St. Louis

Well something needs to be done to reinvigorate the brand , it is withering on the vine at present , the league has been stagnant for far too long . More monies need to flow into the league coffers whether it be from sponsers or TV or whatever or dare I say it "expansion" .

If Bell /TSN can pay enormous amounts of money for regional tv rights that in some cases are a quarter of cfl viewership (or less) then they can damn well pony up for better dollars for their elite property .

I totally agree. The CFL has plenty of quirky charm and 9 teams in two divisions is part of that charm.

I give my head a shake every time this US expansion BS comes up.

I admit my post was over the top ( not the first time ), I just get frustrated over this.

I love the CFL and do not want it ruined.

Second verse , same as the first.

US owners wanted :
Changed to NAFL
Real football with 4 downs - Pepper Rodgers
Season moved up so the Grey Cup is played in December - Jim Speros

With the exception of Baltimore, the other 6 cities had empty stadiums.
Americans only care about NFL and NCAA.
One of the reasons the United League failed.

I know this hurts our fragile Canadian egos, but in the US, the CFL is considered a semi- pro minor league

On this side of the border, people just want a 10 th team to even the schedules.
That is the wrong reason for expansion.

9 teams is fine. The CFL has had 9 teams without problems since 1961 interlock.
Now people have a problem with it and want to change it.
Bigger is not better. ( no jokes please ).

Windsor ? Ontario is saturated
Halifax ? Poor economy, low population, lack of revenue from to small of any stadiumā€¦
Quebec ? outside of Montreal, there is no interest in QC

They do need to expand the league is stale and not relevant in some cities . No to the USA unless the franchises are owned by Google and Amazon . US loves 4 down football not our version .

With 20,000 seat stadiums the norm you can expand within Canada and use group economics to power it's way thru to a better TV deal worth 200 million instead of the crap they r getting from TSN . Got to change the beggars can't be choosers approach and move away from survivalist economics we are in today .

Ambrosie gets it and I hope he moves quickly on expansion before it's too late .

I don't get that because the CFL has remained at 8-9 teams for a long time, therefore out of default it is "stale". I don't see that the two are related at all or necessarily related at all. Personally though I can find a lot "stale" with pro sports in general, take baseball for example there are so many games that I find many games come across as "stale" to me just because of over-exposure, even can be said with 80 plus games in hockey and basketball for that matter.

Expansion is not needed and only should be done if it makes economic sense, or if there is an owner with so much money it doesn't matter and a stadium on the horizon to boot. :wink:

Well near empty stadiums in BC , Montreal and Toronto would say you are wrong .

It's a stale league with a dumb playoff system that turns people off . My teams Ottawa and they have no right to a home playoff game they didn't earn it . Geography like DC says is no way for a pro league with only 9 teams should format it's eligibility for hosting a play off game . Ambrosie needs to fix this before it kills interest in the East . Holy cow ; why would anybody want Toronto hosting a eastern final ;it's a viewer killer watching a game with a sea of red seats and hurts the image of the league to potential fans . Wish he fixed it this year .

You can not be serious.

You are comparing history and tradition of Ottawa and Montreal to failed US expansion ?

WOW just WOW

If any thread ever earned the right to be locked, it would be this one.

I want the Argos to host the east finalā€¦season ticket holder since 1988.

The east sucks and I agreeā€¦something needs to happen to motivate the east teams not to suck. Top team in each division gets a bye into the final and then thereā€™s 4 wildcards.

I donā€™t agree that the league is stale. The football has been great this year, the year of the catch. Lots of close games, lots of offence, some officiating contraversy. I think itā€™s been an interesting and entertaining year of football with a great finish to come.

As far as the sea of red seats. If they could flip the cameras around to the other side, youā€™d see an entirely different stadium with seats filled up.

CFL is not stale at all.
Some people just enjoy being negative.

Argos for sure will finish first.
All they need to do is top the Lions on the last week end.
If the Cats top the Reds, they have it anyway.

regarding US expansion - I amjust as afraid of it being successful asthe franchisefailing. Don't know if anyone else feels this way.

If I am an owner I would want options open to me. NFL and other leagues haveit, CFL does not. I would feel much better if the leaguehad 3-4 places to award a new franchise to or move one ifthey had to.

Realistic and honest is not negative . Football is good there is a difference in the game and the infrastructure of a league . Stale is a league 9 teams for 100 years . Stale is allowing home field hosting to two teams who do not have a winning records and are not better than two visiting teams .

Stale is not even the right word insanity is a better definition . You cannot go forward without correcting this lunacy and showing the fans this is grown up league with no participation trophies .How do you lure new fans with crazy ?

Expansion is not just essential to the future it will be needed to survive .
Watching the league as long as anyone here and I have never seen crowds like the ones in three cities since the Concordes or US expansion teams.

I have been to Argo games in both BMO and Rogers/Skydome and your heart falls out when you see the audience . If you think that does not hurt future fans and is
destroying the product on the field and distracts and deters future fans from watching your product your selling you r missing that this league is and will always be in a state of survival which hurts the selling of the game. Our new future fan who finally goes to a game surrounded by empty seats will have a NEGATIVE view of the game beyond stale .

456 downs. OK then.

Not surprising coming from the guy that wants to turn the CFL into an NFL Development league.

Unreal and my eyes are hurting from rolling them so much.

Quite looking in the Mirror

I agree with you.
The status quo in this changing world of ours is no longer acceptable.
No one said that we need to expand for the sake of expansion.
Conversely the other leagues are expanding at a record pace.
Sure we are still a mom and pop type that has to grow to survive.
Does everyone remember when Ottawa came back 4 years ago in the new stadium, there was excitement in the air.
Same thing needs to be done now, no more talk like we have had since the early 80ā€™s about Atlantic Canada.
Letā€™s make it happen next year or never.
Time to move on to the next possibility maybe QC.
Then, letā€™s look at limited US possibilities as I have said for years but only near our border.
With cities that have no other pro team.

I can see it now.

WELCOME TO THE 2020 GREY CUP CHAMPIONSHIP.

Between the West Division Champions

SPOKANE SHOCKWAVES

and the East Division Champions

TOLEDO TORNADOS

No thanks.

There won't be any expansion to the US for obvious reasons. Like last time it would not be long before the owners of these mythical franchises would be complaining about the strange rules and insist these be changed to reflect American tastes ie. shorter field, 4 downs, no rouges.

Since the ratio would not be enforced in the US it would give the American teams an unfair advantage by fielding a team entirely composed of US players. Hardly a balanced playing field.

US expansion is best left in the rear view mirror rightfully remembered as the darkest time in CFL history.

AGREE 100 %.

Thank you.

Facts prove it.

I have no idea why this keeps coming up.

I think itā€™s because a certain faction here are so desperate to see expansion to 10 teams or greater, they grab on to any faint hope no matter how remote or unrealistic. Take this thread for example. People extrapolate from the Baltimore experience - city had their NFL team relocate to another location due to a $$$ and a few years later the city embraces a CFL team for a 2-year period prior to the return of the NFL. Thus, St. Louis - a city that also had its NFL team relocated to a more lucrative market and soon-to-be new stadium - will embrace the CFL in a similar way to fill the gap in their football-deprived lives. Sorry, but the variables involved allowing the Baltimore market to achieve relative success - I say relative because the team actually lost money - are a little more complex than the ones cited above. It is highly unlikely these factors would be duplicated in St. Louis.