The CFL/XFL solution: A MLB-style NL/AL rule system?

Best analogy I have heard in a long long time

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But it’s not going to happen, the Americans won’t accept 3 down football and they are not going to expand their stadiums to accommodate the larger field.
The merger will be more on the lines of player sharing and joint marketing etc
The XFL will play in the winter/spring with full TV/streaming coverage, XFL players can jump to the CFL for the summer and earn another pay cheque.
The CFL will continue as a summer 3 down league and players can jump to the XFL in February.
The teams will never play each other.

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I see that as the most likely scenario .

It’s trying to get knowledgeable people in the biz who know sports entertainment marketing and see if the CFL is viable to sustain itself and grow to something that no longer requires so much reliance on philanthropy on the private end .

Xfl is not a solution. League has died twice.

Winter/Spring league is not a solution. How many have died in the US with over 300 million people and had media partners, Nfl personalities and plenty of investors or investor money.

Moving the season earlier?
Puts the league opening 2 months directly across from NBA and NHL playoffs. It doesnt matter if there are no Cdn teams, the media follows those leagues. A carolina vs columbus playoff game may only draw the most hardcore fans, but, in particular the 2 sports networks, will spend 3-5 times the time on that than the Cfl. One is a league partner and team owner and the other is a team owner. Would never know it.
Also, many people say moving to warmer weather would help, yet traditional attendance and ratings have been better in the fall vs summer. Just like moving away from sunday games has hurt the Cfl, moving the season could kill it.

Partnership in different operations and promotions is the most likely, in my opinion. Xfl stays in spring, Cfl stays where they are.
Allow players to play in both leagues. Useful for 2nd or 3rd stringers or strictly special teams players to get more reps.

Refs are licensed in both leagues. More opportunity for game experience.

Health and Safety research and data sharing.

Marketing and promoting of leagues and players. This seems to be the one area where RedBird could help the Cfl.

However, the leagues must be run separately.

Leave the Xfl rules in the Xfl. Many xfl rules that were seen as positive and more entertaining, were being compared to the NFL rules, not cfl in particular special teams.

No perfect solution available right now.

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Because that worked out so well when the CFL expanded to the US? They’ve already proven that 3 down football doesn’t sell in the US.

Red Bird isn’t going into any possible merger just to use rules that Americans don’t like if they want to have a fighting chance at succeeding. If they don’t get the rules they require - then they won’t want to merge. And if they don’t merge, expect MLSE to sell or fold the Argos.

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I would like to know what MLSE thinks the XFL & RedBird can in fact do for their franchise. Promote insignificant players whom Toronto fans would have no interest in?

Everything starts with your product, and the XFL can have all the business geniuses in the world advising them, but right now they do not have a viable product. Nor did they ever.

The Argos have to market their team like the Redblacks and Tiger-Cats have done & make a CFL game not just a football game but a fun outing.

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But the Argos have marketed their team like the Redblacks and Tiger Cats, it’s the crowd in Ottawa and Hamilton that makes the atmosphere exciting there.
The Argos/MLSE have actually gone further than the other two teams but it’s not getting the fans out. The Argos have the pre-game shipyard concerts with $4 beer and games etc. They have the $5 in stadium draft beer. They sell $20 tickets, you can’t get a ticket under $40 in Hamilton or Ottawa.
The 019 season they had a pre-season game in the afternoon open to all school kids free, and they bussed them in.
They did an Argo bobblehead night, all fans got bobbleheads.
Concerts with Rappers, country bands, rock bands
They did the TV ads with the Argos running through the CNE grounds, TTC ads.
What more could they do?
Because Toronto has the Raptors, Jays, Leafs, TFC sports fans do not see the Argos as major league.

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Don’t know the answer then, other than giving it more time. Murphy & Co. have put together a solid 2021 team. Single game betting will at some point help the bottom line.

But the XFL certainly won’t be the answer.

We will all find out together

I have been on XFL podcasts and many of the people(hosts and subscribers) on there are open to watching CFL games this year because of the Rock mentioning of his origins. They were adamant for the CFL to convert to XFL rules, but they relented over time. It seems that they would give the CFL a chance because it is football.

