2021 (??) CFL Season

[SpeedFlex27]

3 hours ago, Noeller said:

In order to make plans, they need to make a decision probably in the next week or so. If they don't know within that frame, then they'll have to push it back. This definitely can't be left to the last minute. But I definitely agree that you can't blame the league when it's the virus that's at issue here. The provinces are trying to make the best decisions based on what the virus is doing, and the league has to go with what each province is doing. It's really all about the virus right now, and nobody knows what it'll do next...

Cue me blaming Randy "Scarf Boy" Ambrosie in 4... 3... 2... 1.... It just seems so natural to do so. 

[wbbfan]

6 hours ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

I don’t know how anyone could expect more concrete plans from the league with all the uncertainty surrounding every other aspect of life in each province right now. Target date is still August 5. By mid-July of training camps show no sign of opening then we may have an idea that things are being pushed back. And as always, dependent on Health Canada, not what the league decides to announce or not announce. 

We had more of a tentative plan last year.  Waiting for the last minute to have specifics all ironed out as much as possible is flirting with disaster. 

[Noeller]

4 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Cue me blaming Randy "Scarf Boy" Ambrosie in 4... 3... 2... 1.... It just seems so natural to do so. 

 

 

[TrueBlue4ever]

17 minutes ago, Noeller said:

 

 

Not too surprising. Lalji and Dave Naylor were driving the bus for the XFL expansion from a media standpoint by all appearances, so he would be supportive of a commish pushing that agenda. 

Edited May 29, 2021 by TrueBlue4ever

[CodyT]

Holy hell is this forum quiet 

[SpeedFlex27]

1 hour ago, CodyT said:

Holy hell is this forum quiet 

Edited May 31, 2021 by SpeedFlex27

[Noeller]

I'M HERE!! 

 

Desperately begging for any CFL news. Still extremely confident in a CFL season starting in August....Labour Day at the VERY latest. Als and Argos holding a lot of things up because they'd rather not play, but are sort of going along with the rest, for now. 

[CodyT]

1 minute ago, Noeller said:

I'M HERE!! 

 

Desperately begging for any CFL news. Still extremely confident in a CFL season starting in August....Labour Day at the VERY latest. Als and Argos holding a lot of things up because they'd rather not play, but are sort of going along with the rest, for now. 

The one comment I have been thinking about lately is that somebody said the single game betting could pretty much make the CFL a profitable business. Does this mean potentially the CFL is safe from the XFL and will we still be in grave financial danger?

 

Is the CFL more likely to recover on its own now, and I'd so, how much more likely?

[Noeller]

Nobody knows the answer to that yet, but the single game betting thing needs to happen. It's passed a lot of hurdles, but still has a couple of readings to go before it's officially good to go. Absolutely HAS to get approved before they shut down for the summer....

[Jpan85]

Its down to the 3rd and final reading in the senate I thought which is a close as you can come to being law. CFL is going to have to be a lot more forth coming with injuries if they are going to embrace single game betting. In the NFL they have pretty informative injury reports that are sent out every day during the week leading up to a game. A upper and lower body designation is not going to fly with no clear understanding if they are questionable, doubtful or out. I am surprised nobody in the media has mentioned this. 

[SpeedFlex27]

28 minutes ago, CodyT said:

The one comment I have been thinking about lately is that somebody said the single game betting could pretty much make the CFL a profitable business. Does this mean potentially the CFL is safe from the XFL and will we still be in grave financial danger?

 

Is the CFL more likely to recover on its own now, and I'd so, how much more likely?

I've read that estimates of only about 1-2 million per team which would help but not turn the Big 3 profitable. They'd still be losing lots of money. The tv contract needs to be rdone to refelect the advertising $$$ & revenues coming in. Teams need more money. I believe that TSN & Bell are sitting on the profits.

[Colin Unger]

37 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

I've read that estimates of only about 1-2 million per team which would help but not turn the Big 3 profitable. They'd still be losing lots of money. The tv contract needs to be rdone to refelect the advertising $$$ & revenues coming in. Teams need more money. I believe that TSN & Bell are sitting on the profits.

I wonder how much money the big 3 are really losing at times when they are well run?

[SpeedFlex27]

12 minutes ago, Colin Unger said:

I wonder how much money the big 3 are really losing at times when they are well run?

One to 2 million helps but it doesn't make the problems go away. There are virtually no other revenue streams in a country with 37 million people, an aging ticket base & half the country doesn't care. The Tv deal sucks. Putting the CFL solely on a cable network & keeping it there has been a huge mistake. The networks don't want the CFL now. The league totally screwed up. They might have been able to get back on CTV or CBC 10 years ago as ratings were shooting up & Ottawa came back into the league but decided to stay with TSN. Probably too late now.

Edited May 31, 2021 by SpeedFlex27

[TrueBlue4ever]

But would anyone want to see a bidding war between TSN and Sportsnet for the CFL of the end result was a Sportsnet product that is as inferior as their NHL coverage is? Maybe so since this league needs the money badly, but not sure I would want a Sportsnet panel of Arash Masani, Jessy Ferguson, and Marty York covering the games. 

[SpeedFlex27]

12 minutes ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

But would anyone want to see a bidding war between TSN and Sportsnet for the CFL of the end result was a Sportsnet product that is as inferior as their NHL coverage is? Maybe so since this league needs the money badly, but not sure I would want a Sportsnet panel of Arash Masani, Jessy Ferguson, and Marty York covering the games. 

