A stillborn CFL franchise from Atlantic Canada still draws fans to Grey Cup weekend, despite having never played a professional game.

The Atlantic Schooners -- announced as an expansion franchise for the 1984 season but soon cancelled because of money woes -- are still being represented by loyal fans 23 years later.

More than a dozen Schooners fans are in Toronto, hosting twice-daily socials in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in the lead-up to Sunday's championship game between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

They hope their passion will help lead the CFL back east.

"Our job is to promote the team, the name and the franchise and let the people behind the scenes do their work," Halifax native John Ryerson told CTV.ca.

Ryerson heads the events and has been attending Grey Cup weekend for 17 years. He said the Grey Cup committee in Ottawa asked him and his fellow Schooner fans to throw a party in 2005.

Since then, The "Down East Kitchen Party" has been a part of the Grey Cup festivities, featuring East Coast music, Schoonerette cheerleaders and lobster-on-a-bun.

On Friday, a capacity crowd dressed in jerseys of every ilk wore lobster-shaped hats and jigged to a fiddling band.

"We kind of get an invite to add a little spice to the party," he said of the Cape Breton-style celebration. "We get help from all over the country. The fans of the league want an Atlantic-based team."

The celebration fits well with other fan-backed events like Calgary's pancake breakfast and the infamous Riderville celebration. Ryerson said the festivities leading into Sunday's game are important to the flavour of Canadian football.

Short-lived history

While the Atlantic Schooners never officially took the field, the team did exist for a brief time.

In 1984, the CFL announced that football-mad Atlantic Canadians would receive an expansion franchise, to be based out of Halifax.

The Schooners title came from a name-the-team contest in honour of a type of boat common to the area.

Their logo -- displayed in team colours of  black, nautical brass and surf white -- was a large, stylized 'A' encompassing a white schooner riding on four waves that represented the four Atlantic Canada provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

But when owners, led by J.I. Albrecht, failed to secure financing for a CFL-calibre stadium, the Schooners folded without ever playing a game.

Ryerson says there's hope for an Atlantic team yet, likely based out of Moncton, and spoke to the commissioner of the CFL on Friday. Until then, Schooner fans will keep cheering.

"We're about promoting the future and remembering the past," Ryerson said. "The fans will make their own party."