[Drake]

Any idiot that doesn't think the CFL is a thriving league should hit them himself over the head after reading some stuff Cohon said below at the State of The League this morning (some other stuff in there as well).

Reebok will celebrate a new contract extension with the CFL by introducing stunning new third uniforms in 2014.

Television ratings continue to grow: CFL ratings on TSN were up 4.3 per cent from a year ago, and ratings on TSN and RDS combined were up 3.6 per cent.

An average of 703,000 Canadians watched each CFL regular season game on TSN, and 758,000 watched on TSN and RDS combined – the second highest ratings in the history of the CFL.

The CFL enjoyed its most successful year for corporate partnerships ever, with the exception of the year of the 100th Grey Cup, signing new agreements with LOWES, Canadian Pacific, Mark’s Work Wearhouse, Dr. Oetker and Great Western Brewing.

The latest available numbers, from September, show the league’s merchandising business is up 7 per cent, with apparel up 6 per cent and headwear up 14 per cent, with growth for all teams.

Our digital footprint continues to grow: we saw increases in mobile app views (51 per cent), @CFL Twitter following (75 per cent), Facebook likes (26 per cent), unique visitors to CFL.ca (16 per cent) , and page views (14 per cent).

Moncton hosted another successful CFL game there, NAPA Touchdown Atlantic, and the league advised the City of Halifax on stadium considerations, as the CFL continued to explore the possibility of a tenth team in Atlantic Canada.

Cohon, who acknowledged a year ago that the league had work to do in southern Ontario, said television ratings indicate more and more people in the region are following the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Southern Ontario ratings for Argo regular season games were up 27 per cent compared to last season and 52 per cent compared to 2011, while the Tiger-Cats southern Ontario ratings were up 19 per cent compared to last season, and 32 per cent compared to 2011.

Average attendance for a regular season CFL game this year was 28,963, an increase of 1.5 per cent over last year, if you do not include home games for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who played at the University of Guelph while their new stadium, Tim Hortons Field, is being built in Hamilton.

Guelph’s Alumni Stadium had a capacity of 13,000, less than half the size of the team’s previous home at Ivor Wynne Stadium. If you include attendance numbers from Guelph, the per game average attendance was 27.017, down 4 per cent from last year.

Cohon said player health and safety, and particularly concussion awareness, prevention and treatment, is paramount for the league, which will seek a new collective bargaining agreement with its players in 2014.

http://cfl.ca/article/cohons-state-o...-at-todays-cfl