If the CFL wants to increase revenue streams and their advertising and TV money, its time for an aggressive 4 team expansion.
Enough of trying to milk more out of this 8 team cow. The only way to increase profits, and the fan base,is to increase the number of teams.
Its time for the league to add another 4 team division. TEams to be added would be London, Ottawa, Quebec, and Halifax of Moncton.
Use the stadiums that they currently have. Expand them to 20,000 seats. Lower the expansion fees so that the teams can at least break even the first few years in these smaller stadiums.
Once the teams have been established in these cities, new stadiums would follow.
What we get is a more dynamic 12 team league. We can have big football weekends, with 6 games instead of 4.
PLus more importantly we create new fans for the league from coast to coast.
Its time for the league to get aggressive. You don't grow by remaining stagnant. These 4 new cities would be great CFL towns. The CFL should get off its butt and start thinking about the future. Not be stuck in the past!
I've been thinking along these lines berezin for years but I don't think you'll see it as the CFL will wait, I think, until a new stadium is constructed somewhere first. That's just what I think though, no concrete proof of course. Unfortunate in many ways. The more teams without signficantly more TV money means less money per team, a drawback to expansion unless the expansion fees help make up for this.
The CfL in my opinion can't wait for somebody to build a stadium. Because it'll never happen.
I mean look at the current CFL cities. They're all playing in the same stadiums, outside of Toronto, for the past 40-50 years. I think the CFL has to kickstart things.
And as far as TV money goes, maybe they could make a deal where expansion fees would be waived but TV money wouldn't be shared until a new TV deal.
I say its worth a try, and if it fails, go back to 8 teams. But its worth the gamble in my opinion. I know for sure here in London a cFL team would be a huge success.
The league wouldn't pay the player salaries, the new owners would.
I think Cohon's idea right now is to make all 8 existing franchises profitable. If that's the case, the league wouldn't have to be aggressive, potential owners would step up and request franchises. This is especially the case if Winnipeg's stadium formula becomes a roaring success for all stakeholders.
I'm starting to warm up to the three division scheme tho, especially if ottawa, quebec, and new brunswick each got teams. Along with Montreal, each of those teams would have a large french-speaking section of their fan base.
The only big loser in the three division thing is Winnipeg, who would have to play with London, Hamilton, and Toronto, none of whom it has any traditional rivalries with.
My extra special glimpse into the future:
Ottawa and Quebec City enter the league together in 2009 or 2010. They get 5 years to become stable before, along with New Brunswick, the CFL is introduced to the greatest professional sports team the world has ever seen... THE LONDON PIKEMEN!!!
I don’t see any millionairs lining up to shovel money into a losing proposition (Until you have a big enough stadium, YOU WILL LOSE MONEY!) Heck, we can’t even find someone with deep pockets to return to Ottawa.
Remember what happened to hockey when they expanded to quickly. Do we want it to happen to the CFL???
Have you seen all the merchandise the Riders sell? Not just in Saskatchewan, but in the US too. London would attract a maximum of 20,000 fans per game, not sell any merchandise and be a poor draw in every city they visit.
Not true Sportsmen.
There are buyers, Frank D'angelo is one of them.
There are just limitations and boundaries that the CFL may or may not want to cross.
D'Angelo had a billionaire backer behind him, but the real solution is, no expansion until the 8 existing franchises are finanically healthy. It may take anywhere between 2-3 seasons for that to happen.
That will not happen in 20-30 seasons cause each year we always have one or two weak teams.
Expansion makes the league stronger, not weaker.
With or without a Billionaire backer, D'Angelo still wants Ottawa.
Do you think the NHL is stronger with all the financially weak teams? The CFL SMS is in place to help teams become stronger. The Riders would have posted nearly 850,000 in profit last year if the cap was in place last year. There should no reason why any team should not post a profit this year, especially when attendance is higher for some teams than it was last year.
There are close to a million people within a 1hr drive of London, there’s a large corporate presence, there’s Arthur Labatt worth $300M, there’s a long football tradition with the Mustangs, the one preseason game they’ve held sold out very quickly, an investor from Calgary made attempts to get the ball rolling on an expansion franchise there a few years ago, and they support the London Knights OHL team like crazy. If you like, there’s a whole thread out there called “Lets talk about London in the CFL”, you should check it out.
Until you can come up with a basis for your objections, I’m gonna go ahead and stay positive
