A new study by The Conference Board of Canada, states that the country is ripe for major league sports expansion over the next two decades.
The report says economic and demographic trends suggest Canada could support three new NHL teams, major league baseball in Montreal, an NBA franchise in Vancouver and as many as three, new Major League Soccer teams.
The study also suggests that by the year 2035, another seven cities could support Canadian Football League franchises.
NO! please no more discussions about expansion. There is a heated discussion on the CFL site!
Let's take care of the 8 we have, the question is how do we keep the CFL in Toronto.
The biggest city has trouble drawing 20,000 paying customers. No doubt they will get their NFL team in a few years and it's going to be a challenge to keep their 20k CFL fans
here is The Conference Board of Canada where and why analysis for CFL expansion:
[b]Football
An earlier briefing in this series identified six potential new markets for the CFL: Ottawa–Gatineau (where the league is already scheduled to return), London, Kitchener–Waterloo–Cambridge, Moncton, Halifax, and Québec City. While it may still be some time before any of these cities join the CFL, all have the required market conditions to be successful in the league within the foreseeable future.
Pushing the analysis out to 2035 adds one more market to the list of potential CFL franchises—Saskatoon. Saskatoon will witness a rise in population from 265,000 in 2010 to 430,000 in 2035, thanks largely to its ability to attract international immigrants and migrants from elsewhere in Canada. What’s more, the share of the city’s population aged 65 and over will be among the lowest of any Canadian urban centre in 2035. Why will people move to Saskatoon? Commodity-fuelled economic growth will be relatively strong over the next 25 years, allowing for sustained job creation and a growth in corporate head offices. Indeed, we expect that Saskatchewan will post the fastest growth rate among Canada’s provinces over the next 25 years, so the province will eventually have both the population and the incomes required to support two CFL franchises. What a rivalry Saskatoon versus Regina would be.[/b]
No doubt they will get their NFL team in a few years
If the renos go ahead in Buffalo with a long term lease as what is suggested to happen, Toronto will not be getting an NFL franchise any time soon as Goodell has stated the Toronto-Buffalo region is one region, meaning one team I would think. No way they will put a team in Toronto with a team in Buffalo and city/state that has poured multi millions to upgrade Ralph Wilson Stadium and with many thousands of season ticket holders and single seat fans coming from Toronto. mike, why don't you acknowledge this as I've mentioned this a number of times? :?
At any rate, while I respect the research from the Conference Board of Canada on many topics, certainly to make something happen will take a lot of work and willpower, political clout, private monies and interest etc. to make it happen to have more teams.
No way Toronto gets a team before a cities like L.A, San Antonio, and OKC get a team. They have much larger markets, and by the sounds of it much more interest. It just seems this whole Toronto ordeal is the brain child of a small group of people who are determined to try and make a square peg fit in a round hole.
L.A will likely have two teams before Toronto has one.
As for expansion of the CFL, if the talent is there to expand to possibly 15 franchises and a careful, thought out plan is put in place to ensure that these franchises dont die as fast as the USAex teams did then I am all for it. The CFL has to follow the business model of other major sports leagues; you have to expand in short burst to ensure the league can remain stable. If they did something like:
2014: Ottawa
2018:Moncton, Quebec City
2024: Halifax
2030: K-W-C, Saskatoon
2035: London
I think the CFL would have a great chance at succeeding in expanding its brand.
For what it's worth... The CFL along with other 'minor' leagues have an opportunity to attract new fans due to the global economic reality. The price of attending a live professional sporting event has skyrocketed these past few decades far eclipsing inflation. With fewer disposable dollars available to the average family and the advent of new in-home viewing technology, there should be a trend against attending the big four leagues live. Example: does a father save up for months to take his son to a Maple Leafs game or for 1/10 the seat price go to a CHL game? High Definition and multiple cameras make the televised game much more enjoyable than twenty years ago, but the game experience is still unique when experienced live. The CFL's marketing department should play to this angle: affordable family live sporting entertainment.
No way this will happen. Maybe we'll get to 10 some day. Teams in Hamilton + Toronto + K-W + London? Not a chance. Moncton + Halifax? One would be a dream come true as number 10.
As for the NFL coming to Toronto, I don't expect that for decades if ever:
the stadium is too small
the province won't kick in money for a new one.. they don't have any; the city won't either... same reason; the feds won't... it's not what they do
the experiment with Buffalo playing in Toronto is a highly questionable success
the NFL does not allow corporate owners, only individuals-- there are none in Canada with the dough to do this (unless someone in the Thomson family decides to become a major football fan suddenly)
with Buffalo's situation solidified for the medium term, they won't permit a nearby competitor to siphon off fans
By placing quotation marks around the word the intent was to convey how other people describe the CFL. My apologies for assuming that was self-evident.
???
50,000 at the last NFL game in Toronto and 30,000 of them paid $300 a ticket …ouch
That is more revenue than the Bills can generate in Buffalo. Buffalo isn’t even very popular in Toronto either, with their own team the Rogers Centre would be sold out every game. Let’s face it, you are only looking at 8 games a year not the 42 Leafs games or 80 plus Jays games.
I think the NFL team won’t be called Toronto, it will be like Sask, BC, Carolina or New England it will be named after the region or province. Probably the Ontario “Blue Cats” or something similar.
It’s just a matter of time, but seriously the NFL will be in TO sooner than 2035 probably in the next 5 years.
The CFL will flourish without them, we don’t need Toronto.
Toronto is the 2nd largest area in North America without an NFL team. It is considerably richer and it’s economy is in better shape than LA, San Antonio or OKC. It has the highest standard of living in North America right now.
It has a huge business community and companies like Rogers that can financial back them.
They can generate more revenue in the Rogers Centre than they can in a 70,000 seat stadium in Buffalo.
I don’t know why everyone is talking about Buffalo, there are other smaller NFL cities out there that would love to get into the TO market, and of course there is the potential of an expansion franchise. LA and California are broke right now, no money for any stadiums and no market for NFL support right now.
It’s just a matter of time before the NFL happens in TO and we have to get used to it and live with it.
Canada’s birth rate is just above the replacement rate so unless couples start having more than 2.1 babies again any population growth will be from immigration. Currently immigrants are not coming from countries were football is played. If anything, MLS might expand.
mike, why don't you acknowledge that with the Buffalo renos and long term lease no team in Toronto for the foreseable future? I know you are obsessed with thinking that within 5 years or whatever they will have a team but I believe you are very wrong on that count. Only if the Bills can't get the renos and lease done which I think discussions will wrap up before the end of the year on that. Then if the Bills did move to LA, yes, Toronto would be in the running if there are still investors interested at close to a billion for a team and stadium.
Also, no way 30,000 people paid individually out of their pockets $300 a ticket. My guess is that corporations ponied up most of that. The NFL is embarrased what has happened in Toronto, they even had to reduce ticket prices. In the NFL! Toronto is not on their priority list at all from everything I've read in the recent media where guess what, you never see the city Toronto mentioned.
I disagree with your prediction above (unless you are talking about a matter of a long time… much longer than the five year period you mention) and therefore I believe that your conclusion about what we have to do does not apply.