We all have eyes and question the attendance numbers, but the one thing the league can not lie about is TV. Yes maybe a hand full of people watch online, but that number would be minimal . Almost 900k per game down to well under a half million
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your point??
Meh.. I used to watch the highlights but can't even be bothered to do that now. I could only name a hand full of QBs, and most of them suck. Like Wentz and Cousins .
I watched a bit of the playoffs a couple of years ago when I hit a tree snowboarding and ended up in the hospital with a broken back and six ribs along with a collapsed lungs.
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I guess it's that 10 years ago they were worried about declining viewership. What must they be thinking now?
Yet we have the exact same TV contract with TSN and only TSN, and nothing is being done.
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heh the moral of the story is don’t hit trees while snowboarding lol. i’m glad you healed up though, that sounds brutal, similar to some of my injuries from being hit by a truck.
i go through spells where i can’t watch NFL, but mostly because of lack of time, or overwhelmed with visual stimulation, not to mention my moral tug of war between the NFL as an ethical dilemma vs entertainment machine.
CFL popularity and viewership has tended to vary over the decades, but it has always been buoyed by its die-hard fans. IMO, the problem i see right now is that the die-hard fanbase is aging out and not enough new younger fans are being attracted to replace them. i think most younger football fans connect to the entertainment conglomerate NFL for a variety of reasons and the CFL hasn’t found a way to do the same, nor can it on any comparable scale. moreover, the CFL can’t compete in terms of attracting as many quality players (see other thread), thus making it a less attractive on field product (due to decline in quality of play, especially at skill positions). i think too many people tend to compare CFL vs NFL at face value, rather than regard them as two separate sporting entities. the CFL clearly has an marketing problem, and currently lacks the resources, direction (and in some cases the initiative-hello Toronto!) to solve it. the NFL has an image problem that it seems to be able to overcome simply because of its overwhelming popularity and deep pockets.
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the CFL as it is and has been, is dying and most of us will see it. To me it is a reality and I will get what enjoyment I get from it while I can.
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Sadly I am afraid the league is toast. We should just all be happy we had the last 30 years, because in all rights it should have died then.
The sad part is that in 2010 this league was sitting pretty . New stadiums being built , a fat TV contract.
I think what killed this league was a refusal to grow up. Despite billions of dollars in new infrastructure, and a 9 figure TV deal, the league still insisted on being mom and pop.
If in 2010, the league brought in a 7 million dollar salary cap, and actually attracted decent players, they could have instituted a 40 hour work week like an actual pro league.
Nobody wants to sit around watching endless penalties and mistakes.
I had it explained best by a guy who was a long term fan, who stopped watching. He said that he got sick and tired of watching "Blooper Ball".
The crux of it was when Darien Durant was saying that he actually played more Madden, than time spent practicing.
Not developing a world class video game is another huge reason Canadian kids(new Canadians, and white kids alike) never gave the CFL the time of day.
The CFL 's obituary will read that it survived cancer and even a car crash(US expansion), but then died from starvation because it insisted on a raw veg diet, because it was the cheapest way to eat.
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Well said. The league had the ability to reinvest financial windfalls back into the product to experience even more growth, but they instead chose to nickel and dime it and the results, sadly, have been somewhat predictable.
Other leagues have seen their TV numbers hover at the same level or in some cases even rise, while the CFL’s has dropped like a stone. Average At
attendance at stadiums was approaching 30,000 and was a distinct possibly in the not too distant future to where now that’s not even on the radar
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lol you have got to be kidding… i mean, maybe some kind of deal with Madden for some CFL 3 down play with the 9 teams, like how NHL does with their international and womens options. but a stand alone “world class” CFL video game was/is completely unrealistic.
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huh? what does that even mean?
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I agree with many points presented above ....
In terms of the ratings you have add on to the above....
Is there not a direct coorelation to how TSN/ Bell presents the CFL .
At one time the CFL and U sports football was boosted by one national feed of TSN . TSN had shows like off the record who had tons of CFL players then as time went on none . CTV used Rider players on Corner Gas .
TSN is part of the bigger Bell media conglomerate .
Bell has won the rights to the NFL and all of it's platform has NFL content including TSN .
Plus Today the options for entertainment is much higher than 10 years ago .
The CFL if you do not buy the whole package of TSN you do not have the same audience exposure .
The regional set up is not the same audience if you subtract the TSN package from any cable or satellite provider .
Plus It's not even close to the exposure of the NFL on Multi channels exposing the NFL to a much broader base of Canadians using our own networks and streaming . Plus TSN has added NCAA on top of the US networks .
Now does a national provider who does not compete for advertising be allowed to syndicate every aspect of sports south even though they the US channels don't get any Canadian advertising money with the US content they provide .
Today the private companies like Bell are up in arms about the unfairness of the CBC who gets 1.5 billion from the feds to give free content .
Well maybe all of them should be forced to be actual Canadian content providers period and use the money for American content providers in Canada shown here to Canadians to contribute a large portion to pay for the Canadian content production costs thru cable , satellite and streaming payments .
The bottom lines is the CFL will get you great domestic returns if it's taken care of properly which should be good enough for a profit margin .
But you have to invest money to make money eventually . This has worked for all the big 4 US league's major return and valuation came about thru that investment
The league needs adequate investment and business direction in all areas concerned if it is to ever prosper .
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They simply don’t have the money.
They don't need to invest the same numbers as the big American leagues, but they do need to invest some money. We have multiple billionaires among the ownership groups around the league, so there is no shortage of money.
Heck, they found $6 million to invest in marketing in 1996, and that investment helped pave the way for the big turnaround in the league's fortunes. I have a feeling they haven't spent half that much on marketing in any year of this century (except maybe for the 100th Grey Cup).
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here’s an interesting related 3DN article from March 2021:
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The Argos owners alone have billion(s)...
I doubt a few million is an issue .
Even us hardcore "3 down, 110 yard" fans must admit the game is not what it used to be. The CFL used to be so much more exciting than the NFL. But guess what happened? The NFL evolved. They took a few pages from the CFL playbooks and next thing you know, the "No Fun League" had higher scoring, more offense, more versatile QB play, and (along with their PR machine), they surpassed the CFL in game-play excitement.
3 down football is dead (for all but its most hardcore aging fans). If we want to see live professional football in this country we best return the Rock's call.
They have advertised
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Spot on!
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Ouch. Was the tree okay?
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