There can’t be player sharing because of the possibility of players being injured and fatigued playing over 25 physical games. It will a grind for the players, players need a break for recovery.

There is going to be a champions league championship between both leagues for exposure within North America.

I believe there will a full on merger for the 2023 season. Saskatchewan gets to host the last Grey Cup that we know as.

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The 90’s expansion is long ago, it’s ancient history. History has changed the North American landscape post 9/11 and COVID-19 , people have changed. We learn to not make the mistakes from History. Do it right this time

The CFL has to evolve and to do that it has to expand it’s base.

The CFL can exist without MLSE. If they can find a buyer for Montreal, they find a buyer for the Argos. But MLSE would be foolish to leave the CFL right now with legalized gambling, it would be another revenue stream for it’s corporation. There is talk of Revenue Sharing amongst all CFL teams. These are two factors to increase the value of their Argos property

It’s funny how the 90s is long ago, yet 5 years later isn’t long ago to keep bringing up the XFL 1.0 failure as a reason why it’ll never work - even though XFL 2.0 only ceased due to the pandemic.

You’re highly overestimating the value of sports betting for the CFL. The best case scenarios that are brought up as generating around 1.5m per team. 1.5 million is chump change to MLSE and does nothing to increase the value of the Argos. Nor does revenue sharing.

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If evolving involves changing the rules to make it Americanized then it defeats the purpose of having the CFL around doesn’t it.

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I doubt that MLSE will dump the Argos, they haven’t dumped their AHL hockey team because of low attendance. The only issue would be if the Jays and Leafs started to lose money and MLSE cut off funding to the weakest links.

As for gambling, losing the Argos would not make any difference. Legalized gambling is for all sports not just the CFL, if people can’t bet on CFL games they would be betting on the NFL, MLB. It’s not like a gambler is going to not gamble because there is no CFL to gamble, they would bet anyway on something else.
People are even betting on English and Euro soccer, but now Canadian provinces can get a piece of it.

Revenue sharing? I still don’t know what that actually means. Do you mean sharing net revenue or gross revenue?
Or would it be like the NFL, where ticket sales are split between the home team, which gets 60% of the gate, with the remaining 40% going into a shared pool that is split across all teams.

I am curious to know how each game revenues are split up amongst the teams.

A whole lot of assumptions being made all over the place...

-Players playing in both leagues.
-CFL teams moving to American rules
-MLSE folding the Argos

It is certainly understandable since the parties have divulged nothing which is also understandable when you factor the predatory behavior of the "Elephant in the Room" lurking.

I'm going to say this. Canadian football is 3 down football. That is what it is.

So if the CFL teams agree to 4 down then it is not a merger it is more akin to ending Canadian Football (CFL) and joining an American football league (XFL).

Seems pretty crazy to me when the league is successful in most of its markets and the idea that they would be successful in Toronto if they moved to 4 down rules is strictly an assumption. My personal feeling is that Toronto sports fans would not view the XFL any different than the CFL (minor league). So destroying your "product" on the unsupported assumption of one partner seems like an insane business decision but there may be more issues creating pressure behind the scene.

We will all find out together...

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Let’s hope that is sooner rather than later but something tells me we won’t hear much more about this until the next off season. Too many details to work out and I’m sure the league doesn’t want to upset fans just as they are trying to get them back.

I agree that substantially changing rules, field size etc. wouldn’t be a wise move but no point in getting too worked up about it until we really know what’s going on.

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MLSE’s motives have never been scrutinized by MSM sports journalists why they invested in the CFL when all three were trying or are heavily invested in the NFL brand .

Keeping someone out of BMO can’t be the only reason behind it and risk destroying the MLSE conglomerate thru the competition act when a CFL owner attempts to lease the place for a proper schedule cannot be the sole reason of keeping the boatmen afloat.

Protection of a shared company ownership can’t be the only reason for the CFL survival in Toronto by MLSE there has to be an internal struggle with that partnership that requires the CFL to live under their thumb .

What’s in it for Rogers has never been properly answered .

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That’s right, the XFL just like the CFL and the AHL hockey team are minor league in the eyes of Toronto sports fans. Playing with American rules is not going to increase attendance.

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Sometime between new year and Draft date I figure.

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