TBURGESS

Rehabilitation sounds like a great idea on the surface but does it really work? The percentage of prisoners released in the US that return after committing another crime within the period of three years is 68%. If the stated objective is rehabilitation, then it obviously isn't working. If the objective is punishment, then the Recidivism rate doesn't matter. You simply put them back in when they commit another crime. Keeping folks in private prisons makes some people tons of money. I'm on the side of personal responsibility rather than societal failure. All poor people aren't murderers or crooks or get sent to jail. Those who want to get out of the influences around them can do that through education, sports, music, acting, and hard work. It's obviously harder if you're poor than it is if you're middle class or rich, but we don't live in a fair society where everyone gets the same opportunities. Can rehabilitation work? Maybe, but it would require a huge investment that governments aren't willing to make. It would also take proven methods of rehabilitation that work in a high percent of cases. I don't think that exists. Next you'd have to figure out which criminals can be rehabilitated in the first place and that's likely the non violent ones who aren't pedophiles. I doubt we ever get to the point where murderers can ever be successfully rehabilitated.

If you think jail is to rehabilitate people you're wrong. Never has been. Never will be. Jail is to lock people away who have done something against the law. It's punishment, not rehabilitation. Repeat offenders go back because they did something else that's illegal, not because they were in jail the first time. A bad upbringing doesn't explain away murder. Most folks with a bad upbringing never murder anyone. Fatalistic would be saying that murderers from a bad upbringing had no choice but to commit murder. That's nonsense.

<Start yet another unpopular opinion> The murderer and the murdered all come from the same socioeconomic background and they are all likely the same race. None of that excuses the murderer or the murdered for that matter. I don't want to empathize with murderers nor do I want to understand them. I want to put them behind bars so they can't murder law abiding citizens. Three hots and a cot is better than dead. There are murderers in all walks of life, all races, all financial situations, single parent, 2 or more parents, all religions etc. Simply belonging to a group doesn't make you a murderer, that's mostly an individuals choice. Take a weapon to a place and use it, that's premeditation. There are 2 reasons to look at the murderers background. First to make people look at the background instead of the murder itself. It's the old 'that poor guy had a bad upbringing, no wonder he committed murder' excuse. Yes, I said excuse. Most people from the same upbringing won't commit murder. The second reason is to see if there is something in the murderers background that we can look into to prevent future murders. That, on the surface, sounds great. Figure out what turns one person in any specific group into a murderer, one into a high achiever and the rest into average people. Lets say for argument that we could do that, what next? Take high risk kids away from their parents? I don't think so. Incarcerate folks who may commit murder? Nope. Single them out for 'special' treatment? In this political climate? I think that it's the Government's job to make sure that everyone has food, a safe place to live, health care (Including prescriptions), and a good education. A minimum guaranteed income would go a long way towards achieving that for more people. We need equality for all races, religions, sexes, sexual orientation, economic status or any other way you want to group people. We are no where near any of that. <End yet another unpopular opinion>

Naylor's article is another in a long line of stringing a bunch of 'what ifs' together then ending it with a conclusion. It's weak. Maybe it's right. Maybe it's wrong. It's the kind of thing that most of us could write. Nothing has worked in Toronto for the last 30 years. That's the number 1 problem and an XFL merger won't fix it. We need 6 Bob Young's and David Braley's. They don't exist. The Pandemic is a huge problem that will eventually go away. Of course companies that own CFL teams want to make money. That's their whole reason for being. The CFL ignored young folks for generations. They can't be surprised that younger folks follow NFL instead of CFL football. None of the above is fixed by an XFL merger. If it's doesn't fix anything then different is just different, it's not better.

https://3downnation.com/2021/03/25/cfl-xfl-merger-media-rights-could-be-worth-100-million-usd-annually-report/ If it's true, $100 Mil a year is a huge number for the CFL.

That's on us for voting the UCP in, it's not because we live north of the USA.

