Successful St. Louis team helps in other teams valuations

One of my employees played in it this yr.

For this Tournament:
Alberta has one Team for under 16 years old
Ontario has one Team for under 17 and one Team under 18 years old
Canada has one team for under 18 and one team under 19 tears old

US has 10 teams ranging from under 14 to under 19 years old

How does the International bowl series even apply here? US labor laws wouldn't apply to teams competing in it where they would to a professional football franchise.

I am in full agreement with you, it does not in any way apply.

That may very well be so, but fielding a crop of local talent would only encourage the success of any US-based team. In any case, it would be an erroneous error for the CFL to try and enforce US teams to play Canadians. If Canadians have trouble buying tickets to watch Canadian-born players, then so will any potential American fan.

I’m not saying the CFL should pursue US expansion, but at the very least they should consider exploring the possibility of implementing a ratio of local American talent, unlike in the dreaded CFL USA era.

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I am not pro or con on the various concepts for team rosters. As simple as I can put it, Professional Sports in the US labor and antitrust issues are governed primarily by Federal Statutes. Any concept that restricts/prevents a qualified individual for applying for and obtaining a position because of where he lives or where the team is located will not be approved and will result in other sports filing lawsuits against such concept in order to prevent such a precedent.
Now, it is possible to get exemptions from certain statutes. If, there were only one CFL Team playing in the US as a member of a Canadian Division of CFL and if the Team would operate under all CFL Rules and Regulations, I personally believe, that team could submit a request for exemption and it would be granted.

Those examples did not involve EMPLOYMENT discrimination, which is the issue that arise.

The “right to work” in the context of sports started with Spencer Heywood who [i]turned pro after his sophomore season at the University of Detroit, joining the American Basketball Association’s Denver Rockets and leading the league in scoring (30.0 per game) and rebounding (19.5 per game) in 1969-70 before jumping to the NBA the following season. Seattle SuperSonics owner Sam Schulman signed Haywood to a six-year, $1.5 million contract, ignoring the rule that a player cannot join the league until he is four years out of high school. As a result, the NBA threatened to disallow the contract and implement various punitive sanctions against the SuperSonics.

Haywood challenged this decision by commencing an antitrust action against the NBA. As part of his claim against the NBA, Haywood argued that the conduct of the NBA was a “group boycott” and a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The central issue that had to be determined was whether the NBA draft policy was a restraint on trade and therefore was illegal in accordance with the Sherman Act.

The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, which issued an injunction in Haywood’s favor, ruling:

“If Haywood is unable to continue to play professional basketball for Seattle, he will suffer irreparable injury in that a substantial part of his playing career will have been dissipated, his physical condition, skills, and coordination will deteriorate from lack of high-level competition, his public acceptance as a super star will diminish to the detriment of his career, his self-esteem, and his pride will have been injured and a great injustice will be perpetrated on him.?

The NBA appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which stayed the injunction. Joined by the SuperSonics, Haywood appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the District Court, reinstated that court’s injunction against the NBA, and remanded the case to the District Court for further proceedings.

Shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision, the league and Haywood reached an out-of-court settlement which allowed him to stay with the Sonics permanently.[/i] And stopped the litigation.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haywood_v._National_Basketball_Association

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GNT, your first sentence says it all.

If American franchises can't be geographically naturalized, how about an age restriction? The proposed Fall Experimental Football League, had a employment restriction in that only players who were 2 years or less removed from their college team could be signed to a professional contract (paying $1000 per game). While the league was an experiment which apparently failed, I doubt they would go to so much effort to finance and promote their league if the premise of an age restriction was illegal?

In St. Louis, perhaps we could make it 3 years? For example, the Americans would have to dress 20 players who are 3 years or less removed from college, with 7 starting (Young Nationals). They would be restricted to dressing 16 International players of any age, with 4 Designated Veterans and 3 QB's (which mirrors the import ratio for Canadian-based teams.)

Not sure the age restriction would be enough of a penalty to allow an All-American team in the CFL, but it could be a starting point. At least the St. Louis team would be a great developer of young American CFL talent who could be signed by any team after 2 or 3 years.

Why on earth are some of you seemingly so keen on taking a great Canadian sports league and denigrating it by making it some sort of gimmick sport in the USA. That is exactly how it would be looked at by most. Already any team in the USA would be looked at by many as a bit gimmicky. Football - but with some 'funny' rules. Start throwing in age restrictions on American teams only - and it begins to look farcical.

I see it more as Canadians proclaiming our version of football is better, faster, harder than theirs.

Even if we had a US team or two, the league would still be Canadian controlled. We would just be allowing the US the privilege of owning a team in "our" league.

But maybe I'm just more patriotic than others.

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I am for it if they get 150 million to join upfront for each team ; if not forget it they are not worth the bother .

How is that for team valuations going up ?

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And you STILL can’t provide evidence to back up your claim.

Just once, ONCE, I’d like to actually see these self-proclaimed experts back up what they claim. I have a feeling it will never happen. Why? Because they can’t.

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Someone had shown me the Wikipedia site and typed in “CDN provinces without Major Sports teams”. This is what I extracted from the article. "Many Canadian fans consider the Canadian Football League as a major sports league, especially considering the lack of Canadian teams in the NFL. Also, the per-game attendance in the CFL would place that league seventh among all professional leagues in the world;

Surely we could expect more TV revenues with these facts or is it a lack of US team that holds this league back.

I was speaking to a Scout from the St Louis Blues and it seems Tom Stillman owner of the Blues is getting behind this movement. He has the money and is a life long St Louisan and fanatical sports fan. if he is truly serious this may get some real traction.

A GOOD owner of a US-based franchise is the last thing the CFL needs.

Idiots like the Gleibermans are welcome, but a good owner would hire a competent GM who would hire a competent coach and make Stallions II a real possibility; imagine how good they would have been in years 3-4-5-etc…

Not only is the Grey Cup always won by a Canadian team currently, but TWO Canadian teams make the final every year.

St. Louis if they were to obtain a franchise would also require future planning on what to do with the team in case something were to happen. eg. NFL might move back, no fan support, lack of corporate sponsors, etc. What happens if this were to happen. St. Louis already lost 2 NFL teams.

Also to obtain a franchise I believe the league should hold a U.S. franchise to a higher standard with pledged season tickets in the range of 25K, corporate sponsorships, preseason game support over a few years, moving a regular game or 2 there and gauge support and if they do not like what they see do not go.

I say the CFL head office to should invite any of these so-called St Louis Americans to put together a traveling team. Mind you, they could still have their base of operation headquartered in St Louis, perhaps even some of their recruiting and practices as well (in a field the size of the CFL's), but this way we could uphold them to the ratio. Now, I'm not saying this will actually happen--I don't know if this is even possible, but then again I don't see why not?--but given St Louis' recent heartbreak, I think it would be only thing Canadian to do.

It would immediately get us to a tenth team that unfortunately doesn't seem to be coming anytime here in Canada. And who knows? It might even help the league secure a better television deal with a US broadcaster as it would give the Grey Cup an international spin, ie. like the Splenger Cup w/ Team Canada competing for that trophy. But in this case with football...

Plus, we wouldn't have to worry about the NFL returning to St Louis one day.

St Louis fans wouldn't get the chance to see their team often, but at least they could watch them on television.

The NFL has dump St Louis twice, it will be along time before they go back.