I was at the Flames game tonight, and at the end of it I heard something new: the PA announcer mentioned some upcoming NHL games, including all the games on Hockey Night in Canada - NONE of which involved the Flames. Basically he was saying, "btw, these games are on TV at these times, so watch them."
Could the CFL do something similar? The impression I get is that most football fans like their local team, go to the games, cheer for them, and may even know whereabouts in the standings they are or how well they're doing, but they don't follow the rest of the CFL. Also, every Canadian sports fan knows that Saturday night is HNIC, and that Monday night is Monday Night Football - but Friday Night Football seems to have much less "prestige"; less of that "oh, it's Friday night, that means there's a football game on! I'll watch it".
Perhaps if the CFL mentioned all other games for the weekend after each game - not like there's many to announce - it would get fans more interested in the rest of the league, and create more loyal fans.
Another thing the Flames do is show the complete NHL standings during intermissions. CFL teams could do this, too. Perhaps they could even show league-wide highlights from the past week of games.
All these sorts of things would increase awareness of the CFL, which would get people talking about it even more, which can only be a good thing.
Good ideas for sure Canuc. Myself, I live for FNF and if I'm not at the stadium watching my TiCats play, I watch every game on TV, very easy to know who is playing whom and when the games are on as I read the TV guide, sports pages, schedule on my fridge. But then, I'm an ardent fan and don't need any extra marketing or exposure of the CFL to tell me these things. But I agree that most fans are not the die-hards and more exposure, marketing techniques etc. can go a long way. FNF, for me, is far more of a fixture in my life than HNIC since I watch little hockey until the SC final. But that is just me.
I enjoy FNF. Hey, I enjoy it anytime. The only drawback to FNF from the West is the later start times. I generally can't make it to the end, sometimes not even half time.
Earl, Friday Night Football in Hamilton is a no brainer. What else is there to do?
Just kidding, I love Hamilton fans, you guys deserve some kind of an award for supporting your team through good times and bad, especially when the bad has gone on so long. I have attended many Grey Cup festivals and consider the hamilton contingient to be the most fun group. If they had a team congeniality award, Ti-Cat fans would get it every year.
Earl, Friday Night Football in Hamilton is a no brainer. What else is there to do?
What else to do on a Friday night in Hamilton you say? Well, there is always the traditional activity of sitting on the escarpment and viewing the CN Tower in Toronto and dreaming how you're going to send a missile to it to blow the thing up. Or thinking further and sending a missile to Edmonton and blow something up there. These kinds of activities occupy our minds here a lot you know. :lol:
Kirk, be afraid, be very afraid. Aren't there any ladies trying out. Maybe Pigletskin Petra.
Earl, get real, where's Hamilton going to get a missile? Now you could do something really subversive and send one of Kirk's, Pigskin Pete candidates. Hey that would be a good idea, hold the auditions for Pete at the top of the CN Tower.
I don't know what it's like at other stadiums, but what I would like to see is when there are two games back-to-back, that the stadiums show the ongoing game until just before the player intros for the home game, rather than the commercials that they do show.
Given that at Taylor Field, they show more commercials than any other stadium on the big screen, I would be all for that idea.
On occasion I miss a kick-off watching the last few minutes of a good game, but if I knew it was on the big screen, off to TF I go.
Better planning for start times would be good as well.
It was sad that even for the play-offs the concept of avoiding overlap seemed foreign to the CFL/CBC.
Yeah, I like that idea of watching the ends of games before kickoff, but then again that represents a lot of lost revenue from commercials ... unless the team was somehow able to be reimbursed by the CFL. Think about it - more exposure of the CFL = more money for the CFL = easier to pay teams to show other games. However, it's not like there's a lot of people who would go to a game early just to watch the end of another game ...
It's too bad that the Western games go so late on FNF, but there's really nothing that can be done about that, sadly. a 6:00 start would probably hurt attendance, and 6:00 in Vancouver is still 9:00 out east ...
Another thing I thought of - driving up Crowchild Tr in Calgary, there's usually banners hanging off pedestrian bridges, advertising something ... the Stamps could do this, too. McMahon is also on Crowchild, and it's packed during rush hour ...