Can we just hit the "re-set" button to this CFL season already??

[prairiewolf77]

@rhymes with orange

I know I will face fierce opposition on this point from those who don’t want to freeze their arses off on cold metal benches in late November, but there are considerable drawbacks to a mid-June launch and starting preseason games in late May that I don’t think many (including our Commissioner) really thought through. Or took seriously. The NHL-NBA playoffs being the biggest challenge (maybe an outlier this year due to Raptors fever but could just as easily be Jets, Flames, or Leafs fever occupying the national interest), but there are several other factors.

I don’t know what the answer is (other than shortening the season which isn’t likely). The CFLPA wants more byes, Ambrosie wants to wrap up the season before the last week of November, and interest in the league peaks on and post-Labour Day when more is on the line.

All I know is that there appears to be tepid interest in Spring football which kills any traction the league hopes to realize, and starts a really bad narrative about attendance and overall interest/strength in the league.

Won’t get any opposition from me.
This has been brought up.
As big as the Raptors bandwagon became, and the coverage, if the Leafs make it to the finals, the world around us could be WW3 and there would be no coverage until Leafs were done.

I get due to the unbalanced schedule there is going to be has 3 bye weeks for each team, but for an 18 game season that is too much. Players don’t have any full contact practices during the season, and barely any in the preseason. Its too much. 1 around mid season would be fine, but 3, no.

As for spring. For the last 3-4 years, I think our march and april weather has been as bad if not worse than our November weather.

[EastVanMark]

@The Last Word

People have been saying that for decades and yet their revenues keep growing.

Their revenues keep growing, but most of that is due to inflationary factors and the discovery of more revenue opportunities. Their attendance, TV viewership, sports market share, etc have all been falling for a while now.

If you look at things on an even playing field, the league would bring in almost twice the revenues the NFL does, but it doesn’t. Not even close. Basketball has surpassed it, and even lowly hockey is creeping up into the picture. That wasn’t the case generations ago when the sport was the largest, most financially successful league on earth. Now they aren’t anywhere close to that.

[EastVanMark]

@prairiewolf77

I get due to the unbalanced schedule there is going to be has 3 bye weeks for each team, but for an 18 game season that is too much. Players don’t have any full contact practices during the season, and barely any in the preseason. Its too much. 1 around mid season would be fine, but 3, no.

Agreed. 3 bye weeks is a bit much for an 18 game season.

2 was plenty. And hopefully they could find a way to space them out better. A bye for a team in week 2? Thats silly.

[Hank01]

Pretty hard to take something away from players once it’s there like bye weeks .

The league is in a sweet spot for Canadian football as much as I would love it August to first week of December like before it’s not workable .

One thing I would like is the old total point series for the division finals of the playoffs .

This would extend the playoffs by one week and give the CFL four weeks of playoff football on Sundays and take us one week further .

The second place team would get two gates out of it .

[Balticfox]

@Hank01

One thing I would like is the old total point series for the division finals of the playoffs .

This would extend the playoffs by one week and give the CFL four weeks of playoff football on Sundays and take us one week further .

The second place team would get two gates out of it .

I agree! I don’t like one sudden death game after a whopping eighteen are played to simply determine playoff pecking order.

[pikk]

I would think the flooding this yr , hurt ottawa’s attendance.

[GHT120]

@pikk

I would think the flooding this yr , hurt ottawa’s attendance.

While devastating for those impacted its was a quite small portion of the population that were flooded

[Paolo_X]

@GHT120

They seemingly want to set the bar higher … still likely (?) to be reduced to one game on appeal … starting at one game might be reduced to a max fine … CFL, ideally in consultation with CFLPA, needs to announce the higher standard for player safety reasons and apply it on a go-forward basis.

This has been a problem with pro football for some time, and in this decade reality has caught up to it because now most fans realize that beyond the spectacle of a great hit, or some dirty clobbering, is often lasting and irreparable damage (which society pays for all too often not the league).

The league takes several steps forward and spends inordinate resources on medical consultation when one effective remedy, psychologically more than fines, is reduced playing time for players.

If you have ever played any team sport, few things are worse since you were a kid than being forced to sit out while watching and knowing while your team could use you right now. That feeling never leaves when you can’t get in the game.