The CFL marketing to a younger generation

yes!

contrast this to the NFL games where they seem to move much faster with a lot more flow. the NFL manages game time the right way.

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Not very well. They’ve done little to address their poor brand image in Toronto. But I think they’ve been upping their game this year.

Just saw this on twitter. I think it’s pretty good, though I don’t know if anyone other than people who already follow the Argos on twitter will see it.

Anyway, makes me hungry.

:drooling_face:

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except they kinda effed up the whole pride thing IMO.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the CFL going dark for the 2020 season as a reason for its current struggles. Come on, a professional league struggling for fans decides to deep-six an entire season? Did league execs not expect even its most ardent fans were going to find other things to do with their time and disposable dollars?

Maybe the league was on the decline beforehand, but that decision just reinforced people's decisions not to go/watch.

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i actually did in the other related thread i referred to, i just forgot to link it. added link.

I echo GridironGirl’s comments about game flow. Once the CFL wakes up and adopts NFL timing rules the game flow will be much better (with perhaps a 30 second clock instead of a 40 second clock). I think that is the most important thing the league can do for game flow.

And the Ticats aren’t worth $50 million. I realize that is the number generated by the buy in of the steel company, but there has to be other reasons for paying more than the whole franchise is worth for only a percentage of ownership. The two most valuable franchises in the league are Winnipeg and Saskatchewan and on a good day they might be worth $20 million. The instability of the league brings all franchise values down and the Argos are probably worth nothing. An expansion franchise is worth nothing as well, in my opinion. I have consistently advocated for properly vetted expansion. Only with 12-15 teams and more TV money can we realistically start talking about a franchise being potentially worth $50 million.

If I had all the money in the world I presently wouldn’t pay a dime for many franchises, including Toronto and Montreal. You would just be paying for the privilege of losing $5-15 million a year. I don’t have any insider info but there is something that is not arm’s length about the Hamilton purchase or some kind of strings attached. If they are truly worth $50 million my advice to Bob Young is to sell now! Imagine all nine franchises appeared on Dragon’s Den or Shark Tank. I expect there would only be interest in the top two. I can hear Mr. Wonderful saying show me sales numbers (attendance) and cash flow, after which he would advise the owners of many franchises that their valuation is ridiculous and they should take the franchise out behind the barn and shoot it.

I’m not intending to be negative, just realistic. I don’t believe the CFL is doomed, but they better start doing something positive soon. Canadian expansion is a pipe dream at present so the CFL must look elsewhere, with the Northern US appearing to be the best potential way to go. If that isn’t done then the CFL may be doomed, especially if the spring leagues are successful and siphon off even more quality players. There will likely be many players who would rather stay in the US. If the CFL had say three US teams then it is possible that many players might choose the CFL in order to play in a superior league. The ratio of course would have to go but that is no loss as the ratio is hurting the success of the league on many fronts, including forcing teams to pay some Canadians double what a superior US player is paid. Not a great business model, but that is a discussion for another time.

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The support in eastern markets has been mid to low; but the Western teams carried the league. Over last few I'm seeing places like Edmonton and BC with low attendence.

The NFL used to be only big in TO; now there are NFL fans across the country. CFL has been failing for many years as it is still living in the 20th century; the demographics are changing and other leagues are adjusting...the CFL has to do something radical to get fans excited...they should merge with the XFL (if opportunity still exists)...change to 4 down is one way forward....adjust or die.

Reminds me of Argos, when they had a chance to be top dog for a new stadium in TO; BMO field would have been built to football specs, instead they got bribed by Rogers to stay in the crappy skydome. Few years later Rogers kicked the Argos out to the road; now they had to beg to get into BMO field where the endzones were gonna be too small.

Got to take advantage of opportunities while you have something to offer; otherwise one becomes a begger and gets the scraps.

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Don’t they owe $100’s of millions for their Stadiums?

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Not Winnipeg. The government kindly wrote it off. Don’t know about Saskatchewan.

