Moving up the CFL season

If you can get more than NFLN to broadcast with some increase in rights then yes it might work with an ESPN on board .

Lots of ifs and wishes and buts .

They already had the CFL before they didn't even broadcast the playoffs or Grey Cup. They were crappy partners then ; so what changed .

If they are willing to shell out 60 million sure thing boss .

If you can accomplish this you can convince me but it's a huge risk with contentlessNFLN alone . That channel is a wasteland of things you can get on youtube .. They are very heavy in Preseason NFL games which counters the CFL season . No big money is coming without American teams in the CFL .

The CFL would be better off buying time on a real US network on. a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in the summerand re selling it than go down this road . Get Tim Horton's USA , Nissan , Provincial ,National and Civic Government Tourism , Mccain's , DR Ho , Bell and Howell Taclight , Coors light and Air Canada together and you may get some exposure that will go over better without changing our traditions. .

I still remember NBC broadcasting the CFL on Sundays during the strike unfortunately they were all blow outs and the TV numbers were bad . Put a little effort and money with a few good games and you can re sell it to advertisers .Maybe even break even . You can pick and choose which carriers like Detroit , New York , Chicago and leave out some lesser knowns down south to start .

Nope - they’ve even had great difficulty selling out playoff games in Buffalo in the 4 Super Bowl years because fans were reluctant to buy seats for what they knew would be freezing cold games. A few of their playoff games only had the local blackout lifted because local sponsors stepped up to ‘buy’ the last several thousand tickets.

Early season regular season games with the likelihood of warm weather - sold out weeks in advance with no threat of the blackout being enforced during those winning seasons. December games - always a threat of a blackout with local Buffalo TV stations routinely reporting how many seats were left fo the upcoming Sunday game on their nightly newscasts - the NFL often extending the 72 hour deadline to 24 hours before the game to try to help get the blackout lifted.

Their playoff game against the Houston Oilers - greatest comeback in NFL playoff history - was not even on local TV in Buffalo - nor here in Southern Ontario - because we were in their blackout zone - because that game did not even come close to selling out.

The difference in September/October ticket demand to December games - all about the weather.

There’s nothing conservative about doubling TV revenue. NFL Network may want some CFL games, but the CFL is not something Americans are clamouring for. I can’t see NFLN or anyone else offering even $10M/year.

The ESPN /CFL contract expires at the end of this season.

Having 2 all sports networks bidding for those rights to broadcast live CFL games to a football crazy Country of over 450M people which would fill a huge non football broadcasting void because a large portion would now be broadcast during the NFL and NCAA football off seasons if the CFL season is moved up 5 weeks, this can only be considered a good situation for the CFL negotiating team.

The fact that nearly every team has issues selling out games during the highly anticipated final stretch of the season including live or die playoff matches, is very telling.

You would think that the demand for the most vital games of the year would exceed supply and yet year after year do not...and many personal friends and associates have remarked that the frigid weather is a main contributing factor in their decision to refrain from attending late season games.

If moving the season up a few weeks or so will add another 500-1000 bums in the seats and enables the league to improve its overall financial health and stability with a decent revenue generating U.S. broadcast deal then i’m all for it.

This is a very realistic and attainable game plan. Everyone wins and revenue grows.

Everyone wins? The biggest winner would be the NFL and TSN/CTV. CFL fans would be able to follow their favourite NFL team’s for the entire season without having the CFL to watch in the Fall. With the Grey Cup played in the 3rd week of Oct, as proposed by the commissioner, that means the regular season would end in September…or even earlier for fans of non-playoff teams…early enough to closely follow the entire NFL season. Then when NFL mini-camps, training camps and preseason games are played in the next Spring and Summer, CFL fans will have more of a familiarity with NFL teams, with their ears perking up with news about the latest NFL signings and cut-downs. Then, like to many of my NFL-loving friends, the CFL might seem more “high school”, “minor-league”, quirky and weird compared to the slick NFL. Moving the CFL into more of a Spring league, directly competing with NHL playoffs and the World Series in Oct while allowing CFL fans to better acquaint themselves with the NFL…is that really worth drawing 500 more fans to late-season games? I don’t think so.

Canadian football has played their championship game at the end of Nov. or early Dec. for over 150 years. Why change and risk a catastrophic decline in our league, for what 500 extra fans? Even generating $1M per team from a U.S. TV contract is a pipe dream. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

I am totally against starting the regular CFL season much earlier than in 2018.i.e. mid-June; a week earlier will be the sooner,at least to me. I strongly doubt that the CFL Governors /Owners will ever want to start the season much sooner; furthermore, TSN would definitely object to start the season when the NHL playoffs are still on, despite the fact that TSN does not broadcast NHL playoffs.

