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The bitter football rivalry between Toronto and Hamilton is bound to get truly icy.
In the space of a few weeks, two new Steeltown hockey franchises have officially launched — the Hamilton Hammers of the American Hockey League and the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s newest Ontario expansion team, yet to be named.
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The CFL’s Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats have been battling on the gridiron the better part of a century.
The Hammers — a natural, though simplistic name that already has received some online derision — was confirmed Thursday. It riffs on the city’s industrial heritage, previously called the Bridgeport Islanders, by its Long Island NHL parent team while in Connecticut.
“It’s our city’s nickname, ‘The Hammer,’” Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath reminded at a Thursday unveiling of the crossed-mallets logo. “Hamilton is a city of grit, that shows up, that works hard.”
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Dogged by many years of up-and-down attendance in Bridgeport, the Isles eyed the newly renovated 18,000-seat TD Coliseum.
The $300-million renovation was completed in November when a Paul McCartney concert opened a new era.
It was once Copps Coliseum, built in the late 1980s to put Hamilton on course for an NHL team. That new potential club was eventually awarded to Ottawa, however, and Hamilton has had to settle for trying to make the AHL and OHL Bulldogs a success at the downtown location.
The Bulldogs were a nod to the origins of the Hamilton Tigers, the post-First World War NHL team that began as the Quebec City Bulldogs.
The Steelhawks was also a popular OHL handle for a while and the Hamilton Red Wings were Detroit’s junior development club up to the end of NHL sponsorship in the late 1960s.
TD also attracted the burgeoning PWHL, as the Golden Horseshoe area has a strong female youth hockey culture.
Hamilton will be an automatic foil for the Toronto Sceptres and Ottawa Charge in the PWHL while the Hammers will likely end up in the AHL’s North Division for multiple games against the Toronto Marlies, the affiliate of the Maple Leafs.
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