So I’m aware that there will be a pre-season - I saw 2 whole commercials on TSN last night advertising the upcoming season. And all regular season games will be broadcast on TSN, as usual, and a dozen or so on CTV.
And TSN is making the games accessible by having them all available on TSN+ for streaming.
But does the league/broadcaster even care if people follow the pre-season? It seems like the league is hiding and there’s no interest in promoting it. Sure, TSN is broadcasting 2 of the 9 pre-season games, but that’s it.
So what can the CFL/TSN do better to engage fans and grow its audience, which would increase viewership?
Pre-season is more than just the games: TSN could do so much more to promote the league during the off-season. They could cover the combine. The league could revive the CFL Week in late March, and TSN could cover it on SportsCentre. You’ve got 9 teams doing training camp; put together some coverage of that. How hard would it be to produce a daily half-hour show? 3 teams per episode, 7-minute segments. prepping viewers for the pre-season games.
Put some effort into scheduling the games: It’s great I can stream all the games, but a bunch of them happen at the same time. 2 games on May 24 at 4:00, then a game at 7:00 overlapping with another one at 9:00. The following week is a joke, with 2 games at 7:00 overlapping with a 9:00 and 9:30 game. Is stadium availability that limited?
Broadcast the games: So, what is TSN broadcasting in place of the games? Today’s game is replaced by IIHF games and NFL Live. Next weekend, it’s the Memorial Cup and (ironically) CFL Highlight shows. Next week, it’s Memorial Cup, NBA highlights and a Raptors doc. They’ve got 5 feeds - there’s no reason 1 can’t be used for CFL pre-season.
I seem to recall TSN broadcasting most (all?) pre-season games several years back. Am I just unreasonable because of CFL withdrawal, or does this make sense?
[quote=“MakingTheCase, post:1, topic:97581”]
2. Put some effort into scheduling the games: It’s great I can stream all the games, but a bunch of them happen at the same time. 2 games on May 24 at 4:00, then a game at 7:00 overlapping with another one at 9:00. The following week is a joke, with 2 games at 7:00 overlapping with a 9:00 and 9:30 game. Is stadium availability that limited?[/quote]
Since one of the primary purposes of training camp is the whittling down of rosters to the final roister, that schedule offers the most equality possible in a 9-team league for game-prep time for the pre-season games and then the first game of the regular season.
I think that pre season games are money losers for TSN and that is why they have been cut back. Although I think there are many on this forum that get excited about pre season games, I am not one of them and neither is the general public. In fact I don’t watch pre season games in any sport and don’t go to them as a season ticket holder. Watching a bunch of players with strange numbers I can’t even follow with a program for the one and only time doesn’t move the needle for me.
I am also not excited by the visiting team invariably playing their backups and soon to be cuts while the home team dresses more of their starters and usually wins. That tells me nothing and I don’t think pre season games tell coaches as much as some people think it does. The NFL has it right in reducing pre season games and I wouldn’t bat an eye if there were zero. They don’t improve a team or ready them for the season as most starters don’t play or play very little. If you have the time and pre season is your thing, more power to you, but I don’t think the vast majority of fans could care less.
You are correct that more pre season games used to be televised. I think there were 4 last year. I wouldn’t expect an increase in this however as the production costs can’t be justified by the audience numbers.
As to the overlapping games, that is something new I think. I would be concerned if that applied to the regular season, but there the CFL Thursday to Sunday pattern of games the last two years has been much liked and wildly successful. Otherwise all preseason games could be played at the same time as far as I am concerned and it would only affect the 432 people actually watching.
Yeah i care about pre season games since i love football plus following u sports for multiple years i’m familar with multiple rookies . Today’s game Findlay is one player im familiar with who is starting at Safety for BC.
Yeah I don’t care about pre season either in any sport.
The Argos dropped the pre season game in their season ticket package after the 2017 season for obvious reasons and I don’t miss it.
Putting the games in smaller cities/stadiums (Toronto in Guelph or BC in the Victoria area) is an opportunity to engage new fans while still giving existing fans a chance to take them in.
And like I said, more power to you. I used to when I was younger, but life has intervened. Full time work and interest in other sports and some other TV and reading and music doesn’t give me the time any more. And I do think they are virtually meaningless and therefore those that watch do so for purely interest’s sake.
What are you complaining about? all the pre-season games are televised. The first game this afternoon on CFL+
Isn’t broadcasting the game promoting it? CFL+ is available to anyone that has the internet, games on TSN are only available to people that have a TSN subscription.
No. Training camp is where it all happens. That’s where the new players are judged and that’s where the starters practice. Pre season is meaningless for the starters who never actually play together as a unit. Few if any cuts are made as a result of pre season snaps as well. Don’t see the point of those games actually. Intra squad games are fine for the same purpose. I would rather see real games. I would also rather watch a pianist in concert than just watching them practice their scales, but that’s just me. Again, if you’re into watching practices and have the time go for it. Not my cup of tea or very practical.
I think they are to the average TSN viewer, in the sense of investing time to watch much more than the first few series at best … and therefore they are meaningless to TSN … I doubt they could sell enough advertising to come close to covering the production costs.
Yay to the preseason where rider and bomber fans get to see our teams play back to back plus 3 of 18 regular season game. That’s fully 25% of games played against the same club not incliding playoffs with a dam good chance of meeting in western or semi finals as well. The league could go a lot better with preseason but televising them isn’t one of my complaints. Though I do remember up until about 8 or 10 years ago the preseason seemed to be better ball and now it’s more like a team practice.
I do think that how someone performs in pre-season games contributes to whether they stay on the team. Having said that, I’m so used to the 4 game pre-season schedule from a generation ago that I consider the first 2 weeks (and maybe a few extra) as being pre-season as well - in the sense that the teams are still learning the playbook and each other.
The quality of play gets better after that which is usually when I start to attend games. Living out of town, I’m not a STH so I’m strategic with which games I go to.
i was at the first preseason game today (on vancouver island) and it was a blast. it was a bit sloppy but nobody cared about the score. the atmosphere was awesome! Doman is the man.
There’s so much competition for TV slots at this time of year that it really does have to be lucrative to gain any TV broadcast time to oust the other sports. Playoffs for NBA, NHL and PWHL, the beginning of MLB, MLS and WNBA, tennis and golf well into the season.
Also, the CFL pre-season culture is nothing like MLB where everybody goes south for a month and fans congregate to enjoy the nice weather.