We didn't, so having the US below us doesn't mean squat. We could have emulated Australia or New Zealand or any other country that locked down tight for long enough. Heck, we could have emulated Japan and made sure that everyone wore masks, stayed 1 meter apart, made businesses install forehead heat sensors at their doors and not let anyone in who ran a temp. It worked for them. Instead, we let the politicians make wrong decision after wrong decision. Open up, close down, open up, close down. Call non-essential businesses essential. Let folks walk around without masks, instead of no mask, here's your ticket. Let religious gatherings happen without any repercussions. In Alberta, we even went as far as to ticket people and throw one or two of them in jail, only to let them go without even paying a fine. They're now talking about spending millions of dollars on advertising to get people to get the vaccines instead of no vaccine, no entry. They don't even want people to have to have vaccine cards to prove they've been vaccinated in case it stigmatizes those who choose not to. All this means we don't get back to normal, likely for years.

Sure you can find Trump-idots in Canada, but they aren't the ones who are making policy. Just watching the US response under Trump should have shown us that it wasn't working. We are a different country. We don't have to follow their lead. In fact it's better if we don't. I agree that Vaccines likely won't eradicate the disease because it will keep mutating and because some folks won't get the vaccine. People's stupidity is always baffling to me.

Your blaming the Cov-idiots in the US for Canada's response? Nope, this one is all on our own politicians. I'm sure our Dr's and scientists told our government the same things that New Zealand and Australia's governments were told. Their reaction was significantly different and so are the results.

When it comes on top of the 20+% cut they already had to take.

Stadiums are way down the list in terms of CFL problems. Teams don't build stadium's anyway and governments aren't going to build them, especially in Alberta right now. No one is building a new stadium unless/until the CFL gets back on its feet. Profit sharing? Take money away from the well run teams, make them less profitable and give it to the badly run teams to reduce/eliminate their losses. That's the opposite of being competitive with each other. Competition is what's needed, not profit sharing. The CFL needs more fans in the stands and no, that doesn't mean cheaper tickets, especially for teams that are just barely hanging on as it is. The CFL is focusing on the wrong things. International players don't put fans in the stands. Tons of player turnover doesn't put fans in the stands. Changing the rules yearly doesn't put fans in the stands. Talking with the XFL doesn't put fans in the stands. A better product would help putting fans in the stands. Better players can be done by reducing the ratio which would reduce costs too. (Would you rather reduce the costs and keep the Canadian game or merge with the XFL and lose it?) Grass roots support needs to happen and to start right away, but it will take a long time and I don't know if we have a long time. Injection of capital? That's what the XFL, the ask for Government money and the ill fated US expansion from years ago are about. Make the at game experience better? How? Mardi Gras night? Cheaper beer? (Selling more beer at a lessor price is like selling more tickets at a lessor price to try to come out ahead) Better half time entertainment? (Not much of a selling point) More hot chocolate during cold games? The big question is the CFL losing fans in the first place? Partly because the CFL isn't the best players in the world playing against each other. That's the NFL. The CFL isn't even the second best players in the world playing against each other because of the ratio and the number of NFL players being paid not to play. Nothing we can do about that. Partly because the CFL ignored young fans for 30 or more years. Can't do anything about that either, but they can increase the grass roots engagement going forward. Partly it's that there are too few teams playing each other to many times each year. The average fan doesn't want to see the same two teams play each other 3 or sometimes 4 times in the same year, plus playoffs. Increasing the number of teams is the right answer, but it's unlikely to impossible in the current climate. That leaves reducing the number of games each season from 18 to 16. Partly it's because the CFL play 18 games to eliminate 3 teams. Change the playoff structure so the top team gets a bye, then 2 plays 5 and 3 plays 4 to eliminate an additional team. Quite frankly, if your team can't win half their regular season games, they shouldn't be in the playoffs anyway. Partly it's because the CFL relies on rich folks who don't mind losing money most years to run a local football team. Those folks are few and far between and a lot of them don't last for very long. For every caretaker Bob, there are a bunch of Bernie Glieberman's. Unless the find a way for CFL teams to consistently make money, this isn't going to change. There's no one right answer. It's a bunch of things that have been festering for years and that have been brought to a head by the pandemic.

