Interesting TSN article about the season opening earlier. I would like to see the CFL season start much earlier so we aren't competing with the NFL. I think May to August with the playoffs and Grey Cup in September.
http://tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=325287I voted yes.. I like to see early May for Camps
I've always thought that training camp should begin in May, then pre-season games in June (so maybe 4 of those) then July start the regular season and run normally to November.
I like it the way it is.
NHL gets all the sports press, so starting right after its done is good in that regard.
Well, yes, we could perhaps do that, and no doubt it would bring the training level up much higher.
Umm...dummm...would the CFLPA and Owners go for it? Sure! If the fans were prepared to pay the extra premium!
Cause your vets to come in to training camp a couple weeks early Which means they lose two weeks pay out of their regular jobs, (yes they do have them) and face higher chances of losing their main job with the team...
Higher chance of injuries that CFLPA will be both quick and correct to demand the contracts be paid out in full...
Those rookies and draftees...well, they could go back to $50.00 a day and pack your own lunch, couldn't they? (umm, well, perhaps not!)
Work it out, and you want to add at least 16% to the operating cost to the teams (given the players are paid fairly)...the networks are not going to increase their bids to carry CFL, so its just seat sales or the deep pockets of the owners that are left to cover such a thing, so I don't see this happening really quickly.
Yes, yes, extending training camps and augmenting "coaching" would do great things at assembling a team, but it would also obliterate the "level playing field", as community owned teams like Saskatchewan and Winnipeg could not afford to compete...Bob Young would drop our team like a bad habit, and I would not like to see "Mayor Fred" as our CEO, advised by Brad Clark, Sam Murilla, and/or that other ex CHML whiner running a business such as the Tiger Cats...we would be down the drain in a heartbeat...
My Thought Only...
The season should start in May and finish in August - playoffs and Grey Cup in September.
There is a potential for US networks to pick up CFL football if it didn't compete with the NFL season. There is a huge market for football and the league could tap into that.
There are quite a few football fans that turn off the CFL when NFL starts.
I think it would be a great move. Times are a changing - in my day we would sit through snow wind and rain but that's no longer the case especially in Hamilton. Canadians are not as tough as they used to be, a little cold weather or rainy weather they don't show up to games. One of the reasons is that CFL fans on average are older than NFL fans.
The league needs to do everything to make the fans comfortable and increase attendance and if that means moving up the season and building stadiums with comfortable seats so be it.
Not sure I agree with the idea. . . but I wouldn't reject it out of hand either, you guys have raised some good points. It's certainly worth considering. . .
I'm gonna say no, having the season start on Canada Day has a special significance and is one of the best ways to showcase the distinctively Canadian and patriotic part of the sport. Also not having to compete with the World Series in November for the Grey Cup is wise from a financial perspective as well. That and we've all seen hockey can go till June some years. Even the slightest chance the Stanley Cup might occur at the season opener is a recipe for disaster.
That and if it was too early, you'd get rid of the Thanksgiving games and the Labour Day Classic.
From the perspective of a selfish football fan that I am, I would say yes, but then when reading this fine comment I would reconsider and have to agree. Good post Hammer. :thup:
The Labour Day Classic could still go ahead, in fact it could be made even more exciting by having it as the final game of the year. The week before the NFL season starts. As for Thanksgiving, just replace it with the August long weekend Classic.
As for Canada Day, I can't see why they still can't play games on Canada day it could be the Half Way point of the season.
It's only been a few years since Canada Day was the beginning of the CFL season, I think I remember games beginning around the 3rd week of June. Could be the Victoria DAY Classic on the May 24 weekend, what could be more Canadian than that.
As for the NHL, I don't think there is any competition there, Canadian teams are usually knocked out by May anyway.
There is this huge potential for the American TV audience in the spring, they need their fix. Watch CFL in spring and summer, NFL in the fall/winter.
Dude, I think as long as it’s not Phoenix vs Nashville for the cup the Stanley Cup Playoffs always dominate the TV ratings in Canada. Even if a Canadian team isn’t there, people still watch it as Hockey is one of our national sports/pastimes and I hate to say it, they watch it over football without a doubt. Fundamentally, this is our league, and while a TV contact in the States ‘could’ bring revenue to the league, having to cater to them at the cost of too many of the league traditions which make the CFL what it is, simply is not worth it. This is even more so since I doubt there is any desire to see the league expand south of the boarder again.
I would just like to see training camp be extended by two weeks and go to three exibition games. The teams could be more prepared and the first few regular season games won't feel like exibition games.
There was a separate thread about this last week in this forum:
[url=http://forums.cfl.ca/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=56163]viewtopic.php?f=1&t=56163[/url]Basically for or against that idea, no one was for ANY delay to the start of the season. Have a look at that post.
As much as I’d love the season to start early, I agree with Hammer’s take on it and as Mark Cohon said, November for the Grey Cup there isn’t much else to compete with then in terms of championships. I think it’ll have to stay as it is therefore.
It’s funny, when the NFL season starts and I start watching it, it make me like the CFL better because I find the NFL too slow and tedious but do get into it come playoff time when the CFL season is over and I gear down my brain to a slower tempo.
Leave it the way it is. There is no market in the USA for the CFL as some suggest. The general football NFL in the USA is NCAA and NFL fans and that is it. I've talked to many fans over the years at various tailgates and games. Alot see this league as a joke and hate it for various reasons. They hate the rules and find talent inferior as it is generally NFL cast offs in most cases that will never see a down in the NFL. They see it as a minor league that occasionaly you get a few players from that actually make the team. In other cases most people have never heard of the league. In general the only thing most NFL fans do like the idea of is the 20 second clock. I could see reducing the schedule as 18 games with the amount of teams seems ridiculous. Maybe down to 16 and add to exhibition. I like things the way they are currently. Too early and you still deal with all the rain.
As much as I would appreciate the extra football earlier in the season I think it should be left the way it is.
it only took the cfl 50 years to figure out that they should start on Canada.
I think that is the perfect day to start the season.
Once the NFL starts, most CFL games are Friday/Saturday with the odd sunday afternoon game.
I like that November, in an outdoor Grey Cup. The weather could be 10 degrees or -10. That's what the CFL is. Leave it alone.
Then there’s the argument that too many summer games may hinder league attendance, with so many people on vacation or spending weekends away from the cities - in a gate-driven league, I think that matters more. I don’t buy the NFL conflict issue at all, especially outside Southern Ontario (and if it’s that big a deal here, just make sure Toronto and Hamilton don’t play many home games on Sundays… which for the most part is the arrangement this season, aside from one Argo game in September)
I’d be all for starting training camp a week earlier and adding a pre-season game, because it may improve the quality of play. But leave the regular season schedule the way it is - we get the full range of seasonal weather (which real fans don’t fret about) and the most meaningful games when teams are jockeying for playoff position are in the fall, which was made for football. :thup:
Doubt that would ever happen considering pheonix and nashville both play in the western conference, they would never meet in the cup. Keep the sched the way it is, whats football without cold rainy/snowy games anyway???
Don't fix what ain't broken.