CFL Fans Are Not Optimists

“Take a sad song and make it better.” – from “Hey Jude” by the Beatles

Recently I wrote a CFL article about the new stadiums that are being built and argued that they should be bigger, built for the increased population of the Canada of the future and an increased popularity for the CFL as well as serving the needs of today.

The article drew a large number of comments (meaning that people are reading it), but not one person who commented shared my viewpoint.

CFL Fans Are Not Optimists

I have a very optimistic vision for the CFL. I believe it can be bigger and better than it is now. For example, this is my vision for the size of CFL stadiums, and I mean good seats, not end zone seats.

• Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver – as is
• Calgary, Saskatchewan, Montreal – 40,000
• Hamilton – 35,000
• Ottawa – 32,000

And all the stadiums can be expanded still further as the popularity of CFL increases.

Similarly I have an optimistic view about CFL expansion. I’ll divide my vision into the short run and long run.

• Short run: now – 5 years: 12 teams
  • Quebec, London, Kitchener
• Long run: 5 years+: 18 teams
  • Halifax, Moncton, Oshawa, Windsor, Saskatoon, Victoria
• Very long run: ?
  • St Johns, St. John, Fredericton, Charlottetown, Sydney, Sherbrooke, Trois Rivieres, Barrie, Thunder Bay, Abbotsford, etc.

My ideal CFL Commissioner: Sir John A. Macdonald, the most optimistic prime minister Canada ever had. He had a tall order to fill for his visionary dreams:

• Unite the existing British North American colonies
• Stretch the new country to the Pacific
• Build a profitable railroad to the Pacific
• Fill it in with settlers who would start a profitable east-west trade

All his visionary plans came true during his lifetime except the last one, which came to pass during the Laurier years, five years after he died, ironically under a Liberal government.

I doubt that my commentators would share my vision (and I invite them to comment again on this article: the target is up). I’ll try to guess what they believe in.

1. The CFL can never turn around the negative image it has in southern Ontario.
2. The good marketing techniques that Regina used during the year it hosted the Grey Cup to fill an enlarged stadium, including crummy end zone seats, cannot continue to fill an enlarged stadium of 40,000 good seats year after year.
3. No improved marketing techniques can improve CFL attendance in any other of its cities.
4. British Columbia and Saskatchewan cannot sustain two teams like Alberta can.
5. The Rogers Centre is to blame for Toronto’s low attendance.
6. The CFL cannot appeal to the ethnic population of Toronto nor to French Canadians in Quebec.
7. The good support that university football programs get at Laval, Western, and Laurier cannot be transferred to the CFL for new stadiums and franchises in Quebec, London, and Kitchener.
8. Experiments like Touchdown Atlantic should not be tried.
9. Small Moncton, the 27th-largest Canadian city, must have been absolutely mad to think that they could stage a CFL game let alone hope for a franchise.
10. No sane investor would dare dream of starting a new CFL franchise in another Canadian city.

Yet virtually every NHL game played in Canadian cities (with the exception of Ottawa) is a sell-out, no matter how bad the team is. People are also willing to go to see the outdoor Heritage Classic game in extremely bad weather in the winter, where seating is miles from the ice and the players look like ants.

But none of my commentators has much faith in the CFL. Year after year the Grey Cup is a sell-out, even in Toronto, but my commentators believe there is nothing to build on. The population of Canada will continue to increase, yet these commentators believe that the CFL will not grow, but instead stagnate and decline.

I started this article with a song that reflected my view, and I’ll finish with one that reflects their view.

“Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English (CFL) way.” – from “Time” by Pink Floyd.

 

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