We’re not sure Canadian professional football would exist today in Montreal had Robert Wetenhall not rescued the Alouettes franchise in 1997, after Michael Gelfand and Jim Speros basically left the club insolvent.

But today, 20 years later, ownership might be at the core of this organization’s problems. We hate to say this, since Wetenhall has undoubtedly lost millions on this team over the years and deserves a debt of gratitude for being so patient in the face of financial losses.

It’s only too bad he and his son Andrew, the team’s lead governor who has assumed a more active role in ownership, have failed to display the same patient resolve when it comes to firing their coaches, constantly having to dip into their pockets to pay out the remainder of contracts.

The Als, once the league’s most stable franchise — a team that made eight Grey Cup appearances over 11 years — have become the epitome of dysfunction. When the news broke Wednesday morning that head coach Jacques Chapdelaine had been fired, along with defensive coordinator and assistant head coach Noel Thorpe, the Als kept their three-year streak alive of firing coaches during the season.

This was simply a bad team without drama. Now, yet again, there’s plenty of drama.

It wasn’t even a full calendar year ago on Sept. 19, with the team’s record at 3-9 and entering a bye week in the schedule, that the organization announced Chapdelaine, its first francophone head coach, would replace Jim Popp. Not only did the Als win their first game under Chapdelaine, along with three of the next five, they attracted their only capacity crowd that season at Molson Stadium.

And fans weren’t coming to see the Als and Toronto Argonauts, two bad teams, play.

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