I have been a fan of the CFl for nearly 25 years, but there is a fundamental problem. There are too few teams. When a team can make the play-offs with a 4-13 record we have a problem. I would like to see a 12 team league (4 in a western division, 4 in a central division, and 4 in a eastern division). Then, you could run the play-offs in the old NFL format. the winner of each division makes the play-offs along with 3 wild card teams. Until this happens, the league will remain somewhat stale because there is not enough in league competition.
Tell that to the Renegades ckovac that with just 9 teams, it was too easy to make the playoffs. Numbers don't tell much of a story if you don't have a team that is good enough to compete.
Tell this to the Leafs, heck, even in a 2 team league you would think that once in every 5 years they would win the SC, but anyone with anything upstairs knows their chances of winning this much would worse than that.
Remember, the CFL is a Canadian league and there aren't exactly huge cities out there with stadiums that can just jump into the league at a moments notice. This is Canada with 30 mill people with few football stadiums of decent size, not the States that is a football crazed country of some 300 mill with stadiums left, right and centre.
No competition? I think the last few years have had some of the stiffest competition in this league. I enjoy having fewer teams. That's the main reason i don't watch NFL. The more teams you have, the harder it is to follow what's happening in the league.
You npot the only one i would like to see 12 teams in the CFL. and some new rivalires as well too.
I feel exactly how arjoel feels.
DuckMonk, why don't you give us your 5 or 10 year plan then on how to get the CFL to 12 teams. First thing to remember it isn't easy getting football stadiums built in this country, not an easy task at all.
Perception
I'm just hoping we get Halifax in and Ottawa back. A coast to coast league with two 5 team divisions would be great. I think national representation would really improve the dynamics of the league and probably go a long way to selling the game across Canada.
Well, I agree with what you are saying ruff. I wish the league had of had more of a "mission" or "vision" back in the 60's, 70's and 80's of seeing that a team gets on the east coast, I feel that at that time, and I may be wrong, that the league said to fuc* with the east coast, we are good with what we have. I know my personal vision for the league for the next 5 years at least is as you say, Ottawa back and Halifax in, this would be very, very sweet indeed.
Probably economic reasons dictate limits on the number of teams. Financially, the CFL isn't very profitable and rich owners keep teams alive. One way of adding teams is by reducing barriers to entry. Perhaps, downsizing via lower salary cap and smaller stadiums. For example, there are few pro teams but many college teams that are more affordable.
I agree thirdperson with potentially lowering the salary cap and smaller stadiums, if, in fact, it is the vision of the league to be in more cities in Canada quickly. The way it is now, this isn’t going to happen in my honest opinion. But that is the crunch, this could make the perception that the league can’t get enough talent from the States to come up here and play say for $35,000-$45,000 per year. I say hogwash but you know this idea would be ridiculed by those in Toronto and perhaps other big cities, calling the CFL more of a small time, not worth watching league than now. So there is the crux and I have absolutely no friggin answers on this at all, zilch, and I don’t think anyone else anywhere does either.
So, I personally like the way it is now and with the hope of getting Ottawa back, Halifax in and better TV contracts to make it worthwhile for people to invest in CFL franchises.
Population will only allow 10 teams for now. Maybe Ottawa and Maybe a MAritime team. Those are big maybe's. Lowering the Salary cap wont work. If players can make more money as financial anylysts or firemen, they wont come here to play. You need a population to sustain 20,000 people or more. Anything less will be a repeat of the Ottawa fiasco.
The idea of expansion has been driven into the ground. A 10-team league is the challenge now, and there's not a whole lot of the "where should we expand" speculation - Atlantic Canada and Ottawa are the locations.
I'd love to see the CFL become an even home-and-away league. 10 teams would do this. The relevance of each matchup would be obvious. In an 18-fixture, 8-team league, teams play eachother 4 times - way too much - but we all know this.
With 12 teams, you have fixtures obvious up until you get to 16 games. The last two matchups would likely have to be local, divisional. But who knows.
Trying to get Ottawa back and Halifax in is the key.
Do ya think the NFL could make a go of a 100 team league? If not, why then do you expect us, with 10% of the population, to make a go of 10 teams???
we already have twice as many teams per capita as they do. Hence the half as many fans per game. Given that thought, I dont think we are doing that bad. As far as only 8 teams. Look at amature sports, high school, college, etc. Most play in leagues of around 8 teams, give or take. Just watch and enjoy the games, one at a time and dont worry so much about the value of the winning. A 4-14 team in the playoffs means another game we get to watch.
Excellent points FootbalYouBet, good post.
One thing I don't want to see is expansion into the U.S., they have more than enough football teams down there. Keep it simple, 10 teams in Canada, coast to coast.
The marketing opportunities a national league would present could be big. As for expansion beyond that...maybe when Canada's population doubles.
Sorry ckovac but i dont really like your idea of having a central division. Canada is not really an idea country to divide in 3 lol hmm... BC/alberta/sask - manitoba/ontario - quebec/maritimes.... naaa sorry but i dont see myself being in a whole lot of competition with a province like nova scotia
There is nothing wrong with the CFL game... it is the most exciting game to watch over the summer and into the fall, especially when baseball is a joke and NFL is basically a running league, with a few passes thrown in(the best teams play a CFL type game in the NFL), and hockey is just starting up in Oct and NBA just bites peroid. If only the CFL BOG's and referees could clean up their act.....
First a rehash about expanding to mythical sites in Canada w/o population base, corporate presence or stadiums.
Now, an attempt to rehash US expansion.
I believe there's more than a few existing threads on each topic where it has beaten to deth.
Move on, nothing to see here. :lol:
Um, Winnipeg was out of the playoffs, and they had a record of 5-13, I don’t know what league you were watching. With the CO, the playoffs are pretty much prefect the way they are.
and just becase a league has 8 or 9 teams is no excuse not to watch it, I wish the AFL/VFL could have been done with one team from every major Australian city, and if they did that, they would have about 8 teams as well (two in Melbourne (Geelong), Two in Adelaide (Power), Two in Perth (Fremantle), one in Sydney, one in Brisbane)
and the Divisions are prefect the way they are, they represent the two leagues/conferences that formed the CFL, and should be left as it is.
Some of the best hockey played was when the NHL had six teams. The number of teams mean nothing as long as the fans are entertained. Remember the more teams the more water down the product will be.