SpeedFlex27

Trudeau's buddies in the EU like Macron & Merkle showing their true colours. Ever since he got elected in 2015 Justin has wanted to be a part of their globalist agenda. Globalism only suits them when they are at an advantage. Look at how the US is hoarding vaccines. Biden... another so called globalist.

Maybe then they'll take it a lot more seriously instead of the way they see it now.

What does that mean?

So, according to a story on Global TV news today, Covid 19 is on the rise in the US with the new variants leading the way & the new hotspot is surprise... surprise... Florida. Especially with hundreds of thousands of dumbass college kids partying on Spring Break. The mayor of Miami Beach has declared a State of Emergency & an 8pm curfew & the entitled young snowflakes are outraged. Restaurants & bars in that city there are closed. And the poor kids are crying, "The Governor PROMISED!!!!!" What a joke.

The CFL & CFLPA don't care & the 1 year deals & UFA never changes. The CFL & the Players are deaf. Just care about themselves. I've said time & time again neither respect the fans. And the fans have spoken. They stay away. I've never seen a league so stupid that it just keeps doing the same things that don't work. They know fans hate all the player movement but Duh????? It's as plain as the nose on their faces & it is just ignored. Think the 1 year deals & UFA will be addressed in the next CBA? There'll be so much whining & bitching from the players so don't count on it.

Yeah, they just spent tens of millions on refurbishing Commonwealth a few years ago. It's a great place to watch a game. If anything it's too big. It should have stayed at it's original size of 42,000. McMahon is a dump. That's all I'm gonna say about that place. Unfortunately, no one wants to replace it.

You know, I've wondered about that a lot this past year. Would it be a scenario of "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" or a scenario of "Out of sight, Out of mind" & Canadians don't come back? Especially in TO, Montreal & Vancouver.

Strong teams at the national level all draw younger kids to the sport to emulate them. Women are strong so then is the junior division, I'd say which means more good teams in the future. Men not so much. I started curling because Don Duguid won back to back Briers in 70 & 71 & Orest Meleschuk won the 72 Brier & World's. When I was 16, I wanted to be like them. They were my heroes. I met Meleschuk when I was 17 as Fort Rouge was my home club. I was sparing in the Men's League that night & his team was playing. I shook his hand & became completely tongue tied. I could barely get a word out. After looking at me strangely, he just said, "Nice meeting you, kid" & walked away. I felt like a dumb ass teen. .

I guess with less people curling especially in men's league curling at all clubs there are less & less promising junior players to develop. I loved junior curling. So much fun. especially the all nighters but now those are in the past. We can't encourage drinking, can we? Man, I was at one all nighter back in the 70's (won't say where) & the bar was open all night with no supervision. Back then the junior age was still 21 so there were enough older guys around to make sure the younger ones didn't get stupid. Other than the kid who took off all his clothes & was throwing rocks in the nude. Some guys threw his clothes outside & he had to go get them. Lol. We drank but never trashed the place. We were respectful of the club. I also remember everyone had their own style of delivering rocks. Now, with the exception of Dunstone who is a good old fashioned tucker, they all look like robots throwing stones.

Good on Wally but I just don't see it. Americans love their game. Imagine if the KHL wanted to join the NHL & insisted on intl ice surfaces. Which would mean tearing out seats in all NHL rinks Wouldn't work. We'd have fans saying our game should be left alone. It ain't broke so don't fix it kinda thing. I see that with this proposed merger.

You're first point is the key to all their problems & teams refuse to address it. That should be their first priority. Lower game day ticket prices. i know when I had my Blue Bomber season tickets, I saved a little bit of money but not a lot, But I didn't buy them to save money. It was to have tickets to all the games. The business strategy now is to (1) hawk season tickets at a significantly lower price to a shrinking base & (2) price them out of a majority of fans reach on Game Day knowing that same game is televised locally so people stay home. Thus taking away Game Day walkup sales. Just let the unsold seats sit empty. I remember when Game Day crowds of 15-20,000 occurred. Those were events & the fans were fired up. The atmosphere at Winnipeg Stadium was electric. Now it's not even 1,500-2,000. I'll bet there are seats in every stadium that haven't had an occupant in years. All teams do this now & if this is a league directive... should be changed.

Where are the new guys coming up?

What happened to Gunnlaughson? He was right up there with the leaders early in the week & just faded... Manitoba hasn't sent a strong team to the Brier in years. Seems the men are struggling.

