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Hamilton Tiger-Cats

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Hamilton Tiger-Cats

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Hamilton Stadium.

The club traces its origins back to 1869 to the founding of Hamilton Football Club which adopted the nickname “tigers” a few years after its founding (although it had been informally called the Tigers since its first game). In 1950, the Tigers absorbed the cross-town upstart Hamilton Wildcats largely to eliminate the gate competition from the underfunded Wildcats. The Tigers adopted the name "Tiger-Cats".

Since 1950, the team has won the Grey Cup championship eight times, most recently in 1999. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats Football Club recognizes all Grey Cups won by Hamilton-based teams as part of their history, bringing their win total to 15 (the Hamilton Tigers with five, the Hamilton Flying Wildcats and Hamilton Alerts with one each). However, the CFL does not recognize these wins under one franchise, rather as the individual franchises that won them. If one includes their historical lineage, Hamilton football clubs won league championships in every decade of the 20th century.

In their first 40 years after absorbing the Wildcats, the Tiger-Cats qualified for the playoffs in all but three of those years and won seven Grey Cup championships. They are one of six teams in the modern era to win the Grey Cup at home and were the first to accomplish this when they did it in 1972. However, since 1990, they have missed the playoffs on eleven occasions and have won just one Grey Cup in 1999. In addition to having the longest Grey Cup drought of all the CFL teams, they are the only team to have not won the Grey Cup in the 21st century. Their lowest point came in 2003, when they lost a CFL record 17 games in one season, with just one win. The franchise has started to return to prominence after qualifying for the post-season in eight of the 10 years of the 2010s, including appearances in the 101st, 102nd, 107th and 108th Grey Cups, where they lost each time.

Businessman Bob Young purchased the club on October 7, 2003. He was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and graduated from Victoria College at the University of Toronto. His fortune was earned in the software industry and he is currently the owner and CEO of Lulu, a self-publishing website.

As of 2011, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Executive Committee consists of five people: Bob Young, Caretaker; Scott Mitchell, CEO; Doug Rye, Executive Vice President; President and COO Matt Afinec; and Vice Chairman Glenn Gibson.

On January 2, 2022, the club reorganized its ownership under the newly announced Hamilton Sports Group, an entity that also owns Forge FC and the master licence for Tim Hortons Field. Bob Young continues to serve as chairman and the largest shareholder while also welcoming new investment from Hamilton-based steel company Stelco (represented by its chairman and CEO Alan Kestenbaum), club CEO Scott Mitchell, and local sports executive Jim Lawson.

In late 2024, American steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs acquired Stelco, including their 40% share of Hamilton Sports Group. Young continues to own a fraction over 40%, with Mitchell owning just under 20%, and Lawson owning a small percentage.

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