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I Mean.. that would be cool if the XFL adapted the CFL rules and field. But this is worrying depending on what they are really thinking.

My preference is for the CFL to survive and thrive on it's own, a unique Canadian league. But, realistically, the CFL was in trouble before COVID, and now 😲 I'm not sure these discussions lead anywhere, but can you blame Ambrosie and the league for considering it? Considering everything? How long do you think Toronto, Montreal and BC can survive as CFL franchises? My son plays USports football in Montreal and I swear there is more buzz for the three RSEQ teams located in Montreal than the Alouettes. If it's a choice between no CFL and some hybrid CFL/XFL/international football league, with the Bombers still part of it, I'll take that option. Maybe! I vote the Rock, who then has to fend off a hostile take over from Stephanie McMahon and Triple H.

As always keep your eye on TPR, for me that's the important one, that and seeing people leave the hospitals as healthy as they can be

Calgary would get more people out to games with a price adjustment. They are charging premium priced to sit outside in Calgary where a warm day can turn cold at the drop of a hat to watch the CFL. Cfl badly needs to make games more affordable AND reach out to younger fans. Which is part of the affordability. Make games cheap enough for a family to go you start to get kids interested. You're not the NHL, stop assuming people will go regardless of cost.

They've literally become everything they claim to hate.

3 Downs Larger Field Extra man These are my non-negotiables and I'll treat 'em like The Alamo if necessary.

I've seen a lot of protetionist arguments about saving the rouge, but man...... of all the truly Canadian elements of our game....the rouge is one of the least important, to me. Keep the field size, keep the same number of players on the field, keep the downs, and keep the Canadian players. That's the non-negotiables for me.

Point A - American Audience had very little interest in XFL 1.0, Arena Football , AAFL or whatever that other league was called last year, and less success with XFL 2.0 then they had with XFL 1.0 Point B - The NFL itself is losing popularity and college ball in the States will ALWAYS be way more popular then CFL. Fantasy football is a pipe dream and never going to happen (see NFL/NCAA as reasons why). I guess a TV contract is a possibility? Point C - Video game is meaningless for ownership and CFL will never have a AAA football game. The CFL would get peanuts as a license fee from any developer making a CFL game. Like literally each time *might* get $25 000 if that. I just have HEAVY skepticism when 5 different attempts WITH great tv deals and super rich owners have failed in the states and now I'm suppose to believe that magically the Rock will make this 6th attempt work? I've heard all these fluff lines before "We have unique thinking, we have billionaire owners, we have great football minds" and they ALL have falled flat with just minimal amounts of successes in certain cities. Merging with the XFL I think will turn the CFL into something similar to the Goldeyes situation where every year teams join and leave the league and you have zero idea who the hell or what the hell the teams are. With the constant changes it will IMO diminish interest from the hardcore fans and you'll end up with stadiums partially full of fairweather fans paying $10 dollars a ticket to merely enjoy a nice night out of the house. To me this seems like the quick fix lazy way out from Ambrosie.

Where's our Monctom team , I thought Ambrosie was going to have it up and running by now I think Ottawa is a great example of how those questionable cities can learn from. Many of the people I know who go to Redblack games go because of the gameday experience (more so then the love of the CFL).

Would make me believe they have a couple reserves with outbreaks so they go in and mass test the entire place.

Lets make it L4 and tomorrow's headline reads Leaf's call a player only meeting.

Doing NOTHING is different than doing things that you don’t like. I question the wisdom of the global initiative, and I heard him talk at length about it. The past US expansion did not go well, so absolutely I have reservations. My problem with your take is that you have been predisposed to hate him from the word go and never given him any chance. You complain that he doesn’t communicate with fans, so here he is communicating and you still aren’t happy. And there are many valid reasons to question his approach, but I have always asked if it is more than that for you, since going after his scarf wearing and vague complainants about his silence and then ignoring your own criticism when he isn’t silent just paints you as not credible and having some axe to grind on any take. Your own noise has drowned out any coherent argument, at least to me. So that is what I defend him against - the unsubstantiated attack. If you want to argue the merits of a US plan, which you did on part, I am all for that debate and frankly agree with almost all your concerns. But the pandemic was not his fault. And the response of not playing, as sucky as it was, was necessary because in this league playing would have bankrupted the league entirely. I am waking up to the seemingly obvious issue that the league is broken financially, that trying to stabilize franchises that cannot be stabilized (Toronto) is something that is not going to happen in the short term. Ambrosie is doing no worse than every commish before him for 40 years, but his approach is different, look outside of Canada for new revenue. Desperate perhaps, but maybe we are in desperate times and no one wants to face that reality. And he has overseen the sale of the Alouettes, brought in the global initiative, and looked to partner with the XFL, so that is your list of things he has done. Will any of them work, you and I cannot say right now, you choose to give him no benefit of time to see if it will, and I do. We can judge him at the end of his tenure or once these plans have taken hold in my mind. You want to just jump on him right away. So tell me what he could do better? Communicate with fans? Well here he is doing just that, and yet you still pounce. So excuse me if it is hard to look objectively at your complaints when it is your default mode. https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/video/ambrosie-reveals-more-details-of-cfl-xfl-collaboration~2157583

