I wish the CFL would start the regular season about 3 weeks earlier in order to accomodate the Grey Cup being played outdoors. Next year Regina is hosting and believe me you wouldn't of wanted that game to have been played here last weekend -30 with the windchill, freezing rain 4 days before and 2 feet of snow on the ground. Can you imagine JB or Gordon Lightfoot playing at halftime in those conditions? By having the GC at the beginning of November the odds of more temparate conditions exist. The fans sitting outside would actual be able to enjoy the festivies and get some value from their ticket purchase and watch the game in somewhat comfortable conditions. I know that starting on Canada Day is a symbolic gesture but given the gamble being taken with regard to weather conditions for the GC I believe that an earlier start for the season would be practical for the fans and the League.
I wish ai had link to share, but i recall the commish being asked about this couple years ago. He mentioned leaving it same since the CFL typically owns November ratings in Canada. MLB being over by the time the east and west final rolls around i guess what he was referring to.
Heard the NHL might move free agency ahead a week. So that would make the july first CFL start a bit more of a bigger deal as so much coverage is given to the first day of free agency.
OK I don't feel like working so I just looked at the last 10 years of November temperatures in Regina. Specifically I looked at the 25th (this year's Grey Cup date) and the 4th (3 weeks earlier)
The 4th is on average about 5 degrees warmer than the 25th. One year the 25th was actually warmer than the 4th.
Is 5 degrees a big enough difference to make a change? And if moving the Grey Cup up by 3 weeks actually makes it colder 10% of the time, is it worth making a change? If you want to minimize the risk of bad weather, the Grey Cup should only be played indoors.
Would the CFL only move up the Grey Cup for a Prairie Grey Cup? Half the time, the Grey Cup is played in a dome where the weather doesn't matter, so why move up the GC in those years? Does it make sense to have Grey Cups played at different times in different years?
Why not go back to a 16 game season? The season would end 2 weeks earlier.
I think Canada Day to the last week of November is the ideal CFL season. Symbolic start of the season and a standard end to the season (NCAA and CIS football runs to the end of November too - except the NCAA bowl games of course)
And if the potential of -20 keeps the Beibs away from the Grey Cup, I'm all for it.
I would suggest permanently moving up the season and not just for Prairie Grey Cups. As to permanently playing indoors only - the CFL tried that and it almost killed the league. I don’t care about the weather stats you looked up but I live here and have sat through 2 outdoor Grey Cups in Regina and I tell you it would have been a heck of a lot more pleasant at the beginning of November than at the end. Besides I am champing at the bit for real football to start and the beginning of June would suit me just fine. 
No point in responding to someone not interested in facts
I’ll do it anyway… for the 2003 Grey Cup in Regina, the warmest part of that November was the last week and the coldest part of that month was the first week. The only days above 0 were in the last half of the month.
The facts do not support your statement “it would have been a heck of a lot more pleasant at the beginning of November than at the end”
Moving the CFL season is not going to happen that is just the facts. As to the weather in the prairies during the Grey Cup that is becoming quite an issue as the Grey Cup is getting to be a Super Bowl kind of large event for Canada. Holding the Grey Cup indoors as much as possible has seemed to be the way the CFL has been going.
Regina and the Riders have helped to make it a non issue one day in building a stadium with the capability of enclosing it or rectractable roof at a later time. Winnipeg should have done the same but it is too late for that.
With all the new technology I could envision the stadium in Region being open during the warm months and creating a bubble like covering that can be put on each year at the beginning of October possibly for X amount of Months and then removing it in the spring.
Way back when before the Big O was permanently enclose as a dome stadium they did put a rather croud by todays standards tarp over the hole as a temporary solution for the winter months and then removing it for the warmer months. This kind of strategy could be used with moder technology for the stadium Built in Regina and for a future one built in Calgary.
Where Eastern Canada is cold it is not quite so brutally cold like in the prairies. I would think that Hamilton would want to have a Grey cup at their new facility using the old CFL temp seating to meet the minimum 40,000. After that however I think it may be best for Hamilton to host the Grey cup but play it indoors at Rogers centre. All of the Grey cup sponsored hotels and festiveties can be held in Hamilton in venues there. Making only the short drive up the road for the game enclosed in comfort with no temporary seats needed to be put in.
However it works out the weather for Grey cup games is becoming an issue for the CFL
Actually to be factually correct about the Grey Cup in 2003 - it was played on Nov 16 and the mean temp was -10.1 celcius. If the game had been played on the 23rd - mean temperature was -16. If the game had been played on the 2nd - mean temp -5. So I think this year as a case in point - the facts do indeed prove my point.
what I am getting from this is that todays generations are pansies compared to yesterdays generations.
Not at all FYB. I would still attend the game and stay till the bitter end but it would be much more pleasant to be able to enjoy being outdoors to watch the game and be able to see the players performing at a level not hampered by the extreme cold. And believe me if that wind gets up that -15 or so temp is suddenly the equivalent of -30.
Too much tradition to change it from starting Canada day weekend and ending the last Sunday in November.
Also, I think it is fun to see some bad weather games, if we always had earlier Grey Cups we would have no Ice, Snow, Rain, Wind, Fog, or Mud Bowls.
I think having the Grey Cup earlier than the last weekend in November is a mistake and ends the season too early. The easiest solution is NOT to have it in Regina if it's too cold.
let’s stop trying to @#$@# around with the CFL and it’s configuration and scheduling.
what, you can’t handle the cold? :roll:
It’s not a matter of being able to “handle” the cold. It’s a matter of the quality of the game and value for the fans - and both suffer when the severe cold is a factor and the longer you go into November the greater the liklihood that it will be a negative factor.
This weekend was real nice in Ottawa it was not freezing.
Start the 1st of May and finish at Labour Day, no competition with the NFL or NCAA and the CFL would get a TV contract in the US. There are many starved for football between April and Sept.
The playoffs and the Grey Cup would be played in summer like conditions.
this is total BS.
there will be no changing of when the CFL starts. this thread is pointless.
Get up on the wrong side of the bed today? Never said it would happen, just said it should. If it bothers you so why do you comment?
I would agree that the schedule could/should be started earlier. Before I am called a pansy, I am a season ticket holder and I do go to all the games I can regardless of weather.
The last 2 games in Calgary were Oct 20 vs Hamilton, and Oct 26 vs BC. The stated attendance on the CFL site for each game is 26,502 and 27,014. This is of course paid attendance. I can tell you actual attendance was two thirds to half of that. Similarly, the Nov 2 Cgy at Edmonton game had a paid attendance of 21,147.
I would much rather see the stadiums full than seeing them half empty.
I like the July 1st Canada Day start. Its time Regina built a doomed stadium I guess...