So I was scanning the satellite an hour or so ago and was disappointed that I couldn't find ANY pre-game hype for today's Grey Cup game. CBC had NBA, CTV and City had NFL etc etc and the only thing on the TV schedule was one lone channel...TSN with "CFL Football".
Talk about downplay an event. I would have thought for our premiere game of the season, there'd be more hype. More CFL and Grey Cup hi-lites or specials. Did I miss something?
The other networks are not going to have a pregame show for a game they do not hold the rights to.
When FOX has the Superbowl, CBS has golf, or something.
It’s pretty simple – TSN has exclusive rights. Why would any other network hype a property it doesn’t own? It’s no different with the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup final or any other rights-held event – the rightsholder promotes the hell out of it and every other network pretends it doesn’t exist. And by the way, TSN has been pretty much all Grey Cup, all the time since 10 a.m. Saturday.
TSN is doing a great job with 5+ hours of pre-game coverage today plus hours yesterday. Credit where credit is due.
An Argo-Cat fan
Except for Dutchy's constant gushing...It's getting a little tired....
The other networks are jealous of TSN having exclusive rights, if I were them I'd be showing anything but Grey Cup stuff. That just feeds into TSN getting better ratings, the last thing Sportsnet or The Score wants.
one thing i miss is a retro game each night leading up the the big game.
I think alot of you missed my point. DUH...I know that CBC and CTV are not going to be doing CFL Grey Cup hype. It's the fact that when I searched TSN on my satellite, the only mention of the Grey Cup or CFL on it was the game at 6:30pm. Prior to that, I see alot of poker and a host of other crap. But like I ALSO said.....maybe I missed seeing whatever pregame hype they DO have. Maybe it's on TSN2...who knows as I don't get that channel. At least..not this year.
Dont know what planet you're on but CBC Newsworld and CTV Newsnet have been doing Cup stories and features every hour on the hour all day.
Your point certainly was buried in your original post, if it was there at all.
Regardless, TSN showed Grey Cup stuff from 10 a.m. to noon yesterday, from 3:30 to 6, and from 7 to 10. Then today from 10 to 11 and from 1 until game time. All on the main TSN network. I don’t know what service is providing listings for your satellite provider but if it is listing poker, etc., it is wrong. As you’d have seen had you tuned in TSN rather than just read the listings.
TSN deserves lots of credit for wall-to-wall pre-game coverage this weekend. However, they lose marks for recycling some items (like the Top 10s) from last year and for repeating some of this year’s segments (e.g. Gene Makowsky’s speech yesterday to his teammates, but there were countless other examples) too many times.
Wallace,
not sure what type of off-shore satellite you have but on BEV , TSN has been broadcasting a pregame show ALL afternoon.
Time to look for a real provider.
Hype comes in forms other than what you can see on TV, and that comes down to this leagues ability - or more precisely - inability to market itself. I walked into my local grocery store this morning to pick up some supplies for tonight and the whole front of the store was dedicated to Christmas. I guarantee you at the end of January that same front will be crowded with party food and other paraphernalia with NFL and Super Bowl logos plastered all over it. Took the advertising flyers out of my newspaper yesterday and all the electronic stores are selling their flat screen TV's with out any slogans such as "Buy a new TV and watch the Grey Cup". But in January, you won't be able to see a TV add that won't be proclaiming "Buy a TV and watch the Super Bowl". I won't even get into how many bars I haven't seen promoting Grey Cup parties, but come January, well...you know. It's the small stuff like this that makes this game more visible to the average person and helps to build a perception that some big is coming up. The CFL, for what ever reason has been unable to do this. I notice the small stuff like this and it bugs the hell out of me.
I was only disapoionted by Brian Williams bush league attack ambush on Cohon, obviously Williams was not at the fan q&a with the commish, if he was he’d have noticed not one single fan brought up the issue of Canadian starters.
Williams is a clown but it speaks volumes that Cohon has been evasive and has not outright denied that the league is pushing to reduce the number of non-import starters.
And why does the CFL STILL not have a drug testing policy? Makes us look totally bush league.
By the by....my bad. I turned on TSN about an hour and a half before the game to find the Pre-Game show already in progress. I apologize to TSN. I never did find it when I searched the themes but maybe it wasn't listed under the sports theme.
Anyhow...awesome game and great coverage. But damn....that midfield camera on the cable sure looked low at times. I'd swear that some of the players could have reached up to touch it.
ESPN Classic had Classic Grey Cups all week.
I Agree 100% … every year you see less and less CFL hype. If the league is unwilling to start self promoting itself then the lack of fans is it’s own fault. The CFL has to stop acting like a minor league operation and step on into the limelight it will not only help the teams but also the league as a whole…
Super Bowl hype and other sports leagues hype has been around forever and it hasn’t affected me in the least to make any other league other than the CFL and Grey Cup my main event. I hear you about marketing and that but nothing beats marketing like what TSN has done, TV still rules the roost for the most part I think. Remember, there is a lot of vested interests that companies like Rogers and others in Canada have in the NFL because they are paying huge sums of money to carry NFL games and that or advertise on NFL games, companies that is. They have to put up signs etc. The NFL itself isn’t coming here to promote. They just sell the rights to whatever station in Canada is willing to pay the price and then that station sells advertising and then those companies make the “hype” or whatever you want to call it, commercial “hype” I say.
The CFL had big posters in bus stops last year I noticed, I liked that but its still TV as the number one thing I’d say.
I didn't see to much of the pregame show, I did see the piece on the '48 cup got a kick out of it. I had known about most of what went on but they were able explain more of what happened.The part were the crowd partying on the train and that they ran out of beer by the time they reached Saskatchewan was a great story. It was also good to see Normie Kwong, I have a football card of him from the '50s when he played for Edmonton.
I find it funny that TSN was hyping what I would consider one of the most boring half-time shows in memory (other than the 96 GC in Hamilton). Come on, Blue Rodeo USED to be a good, relevant band, but they simply looked like a bunch of tired, disinterested old men on that stage. I’m guessing that half the people at IWS for the EDSF game hadn’t been born the last time they had a hit. Last year was marginally better, but Theory of a Dead Man is NOT a rah rah! style band that can get a crowd of 40k+ rocking. Lenny Kravitz and the Black Eyed Peas were the best half-time shows in recent memory.