I think they are obviously looking at a lot more than sharing refs. At first I thought it was going to be something minor but now that I've read that the XFL is putting planning for their season on hold its clear that we are potentially looking at XFL and CFL teams playing their seasons at the same time and potentially playing against each other. I can see what the CFL is thinking here. We don't know when things will really return to normal. Will we ever see fans come back at the levels we had seen before? And even if that happens they need more fans in certain markets to be viable. This is about making the CFL less dependent on ticket sales. I think it has to do with the global initiative to bring in increased revenues from foreign markets. My vision for this is something like this. One day they could basically form a new league called something like "The International Football League" with two divisions. The XFL and the CFL. If you think that having two leagues competing in the same league is weird take a look at Major League Baseball. Its not that strange. This would allow the league to be marketed as the CFL in Canada and the XFL in the United States. I think you'd see some loosening on what counts as a global athlete to anyone not born in the united states as there would have to be a ratio of non-American players across both the xfl and the cfl to keep things fair. I think the XFL would accept the larger field and the 3 downs no problem but perhaps the rouge would be lost because americans will never understand it. But hopefully that would stay as well. The goal would be to market this form of football around the world and get every league outside of the NFL playing by these rules and have many jobs available to non-american athletes so there would be players from many of the other countries playing in this league to improve tv revenues in each of the other countries who are contributing talent. Of coarse the opportunity for a significant tv deal would exist in the united states as a result of having american teams competing. Not sure that it would go to this in 2022 as it might start a lot smaller than that. But i would imagine that this is the long term vision.

They have no rosters, coaching or mangement staffs in place. They have nothing to field for football and likely dont have the time to put some thing together. But perhaps they are thinking of cfl games in XFL cities. This whole thing has me nauseas. I havent been this worried since the collapse of the us teams and dark ages of the bombers.

To this day my Dad insists (and I quote): "If you can't get 10 yards in 3 downs you deserve to turn the ball over. 4 down football is ***** football" Dad says no lol

Some levity in all this

Actually, I have never expressed a like or dislike for him. And I think he has had his share of missteps for sure. The public problems with the Als’ sale taught him to keep his cards close to his chest rather than over promise and underdeliver. And that bugs you, because you see a world where these problems are simple fixes, when they most certainly are not. But you wrongly assume that because I challenge your attacks on him that I must like him, when what I am doing is pointing out your overriding bias that removes objectivity from your arguments. And it is clear you don’t like him, that we all get in spades. I have always wanted to know why that is, and why that hate is so passionate and so pre-determined. You have said it is his secretive ways - well here he is being open and you dump on him for that too. When you say “I never will (like him)” you prove my point about hating him without justification or giving him a chance and having no objectivity to the issue at hand. So I am left to believe it is something deeper or personal. But if you don’t want to say, I can’t make you. If the league is broke, it is not all because of him. You just want a scapegoat it seems because you can’t get a saviour. Ambrosie is neither of these things. He is just a guy trying to keep a league afloat and has been dealt a brutally bad hand unlike anything another commissioner has faced in the CFL with the pandemic and Health Canada calling the shots.

I'd contribute. But I think that's a one-off. Not sure that's a sustainable revenue model. And government support ... given what the government has chosen to support, I would like to think the CFL would also be considered. But again, that's not a long term revenue model.

I think there's all types of different options for revenue. Not sure if I read it here, or Twitter, but seems like CFL fans immediately get very defensive about the sanctity of the CFL game, status quo, but have zero solutions for the bottomless pit of revenue in our largest markets. Worse, I know some personally who never attend Bomber games (NFL fans) but want to preserve the CFL product! At least pony up for some season tickets if you're going to take that hard a stance.

