Doug Farraway of the Fan says that Sazio's refusal to promote the CFL during the 60's and 70's remains an evil influence to this day. Interesting perspective...
[url=http://www.fan590.com/columnists/columnist2article.jsp?content=20070322_160133_1232]http://www.fan590.com/columnists/column ... 60133_1232[/url]My recollection is that Ralph wasn't so much "against" marketing and promotion as he felt it was unnecessary, that the game would market itself.
He may have been right at one time, but by his later years in Hamilton and then in Toronto, his idea was clearly passe. He was no marketeer, but a hell of a football guy.
Didn't the CFL turn down an 'opportunity', for lack of a better word, to have a team in New York City? I seem to recall this. Maybe this was mentioned in this article, will have to read it.
New York was ready to refit Yankee Stadium so a CFL field would fit in there and "George" would be footing the bill. That was my understanding of what could of happened.
The CFL could have been part of the lucrative N.Y. Yankee sports TV.
Really, I've never heard of this...
Can anyone find an article?
I think that clearly, Doug Farraway goes too far with his assessment. Few men in Canadian sport have given as much to their game as Ralph Sazio.
One might think that with all the good Sazio did for Canadian Football, Farraway might have found some positives.
The 50s and 60s were eras where it was difficult to tell how to put more folks in CFL Stadia. In all inocence and in the interest of making dollars for their respective teams, many CFL games were blacked out. It was only in recent years that the light finally dawned and the league realized that showing as many games as possible would actually sell the game better.
Sazio won multiple grey cups and/or championships with his teams in Hamilton and Toronto and deserves better than what Farraway
is giving him.
I think his remarks were unkind and unjustified.
I was waiting to see a response to the article. I agree that he goes too far. We all have blind spots, make mistakes, and are products of our eras.
In retrospect Sazio - and MANY others - blew this one. One of the top 10 villians of all time... nuts to that.
The New York bid for a CFL franchise was pursued by a former part owner of the Boston Bruins, and was supported by the mayors office. (representatives from the mayors office, if not the mayor himself having attended The Grey Cup where the pledge for renovating Yankee Stadium was put forth). This was all done a season or two before “George” bought the team. To this day Yankee Stadium is still owned by the City of New York.
To make a long story short, the BOG strung NY along asking for a non refundable fee just to ensure that their bid wasn’t all talk. They complied at which point the BOG suggested a franchise fee in the neighborhood of $5-10 million. That would buy most teams in the league even TODAY! (you could have bought an NHL franchise for that amount back then).
Predictably the league was told just where they could stick their franchise fee.
You have to consider the source. Farraway is a guy who likes to stir the pot--he's radio's Marty York or Al Strachan. There's a grain of truth to his assessment but only a grain. On balance, Sazio was a positive for the CFL over a lot of years but ultimately, the league passed him by. It still doesn't negate what he did.
An Argo-Cat fan
It’s like blaming the guy who invented the wheel
because he didn’t invent the automobile.
And why single out Ralph as the scapegoat
for not selling the CFL game anyways?
Was he the only person involved?
For much of the early years the game sold itself.
Doug Farraway just likes to hear himself speak.
He has an opinion on anything and everything.
Very good points Ron. I agree with you. Well said.
My estimation of Ralph Sazio fell off the table the day he left the Tiger Cats for Toronto.
For years he nickled and dimed the players during negotiations but once he received more money from Toronto off he went.
He believewd if you had a winning team that people would come to the games. He failed to realize that the CFL had to be promoted year round and that is one of the reasons that the CFL failed to keep pace with the popularity of the NFL.
Don't get me wrong Ralph Sazio was not the only governor of the CFL that failed to promote the league but he should never have left Hamilton for selfish reasons.
Money wasnt the only reason he left for toronto. In the previous city election mayor Jack Macdonald and ticat owner Harold Ballard had made a deal where the city would build a new football stadium or refurnish Ivor wynne and Ballard would build hamilton a hockey arena and waive his nhl territorial rights for hamilton to get a nhl team. Macdonald lost the election and the new mayor Bill Powell couldnt stand Ballard and nixed the deal. Ralph Sazio got fed up with city council and left for toronto.
IMO, Sazio was a large part of the decline in TiCat support and interest in this area (started during his reign in the mid-70s).
He was hard-nosed and "cheap" with a "my way or the highway" attitude (that makes Ron Lancaster look like a pussy cat).
Remember, it was Sazio that pulled what I believe is one of the biggest, bone-headed management moves in Canadian sports.
Early-mid '70's, the League upped the number of regular season games and the players asked to be paid accordingly (ie, more games... more money).
Tony Gabriel seemed like the player's front man in negotiating for higher pay and Sazio traded him away to Ottawa rather than "cave in". IMO, TiCats support was not the same afterwards (many of our best players going elsewhere... sounds like the pre-Bob Young years).
Here was a local, highly talented, well liked and revered Canadian player who starred in the last Grey Cup win a few years previous ('72... instrumental in the final drive) and Sazio shipped him off for the sake of a few dollars and to make a point... "Don't mess with me."
He may have been a great (defensive) coach (offense would often put you to sleep) but I don't believe he was a great manager/president/administrator.
IMO, Jake Gaudaur was the best and did the most for the team and League.
...
Reading this piece on Ralph Sazio really simplifies the situation far too much I think. It doesn't even get into the effects of bringing MLB into the picture in southern Ontario and the impact this had and still does on the CFL here. But, of course, on The Fan 590 (Rogers baseball) we wouldn't hear about this, only how the CFL shot itself in the foot. To be expected of course. But the CFL keeps on going, it didn't die, that's the key.
How ironic that a member of the media tries to pass the blame for cfl woes of the 70's on to someone else when it was the ignorance of negativity from the assinine media that was the CFL's biggest nemesis.
How ironic that a member of the media tries to pass the blame for cfl woes of the 70's on to someone else when it was the ignorance of negativity from the assinine media that was the CFL's biggest nemesis.
That's worth repeating!
Reading this piece on Ralph Sazio really simplifies the situation far too much I think. It doesn't even get into the effects of bringing MLB into the picture in southern Ontario and the impact this had and still does on the CFL here. But, of course, on The Fan 590 (Rogers baseball) we wouldn't hear about this, only how the CFL shot itself in the foot. To be expected of course. But the CFL keeps on going, it didn't die, that's the key.That is one of the faults of Ralph Sazio and the other CFL governors at the time. They did not promote the CFL to counteract the arrival of MLB. Thank God that inspite of the CFL "shooting itself in the foot" that it is still viable and will be for years to come.
Don,t forget hyper inflation in free agency in All sports. i,e- in 1984 highest payed maple leaf was borje salming At 300,000 -AND THEIR BEST PLAYER,- by 1992 their lowest payed player was ken bomgartner at 300,000 plus, and he could not skate (ok-he could make it to the penalty box.
I think that certain sorts in Toronto, perhaps Rogers Sportsnet, is trying to really keep the CFL down and promote the sports they show on TV like baseball and soccer, especially with the GC in Toronto this year. The last thing they want is for a successful CFL. It's actually interesting and I think a compliment to the CFL that certain media sorts need to keep pushing down the CFL, they see it as competition.