108th Grey Cup - Winnipeg vs. Hamilton

[Julio]

And total attendance was high because there were 13 teams...
Average attendance wasn't 46k a gam, that was the average capacity of the stadia the teams played in...here is an average attendance graph:

[Zarley]

I don't really agree with the doom & gloom sayers. The CFL has historically gone through peaks and valleys of popularity. This Grey Cup was fantastically entertaining to watch.

For me the biggest issues are:
- The length of games and amount of time that play is stopped. They need to cut the amount of video replay reviews / challenges, and reduce the amount of time stopped for commercial breaks. This is not just a CFL problem, but football in general.
- The TSN exclusivity was a good thing back when everyone had cable, but a lot of people have dropped TSN since they lost the NHL rights. Spreading the TV rights around to various networks and having the Grey Cup back on a free channel like CBC would be a good move.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I never said it was healthy. I said it wasn't on its last legs. Read my post again. The CFL was healthy in the 70's and period of 80's, then again in the mid-2000's largely because of TSN. However it's been a steady decline as attendance has dropped to its lowest in decades.

Does that graph not correlate to my post above to the T? TSN is the only thing that has kept the league profitable but the league failed to take advantage of what was their lone prosperous time in decades and is now trending back to norms. What's really bleak about the last decade is that a new team was added in 2014 and look at the attendance graph with an extra team.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Zarley

I
- The TSN exclusivity was a good thing back when everyone had cable, but a lot of people have dropped TSN since they lost the NHL rights. Spreading the TV rights around to various networks and having the Grey Cup back on a free channel like CBC would be a good move.

Can't do that as TSN is the only thing keeping the league a float right now. It's still the only good thing the league has going for it.

[White Out 403]

I never thought I'd read a serious CFL fan try and sell anyone the 90s were anything but a disaster. Ridiculous take.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by White Out 403

I never thought I'd read a serious CFL fan try and sell anyone the 90s were anything but a disaster. Ridiculous take.

You are just bummed out that the lone time the Bombers are relevant in the CFL it's during a period the country barely acknowledges the league exists. Go home.

[White Out 403]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

You are just bummed out that the lone time the Bombers are relevant in the CFL it's during a period the country barely acknowledges the league exists.

What a dumb post. For so many reasons. You are engaging in projection. I'm going to check out of this for the time being before I get in the sin bin again.

[dash_pinched]

I'm not saying eliminate the ratio, but maybe after a non-National player has accumulated three years of service in the CFL, he is considered a National. Alternatively, maybe you bring in a rule where you state that you have to have a certain number of National players on the defensive side of the ball (as we know, the majority of National players comprise the O-line and some receiver/running back positions).

At least it would be encouraging to have some kind of CFL summit where you bring in owners, former players and other key people to bounce some ideas off Randy Ambrosie. What are the chances of that happening, though?

[Slava]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

I'm not saying eliminate the ratio, but maybe after a non-National player has accumulated three years of service in the CFL, he is considered a National. Alternatively, maybe you bring in a rule where you state that you have to have a certain number of National players on the defensive side of the ball (as we know, the majority of National players comprise the O-line and some receiver/running back positions).

At least it would be encouraging to have some kind of CFL summit where you bring in owners, former players and other key people to bounce some ideas off Randy Ambrosie. What are the chances of that happening, though?

I feel like part of the CFL identity is never admitting they have a problem. Like it's glaringly obvious to everyone else, but they'd still talk about what an amazing gameday experience it is at McMahon stadium.

[cheevers]

I wonder if making the ball smaller might help the offense. Allow the QBs to put more on the ball, maybe throw it farther. Could balance it out. Agree going to 4 downs would be a disaster.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by cheevers

I wonder if making the ball smaller might help the offense. Allow the QBs to put more on the ball, maybe throw it farther. Could balance it out. Agree going to 4 downs would be a disaster.

Change the league to the NRFL
Nerf Football League

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by cheevers

I wonder if making the ball smaller might help the offense. Allow the QBs to put more on the ball, maybe throw it farther. Could balance it out. Agree going to 4 downs would be a disaster.

American QB's will want the ball to be as close as possible to the balls they grew up using in the US. The CFL ball is nearly the exact same size now. As has been discussed the quality of Canadian offensive linemen is suffering as the good ones are in the NFL and CFL teams are starting national players right out of the CIS that aren't ready to face import defensive linemen. Nobody likes the talk of reducing the ratio but that's the best way to improve the quality of play as well as get rid of the administration cap which I believe has played a role in the decline in quality as less coaches is always going to lead down the path of sloppier play.

[Captain Otto]

It seems to me that there is a definite lack of big name quarterbacks. I recall a day that it seemed every team and a great QB - Brock, Clemens, Austin, Flutie, etc, etc. This developed some great rivalries and of course great games.

Further, it seems QB's switch teams much more often than they use to.