BC: Yes, the Seahawks have penetrated the Lower Mainland market & have put a huge dent in season ticket & game day sales for the Lions. Toronto: Lost cause. The Bills are Southern Ontario's team, especially Toronto. I remember when the Argos were routinely selling out Exhibition Stadium with 33,000 seats back in the early 70's. Montreal: If you don't win they don't support it. Except if it's the Canadiens. Lousy sports fans other than hockey. Calgary: Stadium issues. The place is becoming a dump & people don't want to go anymore. No new stadium in the future. Edmonton: Piss off the fanbase for such things as firing 49.75 year equipment manager, Dwayne Mandrusiak. Change the team name & take a year deciding. Then have a list of names no one likes. Paying Scott Milanovich half a million dollars to watch video only to see him quit without conducting one practice. The Edmonton GM parting words when Scotty left was. "I hope we're still friends". The fanbase is not happy.

Because we all know how this is going to be applied. January 6 wasn't a protest after all.

Stanley in for Beaulieu.

I don't know about you, but the more I hear about this Covid19 thing the less I care for it....

not to mention the majority of the solid fan bases in the three cities you mention are getting up there in age...

I drive by lots of Cathy Cox bus benches and it appears her surprised out of it look is an actual match to her personality. Jesus Christ this is such an easy answer and such a small ask (even if the NDP lady was overly dramatic saying kids are not going to school because of it) , you'd think they would of approved or at least address her answer and say some kind of "We will look into it" kind of answer instead of the data blockers. Also the data blocking USB is a waste of money, most bad people can steal way more then enough personal info by looking at people being careless with what they post on social media.

Merge with the XFL. no thanks, figure out way to market and develop both leagues across the border sure no problem

We used to have bigger balls too.

And to add, who the **** cares what June Jones has to say about the CFL? Jesus.

Okay, if I'm taking Randy at his word, which is hard, it sounds like they're simply looking for synergies on how the leagues can work together. But, geez, they're terrible at communication. Like world-class, really bad.

It's the ONLY comeback.

Well, so many people on social media seem against this but my question is, where were they in the stands in 2019 & the years before? That is a general question not limited to or directed at people here because most are fans who go to games. Same. I won't die on a hill defending Canadian rules & players if it means the team folds.

The more i keep reading statement the more I'm convinced that this is really happening.

It is the safest, most sensible approach - but it does temporarily inflate the numbers. Not necessarily. The regions outside Winnipeg (excluding the North) remain very stable. It is also noteworthy that while cases in the North are spiking - most deaths are still coming from Winnipeg.

and Charles Manson comment I read: "I can't wait for the Trump administration's 20 years reunion. Well 15 if they get time off for good behaviour"

Arizona Republican waging war on voting rights drops the mask: "Everybody shouldn't be voting." Since its devastating loss in 2020, the Republican Party has been committed to overhauling voting rights in the United States to ensure restrictive practices limit voting capabilities. Now, Arizona Republicans' latest actions show they are leading the way. According to CNN, Republican lawmakers in Arizona's state legislature have unveiled more than two dozen proposed voting laws to make it more difficult for residents to vote. The various proposed laws are geared toward targeting certain aspects of the state's voting systems, namely its vote-by-mail system that contributed to Arizona residents' turning the state blue during the last presidential election. The publication reports that: "A handful of the bills -- including two that would impose new restrictions on Arizona's popular vote-by-mail system and one that would limit its narrow voting window -- have gained momentum and could pass." The flurry of proposed pieces of legislation has led to opposition from Democratic lawmakers. Arizona state Rep. Athena Salman (D-Tempe) offered her observation of the bills, what they signify, and who they are targeting, specifically. "They are trying to make it harder for everyone to vote based on the hope and desire that the people who it harms more and who it disenfranchises more are the people less likely to vote Republican," said Salman. On social media, Rep. John Kavanaugh (R-Ariz.), who also chairs Arizona's Government and Elections Committee is also facing backlash for his remarks about voting as he insisted that "everybody" should not be voting. "There's a fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans," Kavanagh said. "Democrats value as many people as possible voting and they're willing to risk fraud. Republicans are more concerned about fraud, so we don't mind putting security measures in that won't let everybody vote -- but everybody shouldn't be voting." Kavanaugh added, "Not everybody wants to vote, and if somebody is uninterested in voting, that probably means that they're totally uninformed on the issues. Quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well." Arizona Republican waging war on voting rights drops the mask: "Everybody shouldn't be voting" | Salon.com

I dont see much of a revenue stream coming from the us watching cfl games. They dipped hard on the xfl 2.0, aafl, spring league, arena league etc. Hard core american football fans have the NFL, ncaa, and high school ball. They