Ok, this came to me pretty randomly, but, could the CFl use the AFL's suspension of the 2009 season to get a T.V contract with E.S.P.N to fill the void the AFL was filling, by providing summer time football in America? I live in Boston and am a big Cfl fan that would like to be able to see some televised games and I think that most american football fans would like the CFL's style of football more than the AFL's because it has a much closer resemblence to the American game. Any opinions?
The CFL doesn’t play on Monday so ESPN would have to replace programming on other days.
[url=http://www.arenafootball.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3500&ATCLID=727455&SPID=1563]http://www.arenafootball.com/ViewArticl ... &SPID=1563[/url] [url=http://sports.espn.go.com/extra/afl/news/story?id=2780003]http://sports.espn.go.com/extra/afl/new ... id=2780003[/url]No chance, if we didn't get on the main network when we had teams in the states,where not now. They have mlb,nba, and nfl to fill airtime.
I could see some coverage in June and July before the NFL starts and when the NBA and NHL are in hibernation. Either way I hope the CFL has a better TV deal in the States then last year!
The CFL was on ESPN network from their inception until 1996 (when the U.S. teams ceased operation.) They are currently on ESPN360. I think ESPN knows their business and knows the CFL and if it was worth they're while, they'd still be carrying the games.
The CFL could easily schedule an 10-game "Monday Night Game of the Week" package for TSN/ESPN during the summer until Labour Day, when the CFL games could be moved to Sunday. Although the NFL schedules some Monday night preseaon games in August, I believe. Another option is a Sunday night CFL game to fill that time slot during the summer.
They were on espn 2,huge difference then the main network. May and june are NBA playoffs and MLB. it would be nice but not going to happen.
There is a reason ESPN has been kicking themselves for letting the NHL go. Sure it wasn't a huge draw on the main network but it did good numbers for ESPN 2. Seeing the CFL back on ESPN 2 is not out of the question.
Mostly because there was no deal. Besides America One but that really doesn’t count.
Finally some common sense, mark Cohon? Are you out there? :thup:
Sunday night football is better. A game on Friday, 2 Saturday, and 1 Sunday night that could be carried on ESPN. I'm pretty sure their Sunday night slot is open, and Sunday night is when most people are at home relaxing. I wish TSN could make it seem more prime time though and do a better pre game show, and maybe do player introductions like they do on ESPN, make the Americans feel like their watching Sunday night NFL football, not to mention it's really cool.
Wouldnt the cfl import ration hamper alot of usa talent…Good example Omar Jacobs would be on a cfl roster but if you have 20 Americans/20 Canadians how could you garner US talent with that ratio…its only so many slots you could fill…
ESPN 2 dose make very good sense. ESPN 360.com was a joke! The idea was good, but not if you were a us college student who wanted to watch the CFL.
What other TV channels carry the AFL?
i agree.
i’ve always felt TSN should do something to differentiate FNF ( thier marqee show ) from the other weekly games.
i’d LOVE to see every FNF have the panel live at the stadium with the fans in the backround, and have player intros. makes it feel more ‘BiG GAME’.
Great to see more american CFL fans on here. E.S.P.N. won’t carry the games. But i have started a petition to try and get the league onto ‘Versus’. It is available in 70 million u.s. homes by either satellite or cable and usually in the basic package. Here’s the link to the petition and please pass it along to anyone else you know interested in the CFL…Thanks.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cflonustv/More excellent suggestions! Mark Cohon? Are you listening? :roll: :twisted:
I dont think most people would watch…I think a good spring/summer league would work in the usa but I dont know if the cfl would work unless you had us based teams…
Well, the migration begins. Hamilton picks up a couple AFLers:
[url=http://tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=266665&lid=sublink01&lpos=headlines_cfl]http://tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=266665&lid= ... dlines_cfl[/url]The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have signed import defensive tackle Alan Harper and import defensive end Garrett McIntyre.Harper has spent the last three seasons with the Arena Football League’s San Jose SabreCats, where he recorded 19.5 tackles and four quarterback sacks in 10 games in 2008. The Fresno State product has also suited up for the NFL’s New York Jets and NFL Europe’s Scottish Claymores. He is 29.