And that's your perogative. I don't have to agree with you. I prefer the status quo with 3 downs as well but how do you fix the CFL with teams bleeding money in the neighbourhood of $80 million? And the prospects of losing even more by playing this season even with fans in the stands? Where are they going to find more revenue? If you have the answer please tell me.

You make a good point but I think the quality of qbs now coming into the league isn't as good as it was even 10-15 years ago. We're getting a lot of D2 & D3 qbs coming up here now signing with teams. They don't have the skill set of earlier starting qbs so why not develop a Canadian kid on the roster? Look at O'Connor. He could develop into a very good player in Calgary with Dave Dickenson teaching him. In 2015, I knew my son wouldn't get drafted & that the only chance he'd have would be as a free agent. The other qb I spoke of, well that's different. He was the best qb in U Sports for 2 years. There was an expectation he'd be taken in the later rounds from 5-7 in 2019. Never happened, though. How disappointing was that? Look, I was just upset with the entire process starting at the combine in Edmonton & going forward from there. That always bothered me. Then I heard Dave Naylor say these high draft picks don't care about the CFL a day or two ago. So, I was hasty when I said get rid of the ratio. I let my emotions get the best of me.

No, I don't want it taken away. I just think that a little more honesty would go a long way. Why string a player along when there's absolutely no interest? When I heard these prima dona players don't even care about the CFL & how lucky they are to have a choice it just pissed me off. Like they have no idea how many guys would kill to be in their position. Just the arrogance & entitlement of some of these guys. . You're right.

I certainly have my feelings about the ratio as I coached community football here in Calgary & my son was a qb at SFU. I used to be a staunch defender of the ratio. I used to argue that very point here years ago saying that if Canadians are eliminated then the grass roots of community football will die. Maybe some of you remember the discussions I had defending the ratio. Not anymore. I felt really strongly about that belief until I saw the BS top flight Canadian qbs go through hoping just to be offered a TC spot let alone a regular roster position. They're strung along with promises of getting a chance to prove themselves at training camp but in the end it's all lies. Very, very few get that shot. Yet some scrub Canadian fullback gets to play or some substandard U sports OL who gets the piss beaten out of him everyday makes a team. You know how many times my son told me in 2015 that his agent said, "The Argos may be interested". Or the Bombers, Ti Cats & Lions?? Nothing came of any of it & that's when my position changed about the ratio. Then last year, another Canadian qb from Calgary who had a stellar career at Western winning the Vanier Cup his first year as a starter & the Hec Creighton his second year got strung along the same way. I told his father not to get his hopes up based on our experience as he told me multiple CFL teams were interested. And sure enough he didn't even get drafted. All this "interest" but no takers. You have no idea how crushing that is to a player. Now he's playing in Spain as we speak hoping to impress & get another shot somewhere. Canadian qbs aren't welcome to compete because American coaches don't like them. The same with GM's. Some are even Canadian. Like Wally Buono who I found out had no use for Canadian qbs. Now I've read that top Canadian draft picks in U Sports or the NCAA don't even watch the CFL or care if our teams draft them... because the NFL is the be all & end all plus they feel the CFL is beneath them then the hell with it. Maybe the best players should play at all positions regardless of nationality. No easy Plan B to make a CFL team. Go out & compete. Don't be gifted a spot because of nationality.

I think there are a few of us here that could take over a CFL team as President & make better decisions than the "professionals" that have run it prior or are running teams today. From stopping the circumventing of the salary cap by over zealous GMs like Pinball Clemons to marketing teams & the game in each individual city, from ticket prices to name changes. Teams need to hire "Capologists". All they do is monitor the salary cap all season long. They would also have the authority to put the brakes on a GM spending too much.

The alternative is do nothing & go full steam ahead into oblivion. Because quite frankly, just about everyone can see the writing on the wall. There aren't enough of YOU to save this league.

