Improvements to CFL

[Fred T. Jane]

I have FSN, but I dont get CFL for some reason.

It depends in the station. We don't get CFL games on FS Southwest. All we get are poker reruns.

However, allow me to be a bit Americentric, but I think the CFL, in its quest to be "Radically Canadian!" (as the old ad campaign went), has ignored a huge market to the south of it. Now, I'm not calling for a revival of the CFL USA, but rather a focused campaign to engender interest in the CFL in the States.

Think about it. The Arena League has had moderate success in its plan to help ease the symptoms of "Football Withdrawl," especially being on NBC and OLN/Versus. Considering how the CFL get going a week before the ArenaBowl, it would be a great opportunity to promote the game in the States, especially if a deal would be signed to show games on the NFL Network.

This would be great for both parties, as for the CFL, it gives them a network in a large number of households, many of whom are big football fans. For the NFL, this would be a boon for the NFL Network, as despite the relatively high number of households it's avaliable to, isn't seen as that much of an option to watch. By having the CFL on NFL Network, you give the network something that would work well for them throughout the entire CFL season, as during the summer, you give them live games they can build programming around, and during the NFL's regular season, CFL games would not interfere much with the NFL on TV, as few games are on Sundays. Games on Saturdays would, of course, also provide a little bit of ammunition for the NFL Network to at least steal some viewers from College Football, because Joe Q. Public would much rather watch a game with significance, whatever it is, than Indiana vs. Illinois on ESPN.

Of course, this would require a little bit of change on the CFL's side, though I would think having the league provide money for one "marquee" player from the States per team would suffice. Now, I'm not saying something on the level of getting Rocket Ismail to the Argos, but rather a player from the States that may have been an impact player in college, but has little shot at making a career in the NFL, like a Brock Berlin or heck, Charles Rogers.

I of course would agree to the fact that the CFL should spotlight Canadian players, and continue to cultivate that image in Canada, but considering the revenue stream sitting below you, it would be foolish to ignore it, especially when football fans with credit cards to burn and an itch to tailgate can book a summer travel trip to the *true* Frozen Tundra, Commonwealth Stadium, via the CFL's Summer Football travel packages, shown on commercials on the NFL Network during an Eskimos-Roughriders game...

[gueman]

Yes, I do suggest that because there are less Americans playing that the talent level is being watered down because there's a reason those Americans are there anyway -- because they're the most talented players available.  If they weren't, they wouldn't be making these CFL rosters to begin with.  Teams aren't signing these guys to meet some sort of quota of how many Americans have to be on your roster.  How, if you say "you can't sign this guy because you've already reached your maximum amount of American players" is it not watering down the talent if he's the best player available?

If you said you that every NHL team has to have five African-Americans on the roster, it would be doing the same exact thing.

No but if you wanted to make the NHL more appealing to African Americans you would try a grass roots campaign in the AA community and the historically black collages like Morgan, Fla. A&M, Howard ect.

Most leagues outside the US have some type of quota system to allow home grown talent a place to prosper.

You missed the point of the topic. It wasn't how to make the CFL like the NFL it was how to make the CFL better.

And as I said, it's never the better option to decrease the quality of play and the talent of the players.

Well universities and the government do it all the time with admission and hiring quotas. Do you feel they are acceptable? They dilute the quality of the workforce and student body.

[Original6]

I live in Toronto, and this is a great football market, but just not for the CFL. The Argos have carved their niche here, but if the CFL wanted to get back to the status they had in this city during the glory days (before the 70s) they only need one thing. It's not more teams, it's not cheaper jerseys, but rather it's talent. There is nothing wrong with the CFL game or its history, and it thrives in towns that don't have anything except for hockey. However, in this city you have to come with the best these days because that's what this generation wants, that's what our sports landscape expects.

When the CFL was popular here (like really popular) they were able to acquire the same type of talent the NFL could before the NFL got TV money and became larger than life. I don't think the CFL can ever get the best talent (unless they are rejected from the NFL for some reason) on a year to year basis. The league also just did such a bad job of promoting their game and throughout the decades of uncertainty the league has lost contact with many people such as me. I used to go to Argos games with my cousins when I was younger in the late 80s early 90s and then the league just dissappeared. There was no televised games, the revolving door ownerships, the constant change of Commishioners, and the failed franchises; all in all it was a big mess. I am sure Im not the only fan they lost in that process.

