In total agreement. The CFL relies heavily on people finding them by accident and that’s not good for growth. Ambrosie’s idea of having a game in Mexico was good. Then it turned into “maybe we can send two teams down there for a practice.” Then crickets. Something has to change at the B.o.G. level as others have said.
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Respectfully disagree. Both leagues are great for their own reasons. Both games are great for their own reasons. It’s not 1985 and they have a very exciting league that compliments the CFL in the world of football quite well.
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They’re’s only so many ways to “grow” the game.
You’re about tapped out in Canada. There is maybe the possibility of a team in the maritimes, QC, and a 12th somewhere in Ontario or BC. But that’s it in a best case. And as always, finding ownership and stadiums are the issue.
To grow beyond Canada, or to become more popular in Canada I think you have some options.
- Align your season with the NFLs, play September-January or August-December. Most people would say this is crazy and the opposite of what you want to do, but who knows. Maybe instead of the CFL trying to make it’s own path in summer, it might actually be easier to ride in the NFLs wake in the fall.
Summer is vacation mode, and in Fall people’s minds are wired for football. The CFL would need to be creative with scheduling to avoid high-school games on Friday and college on Saturdays. But they’re are only 4 CFL games they would need to sneak in.
The cold in Canada would be a challenge as well, but we’ve played the Grey Cup in December and have had outdoor hockey and soccer games in January, so not impossible.
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The CFL needs to figure out a Netflix series.
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I’m not even sure if the XFL is still around, but circle back and partner with the rock. He’d give you instant recognition and access to the USA en masse.
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If the UFL can’t make it why would Americans watch another football league
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The league would have to give the Rock their soul lol
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As an American, I would not want to see the CFL adopt NFL rules. The U.S. already has the NFL, multiple levels of NCAA, the UFL (or whatever it is), high school, etc, that have slightly different rules. The CFL’s rule differences are meaningful and change the game’s strategy in fun and interesting ways.
I enjoy football at different levels and don’t care which has the most talent, only that the teams are competitive at whatever the talent level may be.
The merry go round of CFL talent bothers me more than anything. Unfortunately, that is what the NCAA FBS has become.
The timing of the CFL season also provides an opportunity to introduce it to more Americans who may become intrigued by the CFL when nothing else is available.
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We can brace overselves here, for in the dominant development pool for pro football, the scope of the merry-go-round will only grow and affect ALL of pro football now, including even the NFL, which was already wary enough a few years ago such that they have been trying to backstop a spring development league via proxies, which again is about to fail, barring a labour resolution (i.e. the NFL ponies up to help the proxies - see the UFL thread).
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If the CFL was superior, then the attendance and TV ratings would reflect it, but it’s not.
The NFL TV ratings in Canada are huge and have been that way for the last 5 or 6 years. Young people identify with the NFL and see the CFL as second rate.
You can check the offensive stats and the NFL racks up more passing yards, rushing yards.
The CFL does lead in penalty yardage, we do have some great refs that like to call every little clutch and grab.
Twice as many Canadians will watch the Super Bowl as the Grey Cup.
The average TV ratings for the CFL this past season was around 420,000 the NFL ratings were over 800,000 a game.
You can call it “hype” whatever that means, but it works and that’s what’s important. Advertisers put their money where the eyes are and the CFL will never get a huge TV/streaming contract.
But after saying all that I still prefer the CFL and watch every game if I can.
We all wish more people watched it but fewer ever year.
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A balanced schedule, 10th team
The salary cap just went up over $400K/ team
The CFL just became profitable because they had to open the books
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As forlorn as those discussions by the CFL with the XFL 3.0 were in 2021,
there’s no way in hell that’s going to happen for the CFL now,
for it’s already not happening in the UFL itself with the looming strike by the players:
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I like your ambition… Thunder Bay is least likely @ 112,000 people and very isolated.
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London best , around half a million
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Flutie rule?
Prefer the let the teams find the best NIs they can and play them where ever. If that means 7 on O or D then so be it.
Also don’t care to adjust the rules to appeal to the kids because of what they’ve been brainwashed to believe is cool. Just convince them that we are more cool and they will come around.
Other than that some good points.
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I support the consistent rules in football because its easier to be successful when we’re literally on the same playing field (not because i think more Americans will watch or play)
for example you introduce a kid to cfl and you have to explain the 4 vs 3 down difference and a few other things. the childs only response is that the nfl is the better league and he would rather watch it and play nfl rules with his friends.
In short the rule differences to the average person makes the CFL and NFL different games, and if that person wants to watch football it’ll be the NFL. Thats the problem.
Thinks of the possibilities that having consistent rules would give us. Off the top of my head CFL would be added to madden video games like NHL and soccer video games having other leagues. Off the field just having the CFL recognized as football sets so many things in motion.
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I am usually ok with the dont change the rules concept, but I wonder, if after they started the league they never changed a single rule, what would we have now?
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Or why didnt we change the rules along with the Americans. Both of our football codes evolved from rugby but why did canada stop innovating the game when the Americans continued to improve it.
The way i see it we can be like soccer where everyone plays the same rules (relatively) or rugby where theres two disciplines- one thats dominate and one that isn’t
Things aren’t working for us on the rugby side. May as well try the soccer side
The short answer is the popularity of baseball in America and its stadiums. The Americans had to adapt to their environment. The field size shrunk and as a result they went from 3 down and 5 yards for a first down to 4 downs and 10 yards.
The goal posts went to the back of the end zone to make it harder to kick a field goal and to encourage 4th down gambles. They didn’t do it in Canada because our end zones were bigger and having Cody Fajardo have his pass famously doinked was deemed to be more entertaining.
Other more subtle reasons have to do with not playing Canadian Football during WWI. I believe the American change was prior to the war and after Canadian Football resumed we decided to stick with 3 downs.
If Canadian Football ever went to 4 downs it’ll be for the following reasons:
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TV deals offer substantially more money to go to 4 downs
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The talent pool in the CFL goes down dramatically which sees an enormous amount of punting.
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Attendance and ratings goes down dramatically because 3 down die hards have dwindled themselves
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The price of land and building materials forces the CFL to go to smaller fields.
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Nobody wants NFL lite. Our game is our game. Their game is theirs. With the tariffs and 51st state crap, there actually is an opportunity to brand this better. People are buying Canadian in protest. Seize on that and brand the heck out of the patriotism.
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Most people agree that the CFL should capitalize on patriotism. Actually getting them to do it is the tricky part. 
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The problem is that the NFL will still have the top talent . Like I’ve said before, people only have enough time and money to spend and majority will spend it on the top leagues and other entertainment events.
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