I went on the Bomber website & they aren't showing individual game day ticket prices. I know for a fact that ticket prices for people who don't have season tickets (or who don't want any) is substantially higher. So I know tickets are over $50 in that scenario. I also know that people have voted with their wallets. They won't go to games. In their zeal to market season tickets, they have cut off a substantial part of that base. Game day walkups. I can remember a time when a big game, say for first place with Edmonton would generate 15-20,000 single game day sales in the days prior to a game like that for the Bombers. That doesn't happen anymore. I don't care about your season ticket discount. You're hooked. You're a season ticket holder. I'm talking about fans who have to shell out big bucks to go to a single game who maybe don't have kids. Or don't want to sit in a family section. They pay full price. A guy wants to take his GF to a game & he has to pay, pay, pay. Why should he? The CFL has eliminated the game day ticket walkups with their pricing. I know McMahon Stadium pricing. Single game day tickets on the 30 yard line were $80 in 2019. No way people will pay that when the game is televised in Calgary. So yeah, that seat sits empty all season. No one uses it. No one buys concessions & merch. Times that by 12,000 each game for 10 home dates. That is where the missing cash flow for teams are. Yet, they won't change it. Hence, here we are with the league crying & bleeding red. My premise is this. In taking care of STH, teams forgot about the other fans. The ones that don't have or don't want season tickets.

I've developed a really bad nasal infection in the past couple of days. It really started bothering me Thursday afternoon at work while wearing a mask. Every time I had to adjust it on my face, the bridge of my nose hurt like hell. I went to an emergency clinic Thursday night & got some antibiotics. They also gave me a Covid test for which I tested negative. But man, my nose feels like it's broken even though it isn't. With the infection, it hurts just to touch it. Hopefully the antibiotics kick in the next day or so. I was concerned as every Grade 9 student at one of the schools I drive for have been put on isolation/at home computer learning & won't return until after Spring Break in early April.

But in reality, you probably won't.

I just watched that podcast & thanks for the link wbbfan. The more I think about the situation, the more I'm in Dave Naylor's camp. I'd rather have football then none at all & the Bombers being a part of it. There will always be die hard CFL fans who say they'll never watch a new league with 4 down football & would rather the league die. We've read those comments on this thread here. But the demographics of these fans are older. He's right when he says younger fans prefer the 4 down game. They play Madden. They watch the NFL. How many times have you heard people say thaat the NFL is "real football"? I've always kind of scratched my head whenever I heard that statement. How is the CFL not real football? They block & tackle, run & catch just like 4 down football. So how is not real??? Yet, we CFL fans hear it all the time & it hurts when it is said as we love the CFL. We don't like it when our game is mocked. Some fans may not want to hear this but 4 downs is more popular. That's just the way it is. That fact just can't be ignored anymore. I think CFL owners know they'll lose some older fans by changing the rules but they feel that there's a potentially bigger & younger audience out there that will prefer 4 down football & grow with the teams the way I did when I first started watching the Bombers in 1965 as a 10 year old. So, they'll go with new rule changes despite the anger they'll hear. However, the reality is that when I was growing up, EVERYONE cared about the Bombers & the CFL. At elementary & high school in the 60's & 70's,, we'd talk CFL just like Dave Naylor said he did when he was a HS student. That does not exist anymore. Kids don't talk about the CFL. today. They don't wear merch. There is no CFL video game. They don't care. I wasn't depressed listening to the discussion. I appreciated Naylor's candor & honesty. He is going to piss off a a lot of people with the things he said. But people gotta hear it & face reality. Status quo will not work anymore. The pandemic has destroyed it. Just my opinion.

Every home game is televised for every team. The price point of tickets & concessions is so expensive that people stay home rather than go to games now. Teams have refused to lower ticket prices to sell these empty seats in every stadium across the CFL. Empty seats should represent an opportunity for increased revenues. I never understood the logic of having a seat priced at $50 or more sit empty all season. Not only is it lost ticket revenue for the team but also lost concession & merch revenue. Wouldn't it make more sense to charge $15-20 to get butts in the seats where people spend money rather than having vast sections of seats sit empty game after game?? How many hundreds of thousands to millions does each team lose per season when stadiums are at 60% or lower in capacity? Calgary has 35,000 seats but averages 23,000 per game. Edmonton has 50,000 seats but averages 26,000. The Bombers average somewhere around 26,000 in a 33,000 seat stadium. Bc Lions have the entire upper level of BC Place draped off. I won't even mention the Argos. The CFL is brutal at pricing tickets & marketing the game. Always has been. Looks like they always will be. The CFL used to pride itself on being an affordable family oriented league. That stopped in the 90's.

What would be the advantage of playing 3 downs if players want to play 4 downs? And if fans don't watch U Sports now they won't suddenly start.