As Stewart Johnston was handed an official Canadian Football League game ball on Thursday morning, the excitement on his face radiated throughout the room.
Good to know that Stewart has always been a huge fan of our league. Good story. All the best with the challenges ahead.
The Commissioner’s opening remarks were both uninspiring and troubling. The CFL Board of Governors passed over better candidates that would have placed the interests of the “Canadian Game” first. Under the tenure of Commissioner Johnston expect him to compromise the CFL by forgetting the “C” in CFL stands for “CANADIAN”. You can expect him to:
a) Get rid of Canadian 3 Downs in favour of American 4 Downs.
b) Reduce the ratio of Canadian Players playing in the game.
c) Surrender to a NFL Flag Football initiative that will extinguish all love for the CFL among young people in Canada.
The only thing this Commissioner will do, if anything, is deliver a better TV Contract BUT what CFL standards will he allow to be negotiated away, just to deliver more money to some Private Owners???
Bit negative i suspect. Do however believe that he will get goosebumps at a Winnipeg GC.
I didn’t get your a), b) or c) from the article. Not everyone would consider all of those to be negatives either. Hopefully he will negotiate more TV money, which is arguaby the most important thing he can do to ensure financial health for the league. I also don’t get the reference to making money for private owners. Probably only 3 teams in the league made money last year and two of those are community owned. There is no doubt the private owners in Toronto poured money hand over fist into their franchise which they have done for several years now.
A well suited nickname for the new commissioner based on his first media fray.
Definitely more grounded than his predecessor. Focusing on youth seems to he top of the plate. Doesn’t need to look for any new owners which is nice. Media growth is the key step moving ahead
You sound
Well that prior thread on the same subject went off a short cliff, but this one looks like it’s headed for a taller cliff.
I’m not sure if I want to just stay back and watch the car speed off or to try to help out here, but for now I’ll just sit back.
At his inaugural press conference, the new commissioner said, “I want to hear what are the three things people think we as a league are doing wonderfully and what are the two things they think we need to improve on.”
So what would you say? My two cents:
Good:
and raise funds for Indigenous charities, so it’s a win/winBad:
Its just words folks
Hey Commissioner! One of the BENCHMARKS that CFL Fans will use to judge your effectiveness is can you drop the CFL 2026 Schedule early in the week during the 2025 Grey Cup Week. Consider this an ESSENTIAL OUTCOME of your job for the following reasons:
There are three things that are crucial: 1) Create an interest in the CFL early in life in Canada. Four year olds should get in free. Eight years olds should cost 25%. 12 year olds 50%. And sixteen year olds 75%. 2) when the revenues of the CFL reflect the success of the first effort, assist the Halifax ownership group in building a stadium out there, and in starting a team. It should be called the Halifax Maritimers, representing the entire region east of Quebec. Finally, 3) Scrap the east west divisions. One standing. 10 teams. 9 home games. 9 away games. Two teams eliminated. Eight team playoff. No byes. What do you all think? ,
At that point, just put them all in and make the regular season pointless.
One division is a long overdue obvious adjustment needed for competetive fairness.
But I agree that 8 out of 10 (currently only 9) teams is too many. The present 6 makes the regular season more meaningful even though it remains needlessly skewed by geography over performance on the field.
Halifax expansion remains a pipe dream and the CFL doesn’t have the resources to help pay for a stadium.
We have to accept facts. Canada is too big for minor league football in big cities. So no one is interested in watching the games. Unfortunately CFL has too many “niche” fans who celebrate the league not for the games but for it’s minor league status and the fact that Simpsons writers like to makes mild jokes about it. That’s why “going to Canada” is basically an insult to any college football player, including Canadians. I’m no longer supporting a minor league that rips off Canadians in every way. Makes us think small. Never takes any chances. Lots of negative folks behind the scenes.
Welcome to the forum!
Why are you posting on a CFL site then?
How does it rip you off?
You are no longer supporting it? good bye you won’t be missed.
If it ain’t broke why fix it? 70 years of two divisions, East vs West Grey Cup a great tradition.
Having one division is not going to put more fans in seats.
We have discussed the problems facing the CFL for years such as people preferring to sit at home in front of their large flat screens, streaming on phones Ipads and most important, the baby boomers retiring and not attending games anymore, young people not identifying with the CFL and seeing it as minor league in the three major cities.
One divisions doesn’t solve any of these problems, teams have to keep plugging away in their local markets and as long as we have owners like MLSE it will survive
I didn’t claim that having one division would solve a host of problems.
What it will do is raise competitive integrity. It will make the regular season more meaningful and will ensure that those who earned the right to be seeded higher and host playoff games actually do so, rather than having longitude decide that. With only 9 teams having geography decide playoff seeding just doesn’t work and just isn’t fair. It’s not even always fair in 32 team leagues, but definitely not nearly as unfair as often.
A one division system rewards on field play as should be the case. A two division system rewards the East and it’s one less team and gives artificial byes and home playoff dates that aren’t earned more often than not. A one division system doesn’t reward the East or West. You will have to explain to me why the East deserves this free break most years. The tradition argument holds no water. The game must adapt. Are you also in favour of banning the forward pass for reasons of “tradition”?
It is broke and it needs to be fixed, unless you are biased in favour of the East. Let us go to an on field success based system that doesn’t use a compass to decide playoff seeding.