TORONTO — The Canadian Football League (CFL) rolls into the second half of the 2023 season riding a wave of momentum fueled by higher viewership, growth in its largest markets, surging online engagement and a game that continues to deliver high scoring, big play football.
All that with a 
stats listing.
Now if only TSN could be revamped. Their coverage is abysmal. Too many key games not carried on TSN 1 while many of us fans do not subscribe to their other channels or on line presentations. For a company that prides itself on how much they do for the CFL, I am not impressed.
I dislike the term “high scoring” because it’s often a comparison to the NFL. If you compare CFL scoring to itself then it’s down last year by a little less than 3 points. If you compare it to some of the years in the 90’s, it’s down quite a bit. Thankfully the CFL is doing well in spite of this.
‘High scoring’ doesn’t necessarily equate to good football. Defence is as big a part of football as offensive play and tight, tough 16-13 game can be just as, if not more, exciting than a 42-38 outcome. Sometimes you can have too much scoring and I prefer to see teams have to work hard for points against a good defence that isn’t going to crumble easily.
I thought of that as well but they mentioned that 60% of the games were decided in the last 3 minutes so I overlooked it. Very good point.
Not to mention the Game Center play-by-play disaster. I live in the USA but do not have cable, so I am unable to view the games carried there. So I rely on the Game Center to follow the action for those matchups I cannot get on CFL+. But it’s hard to follow a game that goes from one team having the ball 1st & 10 when the next play listed shows the other team having the ball 2nd & 4 with nothing in between! Also, nothing to indicate when the Three Minute Warning occurs, and other inconsistencies such as listing a TD Convert Kick as a “1-point play” at times.
I liked the past format better, where one could see the down/distance listed on every play. I realize the league struck a deal with some digital outfit for the system used this season, but I hope they are as unhappy as I am with the result and demand further upgrades & refinements to it.
By “Cable”, I mean “CBS Sports Network”. Glad you got that deal for those that do have it, but please do not forget about the rest of us!
Same here. I can’t get the local cable package that includes CBSSN, or ESPNNEWS for that matter, in the building where I live.
I’m not 100% on this as I’m in Canada and have TSN, but my understanding was that you can watch the games through the link on this forum. You guys aren’t the only ones on this site I know from previous posts that have the problem of not being able to subscribe in the US.
Perhaps @GridironGirl can clarify that.
If not you may want to discuss the pirate network with @Paolo_X
There has to be a way for you to get the games.
I have done some searching on google, but didn’t find anything promising. I admit I didn’t spend a lot of time, but then, I’m used to missing games that were on ESPNEWS in previous seasons. I can LISTEN to WPG games on CJOB, and then wait a few days for the complete video online. It’s not ideal, but I’m thankful for that much.
If the CFL could come up with a system where I could watch every game live, but pay for the privilege, I would be VERY happy. I just don’t want to pay for an ocean of other sports that I would never watch.
Without Paramount+ Simulcast of CBS games for those of us watching, in the United States, and when games are not on CFL+,
we have Pirate Sports Network like since 2009.
Arrrgghh ahoy ye mateys!
Here as summarized below is more about Pirate Sports Network, which now reaches around the globe as we sail anywhere we want, except maybe certain military and government property of course, to capture a fine signal for CFL games.
It is said that it is now part of the Charter of Human Rights to be able to have a signal to live CFL games by any means necessary, but that’s another thread and involves bureaucracy and as you all know, we can’t do this all day now.
Understandably as you can learn more, most of our crew, including Captain Timbers, are fans of the Blue Bombers though many prefer the Boatmen of course.
All you need is a free-standing TV or device and preferably an HDMI cable, as they’ve been around for many years now, to go from your device to TV if you want to watch on the big screen with minimal issues. It’s not required, but so far a hard cable is better than relying on relayed WiFi signals and well, we’re not going to get too technical here.
If your TV is stuck in a wall for some reason from back in perhaps 2005, I’m sorry. It was not a good idea before day one.
Whenever pirate associates like me or associates of the Evil Family are here in game threads, we set all true fans up.
The ONLY known restriction otherwise is that you cannot be a known bojack. This restriction is for their protection of course, for the Evil Superiors won’t allow it and many undisclosed market studies have shown consistently that it’s very bad for the CFL and associated brands.
If you are still curious for details and of course need to read the fine print, read on up below.
Now set yourself up for the rest of the weekend, for it’s too late already for tonight but enjoy the game if you can do so by all means.
To me, raised first on the NFL but really a child of the original AFL - why I love the CFL.
It’s still played by normal sized humans who have abnormal levels of talent, and the wide, open football field with 2.5x end zones makes for excitement in every 3 downs.
And there’s a reason for a 3-minute warning; if the gap is < 20 points, the game’s still on the line!
I’ve been a fan of CFL since before the foray into the USA, but now with CFL+ and CBSSports on my cable package, I miss very few games.
CFL ADMINISTRATION: yes, I’d still pay to see it. But you really could allow advertising on the CFL+ stream into the US!
Welcome to you!
cfl.ca should be up to date and packed with stats dating back to the very start of the league. I’m tired of referring to sports channel websites- no more excuses, FIX THIS!!
You should see the Genius Sports thread for more on this dead horse.
There have otherwise been substantial improvements, but as we have noted repeatedly, the system was not broken before.
There have???
For sure - far to go but now you can see far more complete data with far better scrolling. Have a look during a game, but don’t expect it to be perfect including especially if it’s the BC home game when very late at night on the east coast.
That reality was the case before as well.