Eternal optimist

It'd be so much harder for the Rider's to live in the basement though!

Just how much do the 'Riders suck? The longest period of time a single team has been Grey Cup Champions is 1841 days,, this was the 1915 Hamilton Ti-Cats. They won it on November 20, 1915, and the trophy wasn't rewarded again until December 4, 1920 due to WW1 and the global flu pandemic at the time. By comparison, in their entire existence, the Roughriders have been champs for only 1470 days (1966 - 371 days , 1989 - 364 days, 2007 - 364 days and 2013 - 371 days TLDR; A lot.

(23,000 seats * $50 = $1,150,000) is greater than (35,000 seats * $20 = $700,000). In the above example, even Edmonton at capacity would only be (50,000 * $20 = $1,000,000) vs (26,000 * $50 = $1,300,000) per game. If you set the price at $15 per game, sure you have more fans that may be more willing to spend money on drinks/merchandise etc, but that is an optional expense. Let's just say you drop the price to $15 per game, I suddenly have $35 extra to spend on booze (woohoo!). Even if I optionally decide to spend all that money on stuff, there's the cost of making the goods sold to make that stuff (cost of the beer, cost of making the "Riders suck" T-shirt etc. etc.), so on that basis the league would still generate less net income than selling me a $50 ticket. Lastly... our pricing simply doesn't cost $50 for a seat. The lowest price for season tickets is $254.50 for 11 games, even if you exclude the 2 preseason games and playoff game that works out ($254.50 / 8 games) to $31.75 per game. They also offer "Family Time" tickets for $66 per game (for 2 adults / 2 kids) which would be $16.50 per game, which is right in the price point you're suggesting. Source: https://www.bluebombers.com/season-ticket-packages/

3-downs, the rouge, and other such rules are important to the CFL. I would argue the individuals claiming the CFL "isn't real football" aren't going to be won over by such a change... you just aren't going to win them over regardless. I understand and respect Naylor's argument, but I'd argue that not only are those rules part of the CFL's identity, they help differentiate from the vast majority of other leagues down south ... the AAF, NCAA, XFL, USFL... all of these leagues have in the past (or present) been essentially farm teams for the NFL. People assume the CFL drinking the kool-aid and becoming an NFL mini-league would bring stability... they fail to understand doing so wouldn't be a partnership. It'd be more like a merger and acquisition. They are a direct competitor, not an ally. If the CFL were to become a farm league for the NFL, I would not be surprised to see Winnipeg and other smaller Canadian cities lose their team as a result. The NFL has already shown they are loyal only to the almighty dollar, they've suppressed concussion protocol, implemented Thursday Night Football and failed to respect their own player protests. They're also expanded the number of teams in recent years, further diluting their talent pool. I understand economically the league is in trouble, but I would not want to partner with that league. As for older fans, I'm 31 and have also grown up loving the CFL.

Science will take you to the moon...religion flies you into buildings. (not my quote, but applicable here nonetheless)

Hello fellow CFL Fans, As many of you have now heard, the CFL has been in talks with the XFL due to their dire situation and obviously is in desperate need of help. I am sure many of you have also received the "Wishing I were there" postcards mailed out by the federal government. The idea of the campaign is to allow Canadians to reconnect with each other and provide a message to people we cannot see due to the going pandemic. I suggest instead we send those postcards back to Parliament Hill, with messages of support for the Canadian Football League. Now, I don't know if doing this will necessarily help the league, but I feel that if we can get enough Canadians behind this, it could help when/if the league does re-approach the federal government for funding. Address of the Prime Minister Office of the Prime Minister 80 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2 Does anyone else feel like this is a good idea? More importantly - to you other posters... what are the other CFL team sites that we can try to spread this initiative on? I know of RiderFans, but other than that, I am unaware of any of other forums. If people can provide me with other forums, I will gladly create accounts to help spread this message.

I really can't see Mr. Trudeau giving the league help. It just optically doesn't look good for politicians to help things perceived as non-essential like sports. I'm not saying I agree with that logic, just that I can see how it doesn't look good from a political perspective.