McIntyre played the past two seasons with the SabreCats, totaling 18 tackles and six quarterback sacks in 2008. Prior to turning pro, the 24-year-old played four seasons at Fresno State where he was honoured as the WAC Defensive Player of the Year award as well as first-team All-Conference in 2005.
http://www.thespec.com/Sports/article/524189
Arena influx boost to CFLMarch 05, 2009
Steve Milton
The Hamilton Spectator
(Mar 5, 2009)
The Canadian Football League is getting the talent influx from the recent demise of the Arena Football League that it did not get when NFL Europe went under just a year earlier.The arena league, considered one of professional sport’s success stories as it carved out an unlikely niche in the U.S. market with eight players on the field and a schedule running into late spring, suspended operations for the 2009 season when its TV contract was not renewed.
From an unscientific poll taken by the Spectator during this week’s congress, it appears more than two dozen players who had expected to play the indoor game this spring will be in CFL training camps instead.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats, for instance, have four Arena Football League defensive linemen coming to camp in early June. The Argonauts have five, perhaps six, ex-AFLers, Montreal, Winnipeg and Calgary three each “and maybe more by training camp,” according to Stampeder GM Jim Barker. And the B.C. Lions have invited seven players who had been under contract to the Arena Football League to tryout camps in the U.S. Some of those will advance to the main training camp. The Bombers will also work out some AFL quarterbacks at their U.S. mini-camps.
Only the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Eskimos are indicating they’ll have as few as one or two AFL players in camp.
“We made our big changes last season,” explains Eskimo GM Dan Maciocia. “So we don’t need to look at 14 or 15 new guys.”
Two years ago, the CFL and AFL agreed to respect each other’s contracts.
When the indoor league decided in December to suspend operations, it opened a window to allow its contracted players to sign anywhere else. That window was scheduled to close March 1 but was recently extended to March 31, and could stay open much longer.
When the NFL folded its European developmental league in December 2007, it didn’t impact the CFL talent pool very much. Most of the players in that league were allotted to NFL teams that had sent them there to gain experience. They returned to NFL practice squads and, beyond that, many NFL teams have found ways to “hide” players they thought might have a future in their organization.
While there has been a smattering of CFLers, including Michael Bishop, who’ve played AFL ball, there hasn’t been a mass flow of human traffic between the two leagues, partly because of the non-raiding agreement.
“In the arena league, their contracts never terminated,” Lions head coach and GM Wally Buono said yesterday. “Their contracts rolled over every year. So, unless they had some agreement to get out of their contracts, they stayed there. Plus, they had contracts that were as good as, if not better than, we could offer because of some of the other perks: rent, taxes, the dollar exchange. So, getting some of those guys wasn’t always easy.”
Because of its unique rules and skill demands of small ball, many players in the arena league aren’t suited to the vast steppes of the Canadian game.
One scout said: “Most of their offensive linemen are furniture movers.” Another said: “The defensive line are mostly pocket-pushers.” And a third described the running backs as “just small linemen, because they don’t run much.”
But rink football is a quick-delivery passing game in which quarterbacks must unload the ball in a hurry, receivers must execute immediate and effective quick moves and have to be ready for a short, hard pass and defensive backs cover in a corridor roughly 10 yards wide and 60 yards deep.
Plus, there are an inordinate number of in-air battles for the passed ball. If you’d watched the Ticats until about the middle of last year, you’d know that winning fights for the ball at point of reception was not their strong suit. In fact, for about three years, the Cats didn’t even have that suit.
Accordingly, since the unexpected harvest of displaced arena leaguers began two months ago, most CFL teams have concentrated on defensive backs and receivers. But they’re also watching for quarterbacks (Super Bowl finalist Kurt Warner came out of the league) and Bob O’Billovich thinks one or two of the defensive linemen he’s recruited will make the team. His Cats already made much-needed upgrades at receiver and defensive back last season.
There will be about a half-dozen former arena linemen expected in CFL camps this spring.
“One thing you have to remember, these guys didn’t grow up playing inside,” says Edmonton punter Noel Prefontaine. “They all played on regulation fields at one time in their career, and can readjust.”
One difference to the CFL between the demise of NFL Europe and the arena league’s suspension of operations is the age of the players. NFL Europe was a developmental game and none of the players had exhausted, or thought they had exhausted, their pathways to the big league.
On their agents’ advice, former NFL Europe players often waited for NFL calls last year rather than tie themselves down to the weak-salaried league to the north. But it’s expected more and more of the kinds of players who had been with NFL Europe will begin migrating north next season as the reduced four-down football labour market becomes more obvious to them.
On the other hand, the arena players who are migrating north this year “tend to be older guys,” says one CFL scout, and have already gone through the NFL-hope cycle that fuels younger players’ desire to stay south of the border.
“It’s a good influx of talent into our league,” says Obie.
smilton@thespec.com