My CFL Wish List Beyond 2015

All definitely a no, with the 4 down being sacrilegious and most definitely never.

For the Argo's I would like to see a contigent led by the CFL and Bell to get a stadium built in Mississiuga as part of their dowtown redevelopment project. Placing a smaller 24K seat CFL stadium next to the smaller 7-8K Junior Hockey Arena.
Instead of the CFL holding E-Camp at Varsity have it under the bubble in the CFL partnered stadium.
Rent the stadium to TFCs minor league soccer team for matches. Remeber that MLSE tried to get a lease for TFCs minor league team to play at THF. Have MLSE pay to convert the field from CFL lines to soccer lines and back again.

Earlier season, four downs, more imports (ok, internationals) and rule changes are just so much stuff and nonsense. Get the Argo stadium deal done, get a new stadium in Calgary, and push Montreal on a new, working retractable roof and other major improvements at the big O - including a better seating configuartion and fewer but better seats...continue working for a franchise in Halifax...bring the salary cap up to ~50% of team revenues...work with the CIS to raise the visibiltity of Canadian players coming ino the league...move some games to CTV if that will raise the league's profile (maybe an opportunity with CRTC's recent ruling re: SB)...

If you are talking about the sim-sub ruling, I don’t see how that applies to two Canadian networks but having greater exposure with CTV also doing Grey Cup may be an idea.

So what about the TV contract? TSN would have to give the CFL less money because of only broadcasting 16 games. Less games on TV means less exposure for the CFL at a time when the ratings are trending downward.
For advertisers it means that their product is being seen two less games a year per team. In stadium advertisers only get their product displayed 8 times instead of 9. Do they force the players to take a pay cut since they are playing 2 less games per year?
The union would say to the CFL, yes cut back to 16 games a year but pay the players the same amount of money. The owners would have to pay the players the same but only collect revenue from 8 games and would definitely receive less money from the TV contract. It makes no sense at all, you wonder if people actually think through these ideas.

As for moving the season forward, yes that does make sense. Times have changed and you have to get this generation out to the stadiums, it’s a gate driven league. This generation of fans aren’t going to sit outside on a cold evening to watch football when they can stay at home and watch it on HD large screen.

It’s been stated that CTV will no longer carry the SB due to the simsub ruling, so it may not make sense to them to carry reg season games when they are not carrying the championship. If that turns out to be the case, a weekly game or two might be moved from TSN to CTV.

Agree on 16 games. Have three pre-season games which would allow a CIS QB to come in for a whole half of a game.

With 10 teams, 18 games does work out ok, but with nine, 16 is better. Tightens things up, which the CFL needs.

1 - Hell, I wish it could start in May. That said, training camp is already too short, and the most you can realistically move camp is 2 weeks. Doing that you might have to drop the rookie camp, doing more of a bump you most definately would, and that would be a tragic mistake.

2 - The league can not afford to take revenue off the books. Like I said, I wish they could start in May...heck, April, then be done in late September...plus it would give us only a couple months of the year w/o football...that would be great. 16 games simply isn't viable unless the league is willing to give 11% minimum of the TV contract back, and the players take a 10% cut, then hope that all of the advertisers are willing to continue with a shorter window and reduce their payments...you get the point...bad decision. There is a NFL wants to go to 18 games and drop 2 PS.

3 - This is a perpetual argument and general split opinions. I understand and respect why people would like to axe it, I for one do not. That is a whole discussion topic on it's own that has been done a few times.

4 - 4 downs equates to officially being a farm league IMO. No way in hell. Honestly, it might actually draw in more people...but no no no no. As far as some Uni teams going to 4 downs, IMO any federal funding to their sports should be instantly axed. I may have been born south, but I am Canadian and desire to retain the identity that makes us unique. SOOOO many fans would turn their back on the league if this hapenned, especially on the prairies. Further, on a CFL field it would become a 90% run game.

The only thing I can see changing is an earlier start, maybe two weeks. Some of the teams have already talked about that.
16 games instead of 18? Fat chance, this a business not just a sport. Scoring is down bad enough as it is, so why eliminate any thing that puts points on the board.

My wish list...

  1. Start the season 2 weeks earlier;
  2. MLSE owns the Argos.

I wouldn't mind them starting the season two weeks earlier but that would be to accommodate a 20 game season.