Also it is hard to identify with players in this league because they come and go so much. If a player in the CFL is in his prime and is an "All Star" he usually leaves for the NFL sooner than later and for the most part is never heard from again. If the players get cut and come back to the CFL, personally I think it's a slap in the face to the fans. While I would do exactly what the player would have done it leaves a stale taste in your mouth to know that your supporting a second rate product.

The CFL capitalized on the NHL lockout and came out of nowhere saying "look at me, I am back!"

I just can't get into the CFL because of the stuff I just mentioned, and realistically I don't think those things will ever change. If a team struggled in this market it would be because they aren't competing but once they become competitive again they will be back in the limelight. Ofcourse the Argos are the exception because they have won so many times and are usually competitive, but they have to work their butts off to stay a distant fourth in the sports landscape of the city. With the new MLS team coming to town I think it will hurt them a bit more.

[Bleujayone]

THIS is why the CFL needs to do SOMETHING to improve their financial stability and their standing in the Canadian mentality. This is not a pipe dream, this is as real as it gets. If anyone can make this a reality it is these men.

Larry Tanenbaum & Ted Rogers unite to land NFL in Toronto

As we've just seen, an individual NFL team is worth anywhere from $800 million to $1 billion USD whereas the entire CFL is worth only $35 million CND collectively. And while I make no proposal for the CFL to compete with the NFL directly, I do think more needs to be done to keep the CFL a part of the sports world collective. If they don't, they stand a very real possibilty of being pushed ever further back into obscurity or worse yet being drubbed out of existence. The result being while Toronto might have a professional football team, the rest of Canada would be left with nothing.

If something is not done to improve and promote the CFL brand of football, if people continue to make light of the situation or simply deny the possibilty of something happening that could set the game back, eventualy something will happen that will not be recoverable.

If the city's (and arguably the nation's) two biggest sports and media giants are trying to change that, I should hope that would grab the attention of not just the brass of the league but so too for the fans. Toronto's CFL team has a hard enough time trying to get by- an NFL team would no doubt result in either the Argos demise or relocation. Somehow the Quebec City Argonauts doesn't have the same ring to it. Much of the current CFL stabilty does indeed depend on the existence of a Toronto-based team. And while I won't go as far as to say the CFL cannot exist without Toronto, it would be a very serious setback if the nation's largest market was lost. The loss of Toronto would indeed be a blow to the CFL.

If Ted Rogers owns an NFL team, which type of football do you think he'll promote on his television and radio networks first? That doesn't just affect Toronto, that's the entire country.

In baseball, the media only really cover the MLB Blue Jays. We never hear about the minor league teams in Canada. In hockey, the NHL comes first, and if the NFL, which already has a strong influence in Canada lands a team here, the media will take that team as a priority over the homegrown league.

If you don't like my ideas- that's fine, come up with something different. But something needs to be done. Even without the threat of an NFL pressence in Canada the league and it's teams are far from financially stable. If this were your team, your league, what would YOU do differently?

[Discrim]

while I make no proposal for the CFL to compete with the NFL directly, I do think more needs to be done to keep the CFL a part of the sports world collective. If they don't, they stand a very real possibilty of being pushed ever further back into obscurity or worse yet being drubbed out of existence. The result being while Toronto might have a professional football team, the rest of Canada would be left with nothing.

If something is not done to improve and promote the CFL brand of football, if people continue to make light of the situation or simply deny the possibilty of something happening that could set the game back, eventualy something will happen that will not be recoverable.

If the city's (and arguably the nation's) two biggest sports and media giants are trying to change that, I should hope that would grab the attention of not just the brass of the league but so too for the fans. Toronto's CFL team has a hard enough time trying to get by- an NFL team would no doubt result in either the Argos demise or relocation. Somehow the Quebec City Argonauts doesn't have the same ring to it. Much of the current CFL stabilty does indeed depend on the existence of a Toronto-based team. And while I won't go as far as to say the CFL cannot exist without Toronto, it would be a very serious setback if the nation's largest market was lost. The loss of Toronto would indeed be a blow to the CFL.

