National Football Summit

CFL Talk
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Nice to see Football Canada organizing a summit with Canadian football leagues. It seems crazy that something like this hasn't been an annual or semi-annual event for decades, but it's a positive step forward.

Some highlights (ok, most of the info):

Leadership from Football Canada, Canadian Football League (CFL), Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL), U SPORTS and leadership from the Canada West, OUA, RSEQ and AUS have confirmed their participation for the first of two-round meeting series.

Key topics that will be on the agenda this month include:

1. Programming and New Engagement

Focus on enhancing, supporting, and promoting the existing grass roots youth football programming being delivered across the country. While also exploring ways to further introduce the game of football (contact and non-contact) to new populations of youth. The group will also discuss paths to coaching, officiating and diversity.

2. Competitions and Events

The group will review the current calendar of Canadian Football events and discuss opportunities to align operations that will build stronger revenue streams, increase media attention & broaden audiences.

3. International

Discussions will focus on how the Canadian Football ecosystem can further align to solidify Canada’s position as global leader in the sport while also supporting the globalization of the game.

4. Information and Visibility

Stakeholders will address opportunities to enhance the promotion and recognition of Canadian Football endeavours.

5. Alignment

Leaders will assess the possibility of streamlining and standardizing various processes to create resources that are beneficial to multiple parties.

The second set of discussions will seek further detailed discussion and alignment on female tackle football, high school football, flag football, specific diversity issues and regional relationships.

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Good to see all of the organizations coming together. As stated in the article, for far too long the CFL, Football Canada etc...have done their own things.

Would love to see Grey Cup, Vanier Cup and Canadian Bowl fall on the same weekend with TSN covering all 3.

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This is exactly what Canadian football needs. Hopefully some meaningful discussion and changes happen because of it.

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Couldn’t agree more, hopefully it’s the start of something that will grow football in canada

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Yup...great to see. Good work by Jim Mullin and others.

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Some positive news on the CJFL front:

  1. The OFC will be expanding next year, with a team starting up in Belleville . . . depending on Covid status of course.

It's good to see the new team coordinating with Loyalist College to give college athletes a venue for football.

Also, some nice growth in the amateur game in that region over the last few years:

Skyhawks president and head coach Peter Gabriel informed council of the news and requested support for the project. He gave council a brief history of the club born in 2017 with the endorsement of the Canadian Armed Forces bringing varsity-level football for ages 15-19 to the area, something that had never been done before.

“Since that time we have seen the growth of football in this region to where we now have over 600 athletes taking part in Quinte Skyhawks flag football, Skyhawks adaptive programming for our special needs community, Quinte Skyhawks Minor Football, which is nine teams from Bancroft, Campbellford, Madoc, Napanee, Trenton and Belleville, and, of course, our Quinte Skyhawks varsity program which draws athletes from throughout Hastings County and as far away as Kingston, Napanee, Brighton, Campbellford and Bancroft,” Gabriel said.

Hopefully those taking part in the National Football Summit will be able to learn and share lessons from this.

  1. The PFC might also be expanding, though further down the road, to Lethbridge.
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That’s good to hear.

Here in BC (Vancouver & Area) football seems to be declining.