There is nothing too thrilling in the nation of Rider on the surface. The team has a 0.83 blood alcohol level win percentage at the time of this arrest. Not much to work with, to be kind.
But not all is lost. Fans have to go beyond player stats and the playoff picture to take a look inside the innermost workings of the organization. And without access to the CFL information that the league refuses to make available, that’s harder than it needs to be.
There are some not-so-everyday details available in the media, radio programs, message boards, social media sites, podcasts, and blogs like this one. These tasty morsels require a good chunk of the average fan’s day to sift through.
Supporters are somewhat fortunate because there is some really good CFL content available from coast-to-coast-to-coast today. For short example, writer Drew Edwards at the Hamilton Spectator, the Sportscage with Rod Pedersen on 620 CKRM, www.riderfans.com, the Let’s Talk CFL group on Facebook, the 2 and Out podcast, and here in the CFL department on Last Word on Sports. The media and fans are doing their part. (Contact me for more examples!)
Okay, enough promotion. All of these examples serve to sustain interest along with the press releases, player bios, interviews, fan forum chatter, and feel good stories.
The Riders are actually ahead of the curve in this department. As a community-owned franchise, they are required to divulge their full financial report at the annual general meeting. The Edmonton Eskimos and Winnipeg Blue Bombers are the other two public entities in the CFL.
There’s also been a recent string of Rider GMs and coaches who have been more than generous at times with sensitive and highly speculated about information.
The club seems to pick a single media person that they feel most comfortable with, in these instances, so the story reads exactly how it was intended to be read. Nonetheless the info is there for onlookers to consume.
That’s all sound communication policy in today’s professional sports landscape. I don’t hear too many groans or any griping after the fact if the club chooses to stay quiet about a football-related element of their business. Not in public anyways.
CFL clubs and the league itself need to get together on what is important to keep quiet and what is not. I’d think they’d want to include lawyers in the discussion. Elements like player salaries and fines could stay private without backlash. Other elements need to become transparent in the name of accountability and inclusion.
Here’s what I hear from others, and think myself very often.
Why can’t we, the fans and media, know who the players are on the various organizations’ negotiation lists?
At a minimum, the CFL must tell fans what benefit they or the clubs enjoy in keeping the lists privileged knowledge.
Transparency and the sense of inclusion is lacking. Just because it always has been a no-talk element of the CFL doesn’t mean it can’t change. They’ve got to get with the rest of the Information Age in this regard.
Is it time to draft international players and scrap the neg. list altogether?
The CFL could put all the current neg. list players in a one time dispersal draft. In addition, they could include an upcoming class of draft eligible players to form an annual draft two or three weeks after the NFL draft.
That would give CFL general managers and scouting departments a small window to sharpen their lists while NFL teams are signing undrafted free agents. Jim Popp knows. If the league asked him he would tell them that very idea, because it’s his along with the many who agree with him.
Why are draft pick trades conditional?
Most fans understand how a draft pick received via trade might be conditional. So why are these conditions – transaction details that fans eat up – shrouded in mystery? The league needs to understand that these details are not only fun for fans, but at times required to further debate.
And you’d think they’d be thrilled that these debates are happening. The sporting landscape is changing in Canada. Professional club soccer, and if we wait long enough club cricket, will be leading the new era of sport in Canada. The leagues that are winning right now know how to engage their fans in special ways.
The CFL has itself been an example in certain areas. The Purolator Tackle Hunger initiative and the War Amps partnership are great long-time programs that keep fans happy to do their part. Polls and contests on CFL.ca are fun as well.
Today, CFL fans are doing yeoman work promoting the league and its brands, usually selflessly, for only the league’s gain. How about throwing the fans a bone now and then?
Aside from the public team advantages, there’s no thrilling management perspective for CFL fans either, thanks to the gag order on these should-be-public streams of information.
Just hope that your team never gets to 1-11, folks! You can only get so excited and invested in today’s CFL, because apparently that’s the way the CFL Board of Governors wants it.
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