If you were CFL commissioner, what is the first thing you would do?
The first thing I would do is get on the phone with ESPN!
Getting a deal with them would increase the CFL popularity in the US, and in turn that would get it more popular in Canada.
I doubt ESPN would pay much for it, but I'd give the CFL to them even for TSN-ish money. Just to get it out there, you know?
Right now, I the frist thing I would:
WANT to do: Try new rules in the preseaon out next season.
NEED to do: fix the refs, then Ottawa.
Needs would come before wants.
I do that too, before the Want.
I doubt ESPN would show the CFL on their primary channel. They would probably only show it on ESPN 2 or ESPN 8 "The Ocho" first. It wouldn't get spectacular ratings, but it could increase popularity in the South.
However, the first thing I would do is try and fix the Ottawa situation, and maybe figure out a way so that problems like this can't occur.
And if the Giebermanns should ever return (heaven forbid), chances are the CFL would get an ESPN deal, but only on that channel that was featured in "Dodgeball"
get everygame on TV, the CFL should play games every staurday afternoon, they should make saturday their permanet gameday, and have one game on friday nights in primtime as their showcase game.
Also if your gonna go back to Ottawa, make sure they have reliable ownership, but you can only go back to Ottawa if you have an expansion team. That expansion team shoudl go to Windsor, they can draw from the 905 & 519 area codes, american fans in the states would watch since the detroit lions are garbage, they have a new stadium at the university of windsor and with some money can easily enlarge it to 35,000 seats.
Also they should expand gameday rosters from 42- to 53 the nfl, to ensure teams have enough backups in case of injuries, alos 53 man roster would have more backups playing special teams instead of starting players, which is good because it decreases the chance of a big name player getting injured.
Also the CFL should try to get their games on Rogers Sportstnet, instead of TSN, because Rogers is Regional and reaches more homes and its also on every basic cable service in Canada.
If I were the commish ..
i'd ensure Ottawa never got another team again.
i'd eliminate the canadian content rules.
i'd get the goddamn goalpost out of the field of play.
i'd get rid of instant replay (untill we had the technical capabilities to do it properly)
i'd make excessive choreographed celebrations a 15 yard penalty.
i'd remove CBC broadcasts all-together and award TSN everything.
i'd put overtime back to 2, 5 minute halves. shootouts in hockey and football s^ck.
i'd promote league wide tailgates parties/events/activities.
and something has got to be done about stadium beer prices ... but i'd leave that for my second term ..
StatiK76
GO BOMBERS!!!
I'd go with that as well.
If I was comissioner I would implement a rule that statik76 shall never become commish, not now... not ever...amen..
...no 1.''' renegotiate the existing reciprocating agreement the CFL....has with the nfl...we are getting blind-sided with the present one.....no 2. re-visit some of the new rules implemented for 06(such as the blocking on kick-off returns)...its killing our game....that's where i would start.. :rockin:
Getting games on a fixed day of the week is a great idea.
I think the CFL should have Saturday Night as their fixed game in the summertime. As soon as Hockey Night In Canada ends after the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the CFL should step in and fill that void left on Saturday nights..
Also they should expand gameday rosters from 42- to 53 the nfl, to ensure teams have enough backups in case of injuries, alos 53 man roster would have more backups playing special teams instead of starting players, which is good because it decreases the chance of a big name player getting injured.Good idea in theory, but difficult to implement because of money.
Id can Hugh Campbell.
also i would:
-move the goalposts back, because one day somebody is gonna get drilled into them.
-Remove the rouge, because its a cheap way to award points.
-fire glen suitor, all the guys at CBC, and show games only on TSN or Rogers.
-show every game over the internet for free via cfl.ca
-have an all-star game every season at the end. But here's the catch, you only have it at the indoor stadiums in B.C., Toronto , Montreal, it makes sense, because theses are the big corporate cities in Canada and you would make a lot of money through all the corporations sponsoring a big event like this.
-Have a throwback weekend, where every teams wears throwback uniforms for one game.
-Cancel the Cfl Draft, because a small amount of those players actually stay with their original teams and play for them, they should just allow teams to sign any player they want as a free-agent, but the teams would have to bid on the players.
I wasn’t aware the commish had the control to fire sportscasters… :roll:
the nfl is doing it to bryant gumbel, obviously the commish has to have the power to command any firings neccessary, once your commish you gotta run things and step over anybody that gets in your way.
Every regular season game is already televised. But I do like the idea of going to a Friday night, Saturday schedule.
The best commissioner for the CFL right now would be a real quiet commisioner. The best commissioner would be one that gets the maximum number of TV contracts and lets the CFL product sell itself over the airwaves.By contemporary standards the CFL is an incredibly small sports league with only 8 teams.That in itself presents specific problems.The CFL is a small 8 team league with only 2 of those 8 teams (Toronto and Vancouver) being in strong mass media markets. At some point the CFL will have to seriously look at expansion,but not in the fashion it was done in the 1990's. The CFL does not have a talent problem any more like it did in the 1980's and 1990's when upstart leagues siphoned off many of the better prospects.The talent level right now in the CFL is very high and the product is very entertaining.
The CFL could get by quite well with a commish who is a quiet and effective salesman.
The celebration crap in the end zones would be gone!
CBC would be history! TSN is very professional and a huge credit to us!
Certainly push for two more franchises in eastern Canada,one in the maritimes.
Instant replay must stay but figure out a better way to use it.
It's a long shot but: Playboy Bunnies serving Beer in the stands for half price!
It's not really the CFL's fault that the schedule got so messed up in years past.
When Skydome first opened, the Blue Jays had first pick of which dates to schedule home games.
Then, there were all the concert promoters and other groups that got to pick when to schedule their events.
Finally, the Argonauts had to scavenge whatever dates were left.
So, you had the Argos playing some home games on Tuesday, or Wednesday.
Some teams would play a road game in Toronto on a Tuesday and then play their next home game on a Friday, or something similar.
So, in order to give the other teams in the league time to rest and to balance things out, more games were scheduled closer to the middle of the week.
The CFL didn't really have the clout to do anything about it, so you couldn't really blame the commissioner.
Now, however, it should be possible to schedule every Argo home game on a Friday or Saturday.
They should play all of their home games on Saturday nights, until the beginning of the NHL season in October.
Then, the Argonauts could do an experiment and have a Saturday afternoon game on a Saturday when the Leafs play a home game.
It would be interesting to see how many Argo ticket buyers are also Leaf ticket buyers.
It may even be possible to get some Leaf fans, who don't normally go to Argo games, to take in the Saturday afternoon football game before going to the Saturday night hockey game.
It may even be possible to get some Leaf fans, who don't normally go to Argo games, to take in the Saturday afternoon football game before going to the Saturday night hockey game.Interesting idea.
They could have Leafs/Argos package giveaways to promote the thing.
I would buy it if I could afford to go to Leafs games regularly!
You do have some good ideas except one. Saturday games in the summer would not make it. To many people are way to busy for Saturday afternoon games. I can see it starting labor day but prior to that look at the poor crowds when this has occured. I like your other ideas. Get the game on every TV network you can. Maybe sell each game to however wishes to broad cast it. Sell it game by game. The network that buys the most games gets the Grey Cup.