Scheduling Suggestions for the CFL - your thoughts?

CFL Talk
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Every couple of years, the idea of starting the CFL season earlier pops up. The current season starts in the first weekend of June and wraps up with the Grey Cup in mid-November. But the CFL season has evolved over time - the first season kicked off on August 14, and ended in the last week of November. There’s also a limit to how early you could start - the most realistic cutoff would be dependent on the NFL draft in late April, followed shortly by the CFL draft.
The earlier the start, the less competition for viewership against the NFL, the more opportunity for players to jump to the NFL. The weather argument works both ways: some argue for the unpredictability of cold-weather games is part of the Canadian identity, while others say they’d rather not watch games in very cold temperatures. I don’t really buy the cottage argument - “people are going to their cottage that weekend so attendance will suffer”.
What are your thoughts on starting earlier?

  • The season’s scheduling is fine as it is.
  • Back the schedule up 2 weeks to the start of June
  • Back the schedule up to align with the traditional start of the Canadian summer: Victoria Day weekend
0 voters

When Canada Day falls on a weekend, the CFL will sometimes host 3 games and make it a “Day of Canadian Football”. If the CFL expands, some weeks would feature 5 games, and if it’s to Halifax, we’d gain an extra time zone. Presuming the league grows to 10 teams, how would you like to see the CFL celebrate Canada Day?

  • Treat it like every other day
  • When it falls on a weekend, host 3 games
  • When it falls on a weekend, host 5 games
  • When it falls on a long weekend (Friday-Monday), host 3 games
  • When it falls on a long weekend, host 5 games
  • Play with the bye weeks if necessary to always host a big slate of 3 games
  • Play with the bye weeks if necessary to always host a full slate of 5 games
0 voters

And feel free to post any other suggestions you have for scheduling.

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This has been discussed many times in many different threads so I will not get into it too much to avoid being repetitive.

I’m not sure when the exact start should be, but I am strongly of the view, for many good reasons, that the Grey Cup should take place on thanksgiving weekend. You mentioned some of the reasons. There are several more.

I also disagree on your take on the “cottage” argument, at least for Winnipeg. Winnipeg is the only team as far as I can tell that prefers Thursday home games in the summer. More than any other CFL city Winnipeg empties out on summer weekends. It is not just cottages, but also campers and those who take day trips to some of the over 100,000 lakes Manitoba has. Winnipeg is also the hottest CFL city. People just leave the city on summer weekends. Probably a couple of hundred thousand or about 1/4 of the city.

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Let’s start the season on the Victoria Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. People are dying to get out side. It would be nice to have the Grey Cup on thanksgiving day, that would mean squeezing the schedule. Just my humble opinion

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Don’t forget that if the league expands to 10 teams, the season would be shortened by a week. With an odd number of teams, there are either 1 team or 3 teams on a bye week. With an even number, there would be either 2 teams or none.

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…and that has been discussed many times before, the CFL is not expanding to 10 teams and not even close to 10 teams.
It’s been 8 or 9 teams for 70 years and will be for another 70 years.

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I don’t have enough information on game day revenue to say if we should change the schedule or not so I said that it should stay the same. The owners would have that information so I’m hoping they would keep track of the stats by themselves. I would also give the Grey Cup hosting city the option of getting the CFL to start the season early if they feel that game day revenues will be affected by the weather.

Canada Day usually isn’t a big seller in the CFL. The CFL tries to target families for marketing. Families like to go on vacation near Canada Day because it’s usually when kids get out of school.

I’m not totally against expansion but it will be difficult for the CFL. This leads into my scheduling suggestion which I’ve said in other threads. CFL should adopt an NBA style in-season tournament. The first game a team plays against another team counts for the standings. Have those games front end loaded. After 8 games it would be 2 weeks of flexible scheduling. The format doesn’t have to be traditional divisional games. It could be a one divisional type thing. The team that hosts is the one that had to be the “away” team in the first game. Mid-season champion is at a neutral site which a city has bid on it like Halifax, or Victoria. Instead of 81 regular season games, it’s expanded to 82. For that one game I would be open to adapting the rules to fit the field but I’m sure the CFL would not be. It could also be a game tester for those that want to drop the rouge etc.

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I’m not opposed to an earlier start to the schedule. Per the current CBA they can move it up to 30 days earlier than now.

For Canada Day, in a perfect world it would be nice for Ottawa to host when it falls on a weekend (Thursday through Sunday) or the closest scheduled day to the holiday if it falls on a Tuesday for example

1 Like