Ultimately, my Abe Simpson-esque feelings about this subject stem in some part from the league's lack of awareness of how to market itself. If you are a small league, do not go out of your way to emphasize its smallness! Your marketing task should be to hide and minimize your league's small size. Conversely, if you're a gargantuan league like the NFL, with its 32 billion teams, you look for ways to promote intimacy and smallness, because you aren't actually small. Multiple sets of back-to-back games between the same teams, especially within a short time frame, just make the CFL feel small, stale, and low-rent.
Also, eff those Labor Day games. Seriously, eff them all. I couldn't give a crap about them and would have no problem with them all dying a quick death. I don't think fans outside of Alberta and Saskatchewan and Manitoba realize how little the rest of Canada cares about these parochial annual rivalries. It's just stupid shortsightedness to be fixated on these twice-a-year, gate-driven events instead of growing the game across the country. "Who cares if we don't have a video game, exposure in the US, a 10th team, or decent practice hours that allow a quality on-field product? At least those LD games are sold out!" said the most hidebound, a$$-backwards collection of sports owners on the continent. :thdn:
Fans outside western Canada do care about the LD Classics and the rivalries, not only the Ti-Cat/Argo game but the western games as well.
I agree they need to grow the game. In my own Abe Simpsonesque fashion I see the leagues fan base dying off because they refuse attract the younguns.
The video game I don’t think would work. To small a market for it, however, they do have a relationship with the NFL maybe they can partner with them to include a CFL add on.Don’t know if it’s possible (from NFL standpoint it is possible to do as other games have included add on leagues) but if it isit would expose US fans to the game and make it far more marketable to Canadian fans.
I agree on the practice hours as well, but what is needed there is the league to grow a pair of balls and stand up to the players union. The players union is the primary hold up on that and for those with dreams of an NFL shot they are shooting themselves in the foot by keeping practice time at a minimum.
To me, the unions are protecting player rights, which is what they should be doing. So if you want more practice hours, cut the players a larger slice of league revenue (and if you believe all teams are broke and not making money, I have some real estate in Florida to sell you) which is tied to more hours of work. Nobody wants to work for free. Pay the players. They are the product.
EA produced an Australian Rugby game. It was made right here in Nova Scotia, Can’t be much of a bigger market for that than a CFL game. CFL needs to put some cash in the project and then raise some funds through kickstarter and some talented developer will make them a football game. The first code is expensive but then every year its minor upgrades and huge cash.
CFL has no excuse for not fronting a video game when the best developers/studios are in this country.
I know it gets a bit tricky with an odd number of teams and with some liking the back to back games in early September but there is some merit to the argument that a schedule is fairer if you play each team once in the first half of the season and once in the second half of the season many weeks apart.
Less chance that you might end up catching a team twice within a short period when they might be riddled with key injuries or facing the same team when they are ridiculously red hot. (Teams can often get hot for a 5-6 game stretch where they look like nobody will ever beat them - but it is very rare that a team looks that good for an entire season).
I think Hamilton played Saskatchewan twice within the first few weeks of the 2013 season when they were blowing away everybody and the Cats got killed. Might have been fairer if one of those two games was in the second half of the season when Saskatchewan were struggling a bit.
I'm pretty sure the Premier League in soccer the teams play each other once in the first half of the season and then again in the other team's park in the second half of the season.
That makes sense to me from a fairer competition perspective.
I haven’t played video games on a regular basis since adolescence, but if the CFL ever put out a video game, I would be on that like white on rice. :rockin:
That was in response to PaoloX’s post and tongue was clearly planted in cheek. At least I thought that was quite obvious, but apparently some still require full explanations.
Nothing Australian about this game. It features teams from the following leagues; Top 14 (France), Pro D2 (France), Aviva Premiership (England) and Pro12 (Scotland, Wales, Italy and Ireland). Rugby Union is by far the more popular of the two forms of Rugby and this game markets to a far larger population than the CFL and one of the top Rugby Union leagues in the world (Aviva Premiership). Hardly comparable in population of participating leagues nations and international interest.
Don’t know much about Rugby. All I can tell you what the owner of the studio told me is that most of the games were being sold in Australia.
If you do a little digging, you will find out that some of their games were self-funded and that their studio is funded by ACOA. So a Canadian video game studio is being subsidized with our tax money to make Rugby games for export. How’s that for painful.
I do know a little about rugby although I prefer league to union myself. I only know about the game what was on the wiki page you posted and I take your word about the sales in Australia. As for the tax dollars, nothing surprises me anymore. I do think that a CFL game would get much more exposure if it was an add on league to a Madden game. EA’s NHL series has done it with junior hockey and I believe some other leagues. Most Canadian games are going to buy Madden over a CFL game but may play it if it was part of Madden. Also EA has been doing this for a long time so they are likely to do a far better job with it immediately than any other developer.
Personally I don’t think a CFL video game would make a big difference, but it is at least worth a try before completely discarding the idea.
Just having a bit of fun with that response Paolo. Sometimes you just have to agree to disagree, but that doesn’t mean you can’t go out with a big splash of hyperbole.
You touch on something important. Not all the teams are involved in these scheduled rivalry games. Perhaps you would think differently if Montreal was involved in one (and not as a replacement for other marketing options, but these rivalry games by themselves do not hurt marketing). Now I am not saying for a second that your opinion is not valid because the Als are one of the 3 teams left out of these matchups, this is simply an observation. Please note that the only poster in this thread advocating reducing these traditional matchups whose team is actually involved in one is GreyDragon. All others are on the outside looking in. This does by no means make these detractors wrong or their opinions invalid. To me it glaringly shows that everyone should get a traditional scheduled rivalry game. Right now fans of 3 teams are left out and they shouldn’t be.
Remember Canada Day 2005, the Als went into the 4th quarter in Ottawa with a 20 point lead? Only for the Gades to storm back on a bunch of cardiac big plays and tie the game, force OT and win on a FG? I remember VIVIDLY so many fans across the league saying that these 2 teams should play every year on Canada Day to kick off the season. Obviously that got derailed with the demise of the Renegades, but why not now?
Thanksgiving is also an available date. Perhaps the Calgary at Edmonton or the Hamilton at Toronto rematch could be moved to Thanksgiving to avoid the back-to-backs? A traditionally scheduled rivalry game does not have to be Labour Day.
Of course we have an odd number of teams. Someone has to be left out, or someone has to get 2 rivalry matchups and perhaps that is excessive (and constricting to the schedule overall), but BC never draws well on long weekends anyways so perhaps for now that’s ok.
My main point is that these games are FUN. You really get up for them. You circle them on the calendar at the beginning of the year and plan road trips around them. They are amazing to watch or attend. I only wish that all teams could have one to experience it for themselves.
Montreal and Ottawa on Canada Day every year. Try it. You’ll love it. I guarantee. :thup:
Hate to burst your bubble on this one prairedog but I’m advocating dumping the rematch games and I am an Argo fan. In personal exile, but I am an Argo fan.