Teams are losing money so they should drop the ticket prices? Nope. Just Nope. You can't sell that to owners. 3 downs is the reason people go to games? Nope. They go to see their home town team, hopefully beat the other team. They go because their parents take them as kids. They go because it's a great night out. They go because they love live sports. Fans will stop going if they change the rules? A few. Most will complain and still go. Kids love Madden because it's 4 downs? Nope. They play Madden because it's THE football game game. If THE football game game was CFL, they'd play that, but of course that will never happen. The League has ignored each new generation for 30 years or more. They needed a plan to keep fans for at least that long. Take a good look around the stadiums and you'll see that the age of the fans is really old. They are literally dying off. I'm in my 60's and I'm a youngster when I go. When I was a kid, the Bombers sent a player or two to one of my practices each year. They had our team play some football at half time. They gave the whole team end zone tickets. They allowed us on the field at the end of the games, where we patted the players on the back and tried to get them to give us their chin straps. We threw a football around and pretended we were them. Great memories created great fans. Sals sold cheap endzone tickets. In high school, everyone on the football team and a lot of others bought them. It was a great day for me when I could take my Dad to a game instead of the other way around. That's what the CFL used to do. That's what they need to do again if they want to build young fans to keep their business viable, but it's long term thinking and companies don't think that way any more. They just plan for the current year and ignore the long term, expecting it to take care of itself. At some point, the reckoning happens. Companies then get bailed out, taken over, or shut down. It looks like that's where we are now.

Can and will are two completely different things.

Loans become handouts when those who receive them can't or won't pay them back. Assuming that the CFL is in financial trouble, which is a good assumption IMO, they won't pay the loan back and it will eventually be 'forgiven' because the Feds don't want to be a reason that the CFL goes under. Most folks vote the party, not based on any specific policy. Even if a CFL loan is popular, it in itself, won't be enough to flip peoples votes to Liberal, which means it's not that big a deal to the Liberals. Most Federal elections are already decided by the time they make it to the Manitoba/Saskatchewan boarder anyway. The CFL was told to include the CFLPA and come back with a plan. I thought they already did that a few months back. I remain unconvinced that the Liberals will bail out the CFL.

I doubt the Feds are going to save our CFL. They would have given us money early on if they were going to. The XFL talks are about getting the needed funding from the Rock and his group. Without funding, the CFL will likely die. I get that us CFL fans want the game to remain the same, but the XFL isn't going to give the CFL many concessions, if they bring the money, they make the rules. The CFL will be negotiating about what they are allowed to keep from the Canadian game, not about what the XFL will have to change in their rules. Americans always believe there way is the right way and the XFL will be no exception. They're going to want 4 downs, 11 men, US sized fields, etc. They know that's the way to interest the American fan and there are 10 times as many of them as there are CFL fans. Without enough of those fans on board, the XFL/CFL merger will die no matter how much money the owners have.

If that's what it takes to save the CFL, then I do.

The ratio can't exist with US teams. That doesn't mean that Canadians can't play in the US, it just means that x number of jobs won't be given to Canadians, they will be given to the best available players. Those who are saying that removal of the Canadian ratio means losing a lot of fans are wrong IMO. Some folks will stop watching for a game or two. Some will stop watching forever, but not many. Most will complain then watch anyway. I'm old enough to remember the US expansion. I was mighty pissed that the US teams didn't have the ratio. I still watched every game and went to the Grey Cups each year. When baseball had its strike, I stopped watching baseball and haven't ever gone back. When the Jets left Winnipeg, I stopped watching hockey and never went back, except for a few playoff games a year and the Olympics. I don't have cable any more. I have an android box that puts out 4K to HDMI. Add in a HD antenna and TSN's streaming during CFL/NFL season and I've got everything I had with cable for $20 a month. (FTR:My Internet is $60/month @300) My ROI was less than 2 months.