If you don't like my ideas- that's fine, come up with something different. But something needs to be done. Even without the threat of an NFL pressence in Canada the league and it's teams are far from financially stable. If this were your team, your league, what would YOU do differently?

I'd thought about this a while back, and I still feel the same way: if Toronto ever gets an NFL team, Canadian football won't just suffer a setback.

Canadian football will die.

Shoot, I wouldn't be surprised if the death turned out to be a relatively quick demise, I pretty much figure if there was no CFL, Canada's amateur football scene would switch to American rules. Think about it: amateur American football can be found in as unlikely a place as Uruguay or New Zealand. Shoot, the Mexicans and British have college leagues.

You sometimes hear ignorant morons opine that American football is only played in one country-the school of thought that if there's only an amateur scene, it doesn't count. If you said that about Canadian football, you'd be telling the truth, as without exception those amateur scenes I mentioned use American rules.

What would I do differently? I'm just not sure, honestly, and the one thing I'd do to death, they tried already (Radically Canadian).

[Mac the Knife]

thanks for clearing that up. I knew there was some scenario where you got a extra point. Anyways I think its stupid and should be removed.

Funny... we just added this to our (American) flag football league this spring - and it went over gangbusters.

[Phil]

If you don't like my ideas- that's fine, come up with something different.  But something needs to be done. Even without the threat of an NFL pressence in Canada the league and it's teams are far from financially stable. If this were your team, your league, what would YOU do differently?

Does something need to be done? Last time the league took drastic measures, with US expansion, it blew up in their collective faces.

Is the league really going in the wrong direction?

• The leagues advertising and sponsorship revenue has more than tripled in the last 3 years, and what was once a minor source of revenue ten years ago is a huge cash cow now.
  
• The league's existing markets aren't "far from financially stable". With Cynamon and Co. in Toronto and Young in Hamilton, the two most questionable franchises (apart from our departed friend in Ottawa) are now backed by some of the deepest pockets in the league.
  
• While the rest of the league wouldn't be able to sustain heavy losses, the league's Salary Management System will be in place next year, and that will be a stabilizing force in controlling the costs associated with fielding a team, especially for the smaller market/community-owned teams.
  
• The game is broadcast internationally, and over 70 games (regular season and playoffs) being broadcast to millions of homes around the world, never mind just the US.
  

The league is very competitive, and I feel that the gap between the NFL and CFL is not getting any wider, if not closing.

The CFL has done an excellent job of establishing itself in the past ten years in the minds of Canadains, Toronto being perhaps the lone exception (and everyone laughs at Winnipeg for wanting an NHL team...).

In the past few years, with Pinball wearing the headset and the all-time Pro Football passing leader calling signals, Torontonians have seen a great product, and one can only imagine that even that franchise, formerly the CFL's black hole of money, is on the rise.

Furthermore, through the example of Bob Young, the CFL is learning a lot about building a paying fanbase predicated on more than just winning, hopefully helping to lessen the impact of losing on-field products for individual franchises.

The Renegades debacle was most certainly a setback, and a big one at that. It was an embarrassment to the league, and an embarrassment to the entire nation. As well, Tom Wright is in many ways the architect of this recent success, and not giving him the full support of league-wide ownership was a big mistake in my eyes.

However, with the league making huge strides in almost every other area, anyone who has any sense of perspective will realize that this is not a league in decline, but a league that is making great progress.

Now, the league has two options: it can make the big flashy changes that get the headlines, or it can stick to the plan that's working and that builds the business. The first way is like trying to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox (the NFL, in terms of football competition, and the NHL, in terms of Canadian sports competition).

You can make a splash by signing a bunch of free agents (making drastic changes that look good in the newspaper), or you can build from within (build your product steadily and intelligently, learning from what works and adjusting that which doesn't).

The difference is that one will get you on the front page of the Toronto Star sports section tomorrow for a day or two, but the other will get you there in a few years and will keep you there.

