The 1996Montreal Alouettes finished in second place in the East Division with a 12–6 record in the franchise's first full season in the Canadian Football League since 1986. After ten years without a team, the Montreal Alouettes came back, and unlike those lean years from 1981-86, this team was going to be competitive, especially after having won the Grey Cup the previous year as the Baltimore Stallions. They had some nice talented offensive players from that team, such as Tracy Ham, Mike Pringle, kick returner Chris Wright, slotback Chris Armstrong, and two great defensive players in Irvin Smith, and Elfrid Payton. So even after a slow start they rebounded to finish strong and after defeating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, they traveled to Toronto, where they were defeated in the East Final by the eventual Grey Cup champions, the Toronto Argonauts.
Starting in the 1993 CFL season, the league began expanding into the United States with hopes of boosting revenues and saw five US-based teams in 1995, including the dominant Baltimore Stallions. Prior to the 1996 NFL season, Cleveland Browns owner, Art Modell, announced his intentions to move the Browns to Baltimore, meaning there would be two professional football teams in the city. Stallions owner, Jim Speros, realized that his team could not realistically compete with an NFL team and decided to move the team elsewhere. He looked into moving the team to Richmond, Virginia, but after a deal could not be resolved, he decided to move the team to Montreal, Quebec and usher in the third installment of the Montreal Alouettes.
Stallions General ManagerJim Popp came with Speros to Montreal, but he had to build the team from scratch as all Baltimore players were released from their contracts. He signed future Canadian Football Hall of FamequarterbackTracy Ham and future hall of fame and all-time leading rusher Mike Pringle, both of whom would play large roles in the success of the franchise. The new Alouettes played their first regular season game on June 27, 1996; almost ten years since their last game in the city of Montreal.