[dino7c]

TSN has been good for the CFL overall but a lot of people don't even have it these days. Grey Cup used to be on CBC.

Most young people I know don't even have cable let alone paying extra for TSN

[calf]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

I'm not saying eliminate the ratio, but maybe after a non-National player has accumulated three years of service in the CFL, he is considered a National. Alternatively, maybe you bring in a rule where you state that you have to have a certain number of National players on the defensive side of the ball (as we know, the majority of National players comprise the O-line and some receiver/running back positions).

At least it would be encouraging to have some kind of CFL summit where you bring in owners, former players and other key people to bounce some ideas off Randy Ambrosie. What are the chances of that happening, though?

I like this.

One idea I've had (or have subconsciously stolen) is after a few years of service with a team, you reduce how much a players salary counts against the cap. Ie, if they have played 4 years in your team, they get paid 100k salary, but are 90k for cap purposes.

This can allow teams to keep players for a long time to build a connection with the fans, but you avoid the trappings of having to decide when a player gets too expensive to keep on the roster.

My fandom is going down too, and I think a big part of it is how there's so much turnover of players year over year. For me, it's no longer really a team to follow, but a collection of players you watch.

[browna]

Originally Posted by Captain Otto

Further, it seems QB's switch teams much more often than they use to.

Brock played for 3 teams, Austin 4, Clements 4 Flutie 3, Ham 4, Dunigan 6…in an 7 or 8 team league (Dunigan and Ham played in the US though).

CFL is a feeder league, and its top players still American. Covid really did a number on the CFL and it’s teams and the player on those teams because of border restrictions. Missing an entire season scattered some of that talent all over the place, where for many players, the hassle of playing for $45k, maybe, in a country that was hard to get in and out of, with lots of stuff going on at home, meant practice, training plans etc in the offseason were non existent as individuals and the subsequent team cohesiveness went out the window and not worth the small salary. Then, with no other options, those same players,a year later and older, may not have been in physical shape even if they wanted to go through all the hoops to play again this year, and that showed.

It left normally well off teams in the US scouting area, like the Stamps, scrambling to find players to fill a roster. And the talent loss and degradation wasnt restricted to depth players, Mitchell didn’t take care of himself in the 16 months off, and it showed through injury and a few steps behind all season because he didn’t have his routine or ability to practice on a CFL,field and ball with CFL players for over a year.

Overall, the scramble for players meant this wasn’t a team of unified players that had been through a season or 3 of wars together, it was a lot of new guys that no one knew what to expect, and even old players whom no one knew what level they were at any more post covid…in the Stamps and all other teams.

So this was a poor season of product in the field for the league as a while. The financial losses still hurt from a missed season around the league.

But I don’t trust Ambrosie to lead the CFL back to a level of even a few years ago; his tweaking of rules and ideas like Euro and South American drafts seem more like virtue signalling then solid business plans. 4 downs and other ideas, trying to show he is open to anything, shows to me instead that he has no idea and is throwing everything against a wall hoping something will stick under the guise of “opening it up to the fan input”.

[Erick Estrada]

Quarterback play is a major issue. Reilly and Harris look like they are near the end and Bo is at a crossroads where his career is either over or he gets his shoulder properly fixed. Toronto and Regina have mediocre starting QB's more suited to backup. Edmonton and Ottawa don't even have starting QB's. I can't remember a time over several decades that the star power of this league is so low. There's not a single QB right now that is worth the price of admission and while William Stanback is a really good running back when he's the best offensive player in the league it's not good times.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by dino7c

TSN has been good for the CFL overall but a lot of people don't even have it these days. Grey Cup used to be on CBC.

Most young people I know don't even have cable let alone paying extra for TSN

This is a tv issue more than just a cfl issue. Being on cbc wouldn’t help as those same people don’t have cbc either.

Tsn being anti streaming is certainly an issue though. At least other networks have half decent apps. Tsn doesn’t even have an app for any non-mobile platforms.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Quarterback play is a major issue. Reilly and Harris look like they are near the end and Bo is at a crossroads where his career is either over or he gets his shoulder properly fixed. Toronto and Regina have mediocre starting QB's more suited to backup. Edmonton and Ottawa don't even have starting QB's. I can't remember a time over several decades that the star power of this league is so low. There's not a single QB right now that is worth the price of admission and while William Stanback is a really good running back when he's the best offensive player in the league it's not good times.

I agree. It wasn't too long ago we had Ray, Burris, and Calvillo. Before them, it was Allen, McManus and Dickenson. Before them, it was Dunigan, Flutie, and Ham.

We're nearing a point where established vets at QB aren't playing as well for as long, and they aren't being replaced by new talent. That's not a recipe for success.

[dash_pinched]

We've been very lucky as Stamps fans to see a QB progression of Flutie to Garcia to Dickinson to Burris to Mitchell. Somehow, Marcus Crandell won a Grey Cup for the Stamps in that time lol.