IF a tenth team/Halifax is added in 2020 or more probably in 2021, it would be then easier for scheduling purposes and the regular season could end earlier. How? Teams could have only 1 week break during the season and it would mean that the regular season would last 19 weeks rather than 21 as in 2018. This year the Grey Cup game will be held in Edmonton on November 26,2018; if there had been 10 teams and only 1 week break, the Grey Cup would have been held on November 12. The playoffs would be starting the last week on October.

Richard

moving start time is worth it for 80 -90 million. at 10 million total only do what’s right for the league. also needs to be a long term commitment from a US broadcaster.

9 million more per team + a healthy TSN contract and sponsorships does place all the teams on a healthy financial footing. If some of this money filter down to players and the new CBA starts with 8 - 10 million then all players will make 100K minimum. Should stop some of them trying the NFL if they are making a comfortable living playing in Canada. 2 million of us go to games in the regular season. 25M increase in CBA or 2.8M per team puts the Cap at 8M. that would mean another $12.00 each or split via different revenue streams. I can’t see how to avoid the cap moving to this amount.

I got a new idea for an all star game. US players vs Canadians?

Would love to see active NFL all star squad play an active CFL all star squad.
Americans vs Canadians would be a total beat down by them so I’d like to avoid that scenario.

Canada simply doesn’t produce enough football talent to make US vs Canada fair.

The TSN contract with the CFL runs through the 2021 season; any major increase in amounts paid to the CFL won't come until 2022.

We will have plenty of time to discuss/write about different scenarios at the end of the 2018 season, but I definitely don't expect that TSN will basically double what they are paying now; players salaries will definitely not be in the $100,000 minimums; $60,000 minimum is more probable for the next agreement with the League.

Again, as I wrote earlier, there will be plenty of time to discuss this matter and others after the 2018 season. This are my only comments for now.

Richard

only meant players in the CFL

So I guess Brandon Bridge would be the starting Q.B. by default then. I haven't checked but is there a Canadian at every position of a team in the league?

every position covered. Brandon QB. wouldn’t that be fun?

Two points old Rich Stadium held 80,000 even Los Angeles in beautiful weather has trouble at that size .

Number two I am sure if Buffalo could pre sell their seats like Regina they would and if they didn’t they wouldn’t run to the league and want to change the entire schedule to accommodate something they can control by preselling their inventory or putting a roof over their heads . They are masters of their own destiny if you use the Riders scenario of putting a cap on something then complaining later .

The point you keep missing is if they are capping the tickets then don’t complain about walk ups later . Thats a ridiculous argument . If you can sell now who waits to sell later if you rely on good weather . You don’t whine about it .

When looking at last year the only two games at the end didn’t sell out and if you combine the two it’s still only 4,900 less if you add them together . No reason to throw the baby out with the bath water . If it was sunny and 10 degrees they may have had the same results depending on opponent and the games meaning in terms of playoffs . No reason to kill November CFL .

8 - The NFL Network is part of the basic cable package here in Mexico and as such, I’ve enjoyed wall-to-wall coverage of Super Bowl LII from Minnesota. Do you realize how massively it would grow the CFL’s global brand if Commissioner Ambrosie is able to finalize a deal for the NFL Network to carry all CFL games??? The prospect is head-spinning and, reportedly, talks are well underway

http://www.rodpedersen.com/2018/01/10-things-i-think-i-think-for-sober_30.html

The ESPN 5 year contract expires after this season

The prospect is not head-spinning and it will be the latest in a long line of bad moves.
The CFL learned nothing from 2014.

Well said. Thanks

Great to hear from the q and a in the Ottawa Sun that Ambrosie is now just looking at moving the Grey Cup in earlier November and not October .

Second Sunday in November would be a good compromise .

If they time their bye weeks nicely they could venture in starting the holiday 24 weekend in May and give the CFLPA a little more time off during the season .
With this they may actually get a traditional time for games as they will have even more time to play with different venues having busier schedule to deal with and give the fans more traditional match ups to look forward to during the season .

Camps would need to start May 1st .

During the conversation with Ambrosie he remarked about Indian Cricket getting 601 million from facebook and he joked about 300 million for the CFL .

Would rather see a deal with You Tube or Netflix . Not sure about Amazon as I don't use that resource for media .

With Netflix saying it wants to invest 500 million in Canadian programming it seems like a good fit . Of course not the 500 but 10 million a year would be a good start .

Add some CFL shows with it and badda bing badda boom.