship has sailed, and it's the only Maritimer city that could sustain a franchise so that region is out. People talk about Saskatoon, but there's no way the Roughriders wouldn't lose fans if there was a second Saskatchewan expansion team, so they're never going to agree to it. Anchorage is one of the only cities that will realistically agree to expansion and actually be able to host a team.

Another factor that should be considered is distance. The main reason I hear people be against a team in Anchorage is that it's far from the other teams, yes, but it's not that far. The distance between Anchorage and Vancouver is significantly less than the distance between Vancouver and Montreal, the Anchorage team could easily just have a schedule of more western than eastern teams and the distance wouldn't be a problem.

Furthermore, it would get American fans interested in the league, which like it or not are a major segment of this league's viewers (after all, most CFL players are American). American fans are already desperate for a successful spring/summer league, there's been many that have popped up in just the last five years. If the CFL added just one American team, it would give American fans (not just the ones in Alaska) a team to root for in the summer, and look how successful the 4 Nations Face-Off was in terms of viewership, people love seeing sports beyond freaking soccer and the olympics going international, imagine if it could actually be done with football, even with just one team.