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Thats a good deal!
No wonder other cities don’t want to build a Stadium! :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

I think you’re being more negative than realistic here. They sold a 40% stake of the team for $20 million.

I support the NFL timing rules with a 30-second clock. It would definitely help some. But it wouldn’t help with the stoppages for flags, challenges, reviews, and commercials. Reducing all that dead time is paramount, IMO.

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i posted a link to relevant 3DN article regarding team and league revenue in another related thread:

https://forums.cfl.ca/t/the-cfl-has-lost-half-of-its-fans-in-just-over-a-decade/81516/13

According to their financial reports, the Saskatchewan Roughriders produce approximately $40 million in annual gross revenue. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers generate $35 million, while the Edmonton Football Team checks in at $25 million.
It’s believed that the CFL’s gross revenue in a non-pandemic year is between $200 million and $240 million. As such, we can project that the league’s six privately-owned teams average between $17 million and $23 million in annual revenue.

i’d be interested to know the current valuation of each CFL team now. :thinking:

I remember that article from a few months ago. I commented at the time that I thought it was poorly written as it compares average attendance in the CFL to the NHL and NBA and gloats that the CFL average is higher. Poppycock! The CFL plays nine home games and the NHL plays 41 and the NBA similar. Their revenue is massively more from attendance alone, not to mention TV rights and advertising. The conclusions in the article are not supported by the reasoning, in my opinion. I don’t know if I would go as far as to say that the CFL business model is completely broken, but it appears to me that it could sure use some major repairs. The CFL was once on par or ahead of both the NHL and NBA and even the NFL financially. Now it is several galaxies away. That is not because of an unbroken business model.

It would be nice to know the value of each franchise as you suggest but that is impossible. Perhaps a Canadian business magazine could do a Forbes like estimate but even then that would be just educated speculation. There is no way of knowing what a franchise is worth unless it sells and we receive accurate information regarding the sale price. I would guess that the three most valuable franchises in the league in order are Winnipeg, Saskatchewan and Hamilton.

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I am aware of many commenting about changes in the areas you suggest, and that would certainly help, but I still think the haphazard and sometimes nonsensical timing rules ruin the flow of the game more than anything. At least they do for me. I actually don’t mind commercial breaks very much. Bathroom, food, drink and typing in the game thread breaks is how I view commercials. Personally I despise the split screen ads and especially the banners flying across the screen like an attacking insect.

I disagree. That is simply not a realistic valuation as I said. Your comment made me think of something else though. I don’t know the Hamilton situation well enough to know whether Young owns the stadium as well. Perhaps you know. If so then I can see the price being paid as more realistic if a share in the stadium was included. That doesn’t mean the franchise is worth that much, however. My estimate would be $15 million.

yea i found that hard to swall… er believe.

trust me, i’m using my resource to find some info on this… i actually think i may have found some of that info but it’s behind a brutal paywall.

You are all forgetting that the steel company also got 40% of Hamilton's soccer team, in a league that is miniscule, but that is growing.
Value is all based on growth, hense why Netflix is worth so much despite losing millions. Also the reason the MLS has morons lining up willing to pay real money for teams that can't draw flies on TV.

I completely disagree with those who say NFL gameflow is better. But I think that depends on how you define 'gameflow'. NFL drives tend to be longer and more sustained. But to me - that's not gameflow, that's boring. I tend to go onto my phone and play a game or two of whatever while watching NFL, and usually when I'm done my game or games, the drive might be over. Usually nothing too exciting happened, no need to rewind.

Back in the 90's-2000's, the CFL completely lost me as a fan. There are multiple reasons, partly because of US expansion, partly because the Bombers were lousy. Over the last roughly ten years (give or take) I came back to the CFL and loving it. The NFL of course has a large number of good games (they better, since there's roughly 15 games per week) but when there's a good CFL game - jeez it's so much better than any NFL game.

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