If the CFL can generate more revenue on Sportsnet, I'm all for it. I'd like to see the CFL back on CBC. I think there'd be room for it on saturday afternnons or Sundays. Or maybe on Thursdsay nights. The ship has sailed on CTV as they are into the NFL. And there was bad blood between the CFL & CTV  with former Sports President & longtime CFL supporter Johnny Esaw who vowed the CFL would never, ever ever be on CTV again. He was livid they started the CFL Network to televise games in 1986 for 1 season. As well as (ironically) the CFL's refusal to develop Friday Night Football on CTV. Esaw was pushing hard for it & the CFL braintrust at the time felt it was a bad idea. So, CTV walked away from CFL broadcasts & never came back. This is the kind of pea brained thinking the CFL is famous for & why I question just televising games on a cable network & not seeing if there might have been more revenue getting back on network television.

[TrueBlue4ever]

Not sure. If I recall, CBC gutted pretty much all of its sports coverage save for HNIC because it was not profitable for them. And CTV had been virtually sport absent. I am not talking about just televising a sport (yes CTV has the NFL) but rather their own broadcast productions. Not sure how much it costs to put together your own broadcast (cameras, directors, producers, on air talent) but I suspect the reason they pick up the NFL in part is that they only pay rights fees and do not have to worry about production costs. Now with hockey or the NFL, those production costs are offset by advertising rates for a massively popular product, but the CFL may not create a good enough return on the investment to dive into. But a 24 hour sports network is more in need of a tent pole program to build their brand, so they invest. Again, I don’t know the hard numbers so I am just spitballing here. Anyone with better insight?

[Colin Unger]

4 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

One to 2 million helps but it doesn't make the problems go away. There are virtually no other revenue streams in a country with 37 million people, an aging ticket base & half the country doesn't care. The Tv deal sucks. Putting the CFL solely on a cable network & keeping it there has been a huge mistake. The networks don't want the CFL now. The league totally screwed up. They might have been able to get back on CTV or CBC 10 years ago as ratings were shooting up & Ottawa came back into the league but decided to stay with TSN. Probably too late now.

I'm not convinced it was that dire.  When I go to bombers games I see a lot of young people there. The vast majority are young I would say. Its got a party like atmosphere.  It doesn't get the young kids like goldeyes but once those kids become drinking age the bombers games is where they go. CBC has been more and more moving away from sports broadcasts I believe due to budget cuts. Last time i checked i was typically tuning into Sportsnet or TSN to watch Jets games. Ratings aren't really the issue for the CFL. The CFL offers good ratings and a loyal viewerbase who turn off their netflix and actually dust off their cable box when a game is on. The only thing cable has going for it these days is sporting events. What remains to be seen is what the reaction will be once we are finally allowed to leave our homes again. Will people stick with their new habits of staying at home or will people be so sick of staying at home and watching TV that sports attendance ends up getting a boost. 

[SpeedFlex27]

If a team is  losing three or 4 million a year how is an extra 2 million going to help? They lose 2 million & everybody's happy?? The extra revenue helps but not enough. The situation is dire. How could you say it's not. The CFL collectively lost $80 million. That's an average of $8.8 million per team. So gambling revenues of $2 million would bring that loss down to $6.8 million. The league is dead.

[JCon]

Sort of random but, if you cut the cord, you can subscribe to TSN for 6 months for 40% off. $60 for 6 months and you can catch all the Euros starting in June. Deal runs until June 30th, so you can wait until the end of the month to subscribe. 

Edited June 1, 2021 by JCon

[JCon]

 

[wbbfan]

37 minutes ago, JCon said:

 

I feel like this has been in the lurch for a long time now. I also feel like its going to be panned no matter what. But if its the Edmonton football club with an EE logo it will be panned harder than any other out come. 

[JCon]

Just now, wbbfan said:

I feel like this has been in the lurch for a long time now. I also feel like its going to be panned no matter what. But if its the Edmonton football club with an EE logo it will be panned harder than any other out come. 

I think it should be the Elk. To me, that makes the most sense. 

 

And, as an added bonus, they can sell the Elk burger. Made of from elk meat? No, beef. Just for lolz. 

[wbbfan]

Just now, JCon said:

I think it should be the Elk. To me, that makes the most sense. 

 

And, as an added bonus, they can sell the Elk burger. Made of from elk meat? No, beef. Just for lolz. 

Its the best of the options they were looking at last I heard. Edmonton oilers LLOOOOOOOOOOOL!

[Super Duper Negatron]

It appears to be Edmonton Elks without the EE logo? 🤔

[17to85]

18 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

If the CFL can generate more revenue on Sportsnet, I'm all for it. I'd like to see the CFL back on CBC. I think there'd be room for it on saturday afternnons or Sundays. Or maybe on Thursdsay nights. The ship has sailed on CTV as they are into the NFL. And there was bad blood between the CFL & CTV  with former Sports President & longtime CFL supporter Johnny Esaw who vowed the CFL would never, ever ever be on CTV again. He was livid they started the CFL Network to televise games in 1986 for 1 season. As well as (ironically) the CFL's refusal to develop Friday Night Football on CTV. Esaw was pushing hard for it & the CFL braintrust at the time felt it was a bad idea. So, CTV walked away from CFL broadcasts & never came back. This is the kind of pea brained thinking the CFL is famous for & why I question just televising games on a cable network & not seeing if there might have been more revenue getting back on network television.

Ctv and tsn are one and the same so no point in even discussing a difference there. Sportsnet I think is regretting spending like drunken sailors on the nhl and cbc doesn't want to spend much money on sports. The situation in Canada is not great for getting a big TV deal in my opinion.