I think Ambrosie is all over the place with his leadership or lack thereof.
Also doesn't help that reporters like Dave Naylor seems to throw shade into the idea of the pairing, not acknowledging the ratings for the 2011 and 2012 parings along with attendance at those games.
The biggest issue would be once the Grey Cup is over, interest in University Football will drop off tremendously as they lose out on getting a rub.
Not sure about the viewers on the CBC for the Vanier though.
They already do.
Men's soccer had their first game August 11 last year.
Women's soccer had their first game August 2.
Football started August 20.
Classes don't start till September.
If they really value pairing the Vanier with the Grey Cup, they could do it. It would require greater sacrifices from the student athletes, though.
They are already making sacrifices as students with the outrageous student fees they are paying.
At least by Aug 20, most of the student body is arriving to register for class and settle in. Prior to that, the campuses are filled with crickets. Maybe (maybe!) the players can come in early, but who is there to buy tickets and watch the games? This isn’t NCAA where the schools have huge followings. I'd be surprised if 10% of the crowd was anything other than students. If no one is there to watch, how does the school justify the cost of playing? Especially if leaving well enough alone results in games being played while campus is full of potential ticket buyers.
In any case, the CFL has not moved their season at this point. Hopefully they never do. But unless that happens, why consider moving the USport season at all? That would only move it further out of sync.
Still not sure if the Grey Cup will take on the 3rd Sunday of November or the Sunday before US Thanksgiving.
Education is an amazing business
Unfortunately the university education may not be as valuable as the paper it's on if can't be turned into opportunities.
I am somewhat disappointed the Blue Bombers have no plans to add more seats for the '25 Grey Cup game. It would be nice if as many fans as possible could attend the G.C. game to enjoy the experience! This decreases the opportunity for many C.F.L. fans to attend the game. It also possibly means that fewer people might visit Winnipeg for G.C. week. The C.F.L. should have 40,000 to 50,000 seats for the game! The C.F.L. could also use the additional ticket revenue. This is, so far, not a greatly planned G.C. The C.F.L. needs to re-think their seating capacity for the '25 game! I do hope the C.F.L. makes the game affordable for fans & the game sells out!
It's varsity sports. Ticket buyers are not part of the equation. Football is one of the only varsity sports in Canada that actually attract any casual viewers. For the vast majority of sports, there's no one there to watch.
I only suggest USports should move their season up IF they find it super important to sync up the Vanier with the Grey Cup. There's been little to suggest that USports cares much at all about doing so.
Stampeders, here we come, a young team right now that will still make this year's playoffs.
The game itself was sold out.
It would be nice to have more in attendance like the 50,000 for the ‘91 game I was at.
I’m not an engineer but unfortunately I don’t think the configuration of IG Field would allow any meaningful seats to be added. The stadium is what I would call self contained. The end zones can’t really be added to and one of them has the huge scoreboard. There is a concourse around the entire stadium as well.
The old Winnipeg Stadium had lots of gaps for seats in it’s configuration that they took advantage of. I just don’t see it here.
Agreed. I attended the Grey Cup, in WPG, in 2015. They added about 5,000 temporary end-zone seats for that game, which I sat in. So what I do not understand is how come they can not add anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 temporary seats in I.G. Field Stadium for the 2024 G.C. game? It CAN be done, if they decided to do so. Temporary seats CAN be added in BOTH end-zones as well as along the sidelines, which could still be a few rows above the field level. In decades-old G.C. game photos I have seen, previous games (such as in T.O.) used to have seats right down to ground-level. There just seems to be little vision or thought put into this game by the C.F.L. in terms of adding temporary seats. The stadium was built to, 'supposedly', be able to accommodate up to 40,000 seats.
I was at that game too but don’t remember the extra seating. I fully agree that if they have the room to add 5-10,000 seats even that they should do so.
It's easier for both brands if the weekend is at the end of November.
It's the CFL that's chose to move the schedule.
But if the CFL moves its schedule, it's because it's easier for their brand. Should the league really hurt its brand just to couple the two cups, or would it be better to maximize the CFL's brand while helping USports to a lesser extent by coupling the Grey Cup with a USports playoff game instead of the championship?
No because it's easier to have two national finals from the same venue while it doesn't make sense to choose one of the semi finals to pair up with.
And why would you think pairing the 2 finals actually damages the CFL?
The 2011 and 2012 pairings did more to enhance both brands than damaging it.
Anyways that idea isn't going to see the light and day which is too bad as it's a lost opportunity.
2024 might be the only and final opportunity for the 2 pairings unless the Grey Cup is on the 17th instead of November 24th.
Can see the scenario where the Grey Cup can be at the end of October while to the Vanier final can be at the end of November.
Do you think fans will follow U Sports after the Grey Cup or will they go on following hockey and NFL.
I would say it will be the latter.
I'd love to see the two championships paired up. I'm just saying that if the CFL thinks it's in the best interest for their brand to host their championship in early November, then why should they change that in favour of an amateur sport?
I agree that pairing the two would make the biggest impact for the sport (compared to pairing with one of the conference finals, for example), but why should the CFL give up revenue to do so? If USports wants the extra attention from pairing the Vanier with the Grey Cup, they have to be flexible.
The reality is they (U Sports) can't be flexible as they are restricted by the school year.
Unless the school year starts in August instead of September then I don't see this particular arrangement is going to happen.
And you're trying to say they weren't making money during the later final?
Anyways the CFL made their choice.
Next up getting rid of the ratio (starting this season)
Other USports sports start their seasons a few weeks earlier than football does, so there's room to move up the season if they really think it's important.
I'm not saying this at all. I'm saying that if the league moves up the Grey Cup till early November it will be because they think it's best for their brand. They would probably think they'd make more as a business doing it that way.