Quote:
Originally Posted by LakeLocker
Football just seems like a sport in real trouble. The speed of play, excess of commercial, and concussions are all reasons this sport is in trouble globally.
If Canadian football is serious about existing in the future, they need to up the game tempo and reduce the amount of head trauma that occurs.
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I've posted my theories about this before, but they need to evolve:
1. Game tempo to increase interest
2. Change the nature of the physicality (not remove it) for liability
2. Reduce roster size to decrease cost
Those all seem to me to point in a "rugby-like" direction. Canadian Football has always existed on the spectrum between rugby, and American Football's extreme evolution of it, usually just one step removed from the Americans. There's no reason not to evolve back the other way a little bit. Being more "unique" as a sport may even increase interest and reduce comparisons to the NFL. The biggest barrier is the ingrained influence of American coaches, players, and administrators in the CFL. But one day the CFL could maybe be more like the AFL or GAA, rather than mini-NFL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy
Another year off would guarantee packed stadiums.  
Yeah sure. Has this source every heard of out of sight, out of mind? Many people (those with finances not decimated by shutdowns) will have moved on to other interests. Once you lose a fan, it's hard to regain their attention. 2.5 years without CFL football also makes it difficult to gain new younger fans.
Let's not forget many fans who would like to attend games may no longer be able to afford the pleasure. This would have affected attendance in a noticeable way even without the cancelled 2020 season....likely a leaguewide decrease of 2-3,000 per game.
CFL attendance has been trending down for 7 years from 28,000 in 2012 to 22,900 in 2019 - a decline of over 5,000 per game. Combine that with a potential 2.5 year absence, loss of corporate support and fan support due to business shutdowns and I think it is reasonable that average CFL attendance is likely to be 18-19,000 per game. Eh, I might be a little optimistic with that guestimate.
I will be blunt here. That source is full of shit if they think it is in the best interest of the league to shutdown operations for another year and "rebuild" in 2022. More like the death of the league if that comes to pass. This source is likely some goof from southern Ontario who still has wet dreams about the NFL relocating a team to Toronto. |
Absolut idiocy. 2020 was the time to "rebuild and come back stronger". They've had the time to do this, if they've wasted it, too fucking bad.
2021 is now the year to spend
whatever it costs to run a full season. It's critical that they do that to hang on to some semblance of continuity from the "before times". They need to be
in operation when restrictions lift this year so people can immediately return. If not everyone will find something else to go exuberantly blow their money and freedom on, and when they finally return in June 2022 it'll be a soft wet thud of nothingness - "Return to Normal!!!" will be old news by then.