Tanenbaum (MLSE) Not Happy With CFL and XFL/USFL Discussion

Well said.

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Key statement in regard to who you have better business alignment with a different league or the league you are currently in - great statement - everyone else looks at the rules and that becomes the key focus but you are looking at business alignment. I love the way you addressed that.

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They are 9 teams out each with their own challenges in terms of weather and fanbase.

What may work in Winnipeg and Regina may not be necessary work for other cities.

As for playoff games they take place during the afternoon.

I understand your desire for an early start as with others that may agree with you but they don’t necessarily have an issue with the current schedule as well.

It has to be a league wide agreement for the schedule to change or alot of money has to offered to entice the CFL to move the schedule.

While it’s not desirable for games to be in -20 weather it’s also not desirable to have games in over 20 degree weather as well.

It’s a tough one. No doubt attendance for playoff games in October would be stronger than playoff games in November. But can the league attract enough fans in May and early June? The track record so far doesn’t look good.

If only we could get September for 5 months, the CFL would be in fantastic shape. :laughing:

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With the Jays possibly in a playoff position why would the CFL want to hurt itself with a conflict in October when November is all to themselves .

I really don’t get that aspect of thinking the world series and baseball playoffs is on why would you put your product at that time is beyond reasonable analysis when the whole country and especially the southern Ontario media will smother and take all the oxygen away from your SHOWCASE Time period for your product your trying to sell for season tickets , advertising and sponsorship .

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What I didn’t make clear is that the lowest common denominator, that being the colder Western cities, must be catered to. That is what is normally done in any properly run organization. It doesn’t have to be league wide agreement. A good example of this is the revenue sharing brought in this year. If every decision had to be unanimous then one profitable team could have scuttled revenue sharing for their own selfish interests. And it’s not like the Western teams can do anything about the weather whereas arguably the low revenue teams could do more to increase their revenue.

Perhaps all teams agreed to revenue sharing because they knew it was best for the league overall. The same consideration should be given to any issue, including this one. Your team of course isn’t affected if they have a home playoff game in the dome. but I bet they won’t like coming to Winnipeg to play the Western final in -20 weather, which could happen. Saskatchewan also lost 10,000 butts in seats last year for the semi final and I suspect that the weather had a lot to do with that.

I painfully froze my feet at the 1991 Grey Cup game in Winnipeg and I was in my late 20’s. One person was famously hospitalized due to the cold and suffered permanent damage. The players almost to a man talked about how brutal the weather conditions were. It is not hard to imagine how a rabid fan over 50 would have second thoughts about attending a -20 degree game, particularly if they have to drive a 100 km or more in blowing conditions as is often the case in Saskatchewan.

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That’s what home field advantage is for.

Teams shouldn’t like having to go to a cold weather stadium and that should give the Bombers the advantage they need for a win.

Buffalo won’t have a dome on their new stadium as the team wants that advantage at home (also Buffalo does not have the infrastructure to host a Super Bowl thus making the dome unnecessary.

I am sorry that you froze at that game but unless there’s some sort of compensation to teams to that might be affected by the change I don’t see it happening.

Too many moving parts.

But you never know.

Embrace the advantage you’re given.

More November/December Grey Cups for me.

Not much of an advantage. The same amount of Bomber players are from the southern US as any other team, although they would get to practice in similar conditions more. A huge disadvantage for fans and the bottom line.

Why build a team that can win a track meet in the summer and then have them slide around like penguins in an important playoff game if the weather doesn’t cooperate? Many games heavy on the run, low in scoring, rife with turnovers and dependent on luck. Competitive integrity last seen trailing the pre game flyover jets.

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Plus the NFL plays in January in the same conditions for the playoffs no problem.

Green Bay , Cleveland , Cincinnati , Chicago , New England , Buffalo are just as cold come late December / January .

One time Minnesota without the dome .

Green Bay and Chicago are well known for ice bowls .

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As we have had a similar conversation before on another thread I won’t belabour the point, but confirm that I am against the competitive integrity problems that occur in the NFL when this happens as well. They occur a little less often and with less severity as the weather isn’t as bad in northern US cities except for Minnesota. Raider fans are still unhappy about being denied a trip to the Super Bowl as a result of the circus playoff game where they couldn’t even keep the lines clean in NE. The NFL also takes great pains to ensure that the Super Bowl is in a fair weather city or dome, except for once in New York.

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I am at the Argo ticat game. I can literally count how man people are in the East side of the stadium

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I was thinking the same thing seeing the stands on TV.

11,623 at the game tonight .

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CFL can easily move game start times to accommodate the Jays fans. Blue Bombers and Jets worked together last season to keep fans happy and for whatever reason you doubt that they can repeat this cooperation.

Having said that most people in the west don’t care about the Jays at all and the bulk of Jays fans are from Toronto which doesn’t support the Argos anyways.

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Weather on the prairies is changing.
Winter doesnt generally really start until mid December for the most part. You can have cold days in september and october.
November is the perfect time.
I was at the 1991 grey cup. Absolutely froze my feet, but had a blast being there.
BC owner may be new, but didnt the league have a meeting or meetings about best practices? New ideas shared.
He would probably know a bit of what MLSE is doing or not doing.

When some of the supposed hardcore fans, do nothing but crap on every aspect of the league and seemingly want it to fail to join some spring league that has already died 2x, why would anybody become a new fan.

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And that’s against our biggest rival. And half of them were from Hamilton.

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And one that’s back at BMO in just a few weeks, with entrance to the Ex thrown in. Weird scheduling decisions.

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Good thing for those that missed the game is that the same match-up is going to happen next week and then two more times in the following three weeks.

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Sure didn’t seem that way to me. Very little of the usual noise from the Hamilton contingent, even when the Ticats were playing great in the first half. I’d estimate there were no more than 1,000 Cats fans in attendance, or roughly nine per cent of the total.

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How long before MLSE throws the keys on the table and walks away. I know they have the money, but there not in for charity.Unfortunately it’s become an albatross around there neck.