IF this is an 'expansion' then the ratio will have to go, just like it did during the US expansion all those years ago. The US labour laws won't accept X number of foreigners. Canadian teams with ratio rules would be at a huge disadvantage, so the ratio would have to go in Canada too. Field size isn't as big a deal to me as it is to many others. If the US stadiums can't fit a CFL sized field, then that would be something I'd be willing to give up to save the CFL. I wouldn't even care if different fields were different sizes. Basically, as close to the CFL size as possible and I'm happy. What I don't want to give up is the 3 downs for 10 yards, the 2 point conversions, the 'halo' instead of the 'wave the arms, don't hit me', the Kick Off rules, etc. Those are the things that make the CFL different and special to me.

He's definitely been a disaster on the business side of the business, but he did fix the rules side early on, so he's not a complete disaster.

My first reaction was What the F???? My second reaction was WHY? IF... It just means cross promotion, then this is much ado about nothing. IF... It means CFL rules played in both countries, then I'm for it. I don't care about field size. I know it would mean killing the ratio, but it's not the passports that matter, it's the rules. IF... It means 4 down, NFL rules in both countries, then I'd rather let the CFL die.

Objectively, the Riders were better than us in the 2019 regular season. Best team in the West and a play or two away from going to the Grey Cup. They weren't a terrible team and they didn't suck. That's just the story a few regular posters want to tell every year.

CFL 2021 Grey Cup odds Team Odds to win the Grey Cup (as of Feb 20) Hamilton Tiger-Cats +328 Saskatchewan Roughriders +446 Winnipeg Blue Bombers +502 Calgary Stampeders +503 Toronto Argonauts +637 B.C. Lions +900 Montreal Alouettes +900 Edmonton Football Team +1,000 Ottawa Redblacks +1,000 Odds courtesy of Sports Interaction Actually Hamilton and Riders, but I prefer Odds shark's take anyway: Who will win the 2021 Grey Cup? CFL Grey Cup Odds 2021 Team Odds Hamilton Tiger-Cats +300 Winnipeg Blue Bombers +450 Calgary Stampeders +500 Saskatchewan Roughriders +500 Toronto Argonauts +800 British Columbia Lions +850 Edmonton +900 Montreal Alouettes +900 Ottawa Redblacks +1400

Yes, the NFL and the premier league for that matter, makes and spends a ton of money. More than the CFL could ever hope for. That in itself doesn't make the NFL a bad comparison. Lets not pretend that any league that doesn't play football is a better comparison. The NFL had a season. They spent what was needed to 'protect' their players. The CFL can't afford to do that. They need the players and the fans to be vaccinated and the vaccination needs to work on multiple versions of Covid. I read that every team in the CFL lost $1 Million+ last year by not having a season. They chose that route rather than having a season and losing even more money per team. Another $1 Million loss per team would likely kill the league as the owners will shut them down instead of taking more losses. Owners need the probability of making money or at least breaking even to continue in the business. The Bell bailout was a stupid use of government money IMO. Bailing out other companies without strings attached would be equally stupid. Hopefully they have learned their lesson because they are making Air Canada pay people back for the flights that were cancelled. There was no federal money for a Winnipeg bubble. Don't expect there to be much, if any, to save our league.

The CFL's size isn't a plus or a minus. The TV money pays for the players salaries. The NFL played last year, so it's not a 'it can't be done excuse'. The NFL is THE comparison. Covid is the biggest problem with money as a close second. The CFL doesn't have the money or the top end management teams that NFL or the Premier leagues have. The CFL dropped the ball by going to the government, hat in hand, asking for money without a justifying the amount or having the players on board. It wasn't surprising that they were turned down. The first and second rounds of government money have been given out, which makes it much harder to get federal money now. I doubt that the liberals care much about saving the CFL, so they are going to have to save themselves IMO. On the good news front, Alberta says that everyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one by the end of June. With the 45 days between vaccinations, that means mid-August should see most people ready to get back to the stadiums in Alberta. If the non-vaccinated folks choose to go to games and get sick, it's on them.