Oof. Why are these dopes even giving XFL the time of day? As Doug Brown stated on CBC The National last night: "They don't have a history of running successful football leagues, all they have is cash. To me, it kind of wreaks of desperation, when a league that is as established and storied and... has the longevity the Canadian Football League has, is - collaborating and talking with the XFL." Couldn't agree more.

All the ones he played on that were under .500 and missed the playoffs.

Why are they focusing on this.

So... any word on why only the severance portion that was paid to definitely-not-my-sister is being asked to be repaid? Why not the full amount that was paid out to her during her sisters' employment? I mean, that's like charging a bank robber with the theft of the bank bag they used to steal wads of cash with, and not trying to get the stolen funds back. Wouldn't it be better to get repayment on the employment earnings as well?

They are all dogs. The worst thing about the federal election is there is no option to decline your ballot (you can, however, do this provincially, at least in Manitoba)

Here's the highlights of that "game" if one could call it that.

My point was merely that optically, the government giving funding to organizations that employ some Americans, for a non-essential service just isn't a politically savvy move. As for TSN - plenty of them would already be employed due to the NHL... as for the Americans paying taxes, great, so does every other employee in every other business that could receive funding. Realistically I think it's unfeasible for a season to occur without fans in the stands.

Obviously it's hard to know what goes on behind closed doors, but I think there's two main reasons the federal government has no interest in backing the CFL: (i) A decent chunk of CFL players are American, optically it'll look bad for the feds to help a business that, largely employs non-Canadians. (ii) Football, by it's very nature, means teams are often adding and dropping players from teams. Many of them American, this again further complicates any help from the feds, as if they subsidize wages etc., they are potentially just helping a CFL fly in a player from the US. These same reasons would also hamper any argument for vaccinating said players, you could, hypothetically, administer a vaccine to an American player in training camp - three weeks later (or even sooner) they're cut loose. All that said, I'd agree it'd be nice to have a 2021 season, but I still remain skeptical, given the slow vaccine rollout, and incoming variants.

Price reminds me of Luongo at his peak with the Canucks, his stats normally looked absolutely stellar but it was because he'd simply put the entire team on his back to win games and stop 35+ shots to win games. At this point in his career, Price is a shell of what he once was, trading one-for-one like that would be a huge loss for the Jets. To be honest, I can't think at this point what Montreal could even offer that would be worth our while, besides a boatload of draft picks. Even then, that'd really only be beneficial if we were in a rebuilding phase, so... right now? Hard pass.

Although there's always two halves to every story, if even some of those allegations are factual, it'd explain a lot about Jones' time there.

For everyone else feeling the winter/Covid blues, just be thankful your postal codes don't begin with an S!

Personally I have found my coworkers are much more tolerable kilometers away from me. Seriously, working from home is the best.

I will definitely be watching more curling now that i know it's a contact sport.

Does this not meet the definition of "pay-per-view"? I absolutely love the CFL, but I think that'd be a tough sell... maybe if other leagues had completely shutdown, they might be able to in a vacuum. For the most part though other leagues have maintained seasons, albeit shortened or adjusted (NFL, NBA, NHL etc.), so there is arguably just as much competition now as before the pandemic. Add to that the fact cable would be considered non-essential by most consumers, and I think it'd be really, really hard to make that viable.

You mean like, how my wife and I prepaid our 2020 season tickets (and parking pass) in December 2019, then rolled forward the balance to the 2021 season? They've had close to $1,500 cash from us for close to 15 months without providing any service. I think that is more than adequate and I'm sure I'm not the only one in that boat.

Can he block though?

So... I can book time off for games from work, plan my life to the best of my ability to attend as many games as possible as a season ticket holder? As a parent, I need to lineup a babysitter, as an employee, I need to make sure I have time off for the games. Even though the schedule is already out, if, for example, they plan on having any additional protocols that add time to the game, it'd be nice to know that in advance. Also, longer term it'd help build trust between the league and fans... although the 2020 cancelling was expected, if they don't keep fans informed and pull the rug out from them again, they only risk further alienating their fan base.

Yeah... I think Winston Churchill's famous quote rings very true here: He who fails to plan, is planning to fail.