There is no question that the CFL and teens are not on the same page, with teens preferring the NFL. With the advancement of video games, online streaming and social media, football fans from the ages of 12 to 25 years tend to gravitate towards the media-savvy NFL.

In 2016, when the eyes of teenagers are constantly looking down to their smart phones, tablets or any other electric device, the league’s marketing team will need to join them on the trend of downward necks. The CFL lags behind other pro sports leagues in terms of social media, and unless they fix that, the league will be in serious trouble when their ageing fans can no longer attend games.

With the main fan base of the CFL hitting their retirement age, the CFL and teens will need to learn how to get along, but how? Last Word on Sports takes a look at a few ways the CFL can improve its technology world, in order to sell to teens.

CFL and Teens: How To Get Along

CFL Video Game

Every teenager loves a good video game. The sports gaming industry has turned into a world powerhouse, and according to SuperData Research, the eSports industry is valued at $748 million, and could hit over a billion dollars by 2018. EA Sports, the creator of popular video game titles such as Madden NFL, FIFA, NHL, UFC and NBA Live, received a net income of $652 million in 2015 and is worth nearly $67 on the NASDAQ. There is a lot of money in video games that any sports league would love to have.

The CFL has been largely criticized for its lack of effort towards creating a video game, and with the expansion of NHL and FIFA series into smaller hockey and soccer leagues; NHL 16 includes ten pro and major junior leagues from around the world, while FIFA 16 offers 33 leagues, and has recently added 12 women’s national teams. Many are wondering why the league has not approached EA Sports to include the CFL within the Madden NFL series.  With an ever-expanding sports universe, surely it can’t be too difficult to create the CFL in Madden NFL, even with its own rules, fields and stadiums.

Commissioner Jeffrey Orridge was asked about a possible CFL video game in July on Twitter, and said that the league is working on it, but did not give any other details. It would not make sense from a business standpoint to create a unique video game, but rather integrate it into the Madden NFL series. That game alone could cost up to $80, and for football-loving teens, having to spend another $60 on a CFL game would just not make sense. Rather, teens could buy the single game and play both leagues, and at the same time, teens that do not necessarily know much about the CFL could play a quick three-down game in between American football games.

Creating a video game is, without a doubt, the biggest step the league can take towards connecting with teens. It will be able to sell itself in the United States, and for young fans who want to see more of their college stars who play in Canada, a CFL video game would be ideal.

Live Streaming

The CFL is known for its lack of streaming. While all other major sports leagues in North America have options to pay for games streamed online through their websites, the CFL has no such option. This option is more for the late-teens and early-adults, but nonetheless should receive worthy consideration. The only place a game is streamed is at TSN.ca, but the viewer needs to be a customer of certain telecommunication companies.

Teenagers are connected through the Internet for many sporting events now, and soon enough, cable T.V. will become history. The overall effectiveness of paid streaming through first-party websites is taking a dip, as many teens with thin wallets resort to third-party streaming for free. If the CFL really wants to reach the teenage audience, they must start offering both paid, and online streaming, with no global restrictions.

The league streamed playoff games on YouTube last season, but residents of North America were banned from watching. To grow on that, the CFL could stream one game a week, a “Game of the Week” on YouTube, with the three other games available on the league’s website for a certain cost. This will increase TSN’s viewership, since TSN would still be selling its broadcast and ads through the online streaming option.

Considering that the CFL will be just entering the streaming world, they could offer their high-quality streams at a much lower cost than other sports leagues. The league should not be looking for profits on game-streaming, but rather look to sell the game to young fans.

The longer they wait to enter this industry, the more CFL and teens will not get along.

Social Media

Social media has become the key median for marketers reaching their teenage audience. Teenagers receive gossip, news, sports stats, love affairs, and everything else “important” in their lives through social media. This week, Kelly Bale talked about the statistics of CFL social media accounts, and although some teams stagger over others in terms of followers and likes, they are minuscule compared to other figures in the sports world. On Twitter, the total combined followers of all CFL teams is a low 937,800, with many surely following multiple teams. Instagram has a total of 170,000 followers spread across the nine teams, and 1,109,573 Facebook users like at least one CFL team. The CFL account has 181,800 followers on Twitter, 47,100 on Instagram and 190,761 likes on Facebook.

Although initially large numbers, a number of athletes and teams from other sports have a larger following. In comparison, Giorgio Chellini, a defender for the famed soccer club Juventus, has one million followers on Instagram alone. This one single man, who looks like this, and plays in an under-appreciated position, has more followers than all nine CFL teams combined. He’s just the tip of the iceberg, as Alex Ovechkin has 1,820,000 followers, and the NHL 4.51 million on Twitter, while Andrea Pirlo, the famous ultra-calm Italian soccer midfielder, has 8,142,909 likes on Facebook, which are small amounts to some of the world’s most famous athletes.

The CFL needs to put more money to hiring a strong marketing to sell its image to the rest of the world through social media. Even the NFL stretches its tentacles on social media through the four corners of the planet, and because of that, they have played games in Mexico, London and Canada. A game in England might not be the objective, but they need a larger social media following on the three major platforms.

CFL and teens do not get along well, but if the league could release a video game, expand its broadcasting into online streaming, and strengthen its social media marketing team, the fan demographic could get a lot younger. Until then, the CFL will cater to its ageing fanbase, and suffer as teens in Canada tune into NFL games instead of the CFL.

Main Photo.