Now to close, I would say that there are a few things in the CFL worth changing. Instant replay, for one, has helped prevent officiating errors from deciding the outcomes of games. However, to abandon your own formula for success in order to attempt to duplicate that of another is moreso a recipe for disaster.

The CFL has walked the tightrope for longer than the NFL has been around. More recently, the WFL in the 70s, US expansion failure in the 90s, XFL at the turn of the milennium all promised the end of the CFL. Guess what? That little 8 or 9 team league north of the border is still around, while those other threats have become the realm of sports trivia buffs.

While all those other threats, and now this Toronto-NFL expansion threat, were, and must continue to be taken seriously, to assume that the league will collapse as the result of the latest flavour-of-the-month threat is not giving it the credit it deserves.

[Mac the Knife]

The CFL game is fine; in fact in many ways its rules make it more entertaining than the NFL.

My suggestions are pretty simple:

-- Hire a Commissioner who (1) knows what the hell he's doing, and (2) is going to stick around for more than 2-3 years. I think I read somewhere that while Roger Goodell's becoming the NFL's third commissioner in 46 years, the CFL's gone through something like 14-15 of them. Show some stability at the top.

-- Give Ottawa ONE more try. If it doesn't work a third time, no team should go there again. Go ahead and expand to the Maritimes also if there's a stadium that can handle a team to get the number up to 10.

-- Add two U.S. based franchises in 2010, but only (1) in markets (a) where there's no NFL team nearby and no chance of getting one, or ( that the NFL has abandoned, such as Los Angeles. Yes, I said L.A. Also only (2) if the people being awarded these teams have very, VERY deep pockets - make each of them post a $50 U.S. letter of credit as part of the expansion process. That way if the team gets abandoned by its owners (as has happened before in the CFL), the league can operate the franchise until it finds new ownership, taking years if it has to.

-- Break the players union, or at least get them to buckle to a lower salary cap. Granted the CFL's cap makes the NFL's look huge by comparison, but if teams are still losing money, there's still cutting to be done. CFL players mostly play for love of the game and take jobs during the off-season... let them continue to do so.

-- Do a MUCH BETTER JOB of marketing the game in the U.S. "It's Canada's game, who gives a about America?" our Canadian friends might be saying. Well, Americans would follow the CFL in droves if they had a regular TV outlet to see games. Rather than hook up with Fly By Night Television, Inc., give away the broadcast rights to ESPN, FSN or some other outlet, with the only caveats being that (1) their signal covers at least 80% of the country, and (2) they air each telecast LIVE. The CFL's heyday in America was when the game was on ESPN - people were watching.

[Fred T. Jane]

-- Do a MUCH BETTER JOB of marketing the game in the U.S. "It's Canada's game, who gives a about America?" our Canadian friends might be saying. Well, Americans would follow the CFL in droves if they had a regular TV outlet to see games. Rather than hook up with Fly By Night Television, Inc., give away the broadcast rights to ESPN, FSN or some other outlet, with the only caveats being that (1) their signal covers at least 80% of the country, and (2) they air each telecast LIVE. The CFL's heyday in America was when the game was on ESPN - people were watching.

Didn't I just say that?

[Phil]

-- Do a MUCH BETTER JOB of marketing the game in the U.S.  "It's Canada's game, who gives a  about America?" our Canadian friends might be saying.  Well, Americans would follow the CFL in droves if they had a regular TV outlet to see games.  Rather than hook up with Fly By Night Television, Inc., give away the broadcast rights to ESPN, FSN or some other outlet, with the only caveats being that (1) their signal covers at least 80% of the country, and (2) they air each telecast LIVE.  The CFL's heyday in America was when the game was on ESPN - people were watching.

Didn't I just say that?

But ESPN et al hardly show the NHL, never mind the CFL. While Americans love their football, it'd be a hard sell trying to get ESPN to cut back on valuable prime time TV slots to put a Canadian football league on that only 10% of American households know exist, never mind follow in any amount.

I'd love to see the CFL be put on ESPN, but first it'll have to prove itself in the obscure cable TV arena.

[BCBoy]

7. Keep all the games to one day of the week- Well four games on Sunday and one on Monday night. Right now some games are on Thursday, some Friday, some Saturday, Sunday, Monday....you get the idea.

I agree, get rid of Thursday games, but not Friday.

Wendy's Friday Night Football on TSN is appointment TV for a lot of viewers. They know when Friday roles around, there will be a game, and the ratings for Friday games show the success. CFL on CBC is a Saturday appointment too. So, I would get rid of Sunday and Monday games and keep it at Friday/Saturday.

[Mac the Knife]

Didn't I just say that?

But ESPN et al hardly show the NHL, never mind the CFL. While Americans love their football, it'd be a hard sell trying to get ESPN to cut back on valuable prime time TV slots to put a Canadian football league on that only 10% of American households know exist, never mind follow in any amount.

I'd love to see the CFL be put on ESPN, but first it'll have to prove itself in the obscure cable TV arena.

(1) He may have said it, but I wasn't listening.

(2) Okay maybe the CFL doesn't make ESPN anymore, but with their proliferation of channels (ESPN2, et al) there's got to be somewhere in their empire where the CFL can make a dent.

[Stampman]

The problem with the comissioner hasn't always beent he comissioner--often it's been the owners and the team presidents/GM's etc... (Especially Hughie)

If the teams would get a comissioner and leave him alone to do the job he's been hired for you'd probabaly see one stick qround longer.

The CFL's biggest threat isn't the NFL coming to TO--debatable in itself--it's itself.

And yet it keeps going and going.

And in closing--SYPHI for CFL comissioner...

[Phil]

And in closing--SYPHI for CFL comissioner...

Now there's an improvement I can support.

'Course, the job is more politics than actual leadership of the league - it's like a perpetual job interview, where if you say the wrong thing or make a decision that's in the best interests of the league but doesn't thrill the right people, you don't get invited back.

The fact that Tom Wright was able to do so much really speaks to his capabilities.

[Original6]

Many of you posting are from outside of ontario and don't know the status of the CFL in Toronto. It's already pretty much dead here. I mean they get such little media exposure and when they do it's usually someone in the media that is a CFL fan trying to encourage people to go to CFL games because it's affordable entertainment. As for the rest of the country being left out in the Cold if a NFL team was acquired by MLSE and Rogers, maybe these cities should start doing something about their sports landscape (I am looking at Montreal, Vancouver and maybe Calgary). Vancouver and Montreal could easily support other sports but no one steps up in those cities. They have no baseball or basketball teams so they are pretty much left out in the cold in a pretty major way.

Toronto's desire for a NFL team wouldn't kill the CFL because most of the support comes from out west and why would Toronto getting a NFL team change that? Unless the CFL can sign guys like Reggie Bush out of College there is no way the CFL will ever fly in this city.

The NFL is already promoted on Sportsnet more than the CFL is when both leagues are playing unless it is the grey cup. The bookies are out and about licking their chops right now for the NFL season and bars are starting to already put up "Watch NFL here" signs in my area.

The CFL will never compete with anything because National television deals in this country are worth peanuts. The poster above stated that the CFL's television revenue has trippled and I wouldn't be surprised seeing how they had very little games on tv for a long time, but the rights that CBC/TSN pay for the CFL is peanuts. It's just not going to work no matter what they do.

[Mac the Knife]

Perhaps the NFL might someday expand to Toronto, Vancouver, Mexico City and Los Angeles all at once, basically wiping out the CFL in one shot.

Nah...

[Fred T. Jane]

But ESPN et al hardly show the NHL, never mind the CFL. While Americans love their football, it'd be a hard sell trying to get ESPN to cut back on valuable prime time TV slots to put a Canadian football league on that only 10% of American households know exist, never mind follow in any amount.

I'd love to see the CFL be put on ESPN, but first it'll have to prove itself in the obscure cable TV arena.

Well, to be fair, I said that the CFL should go to the NFL Network, but if anything happens in Toronto, it'll be when the CFL is reduced to near-NFL Europe status.

[Bleujayone]

And the word from the people on the streets...

It seems the majority of people in this article lean towards the NFL, even if they are still unsure about using tax money to do so.

How people feel about the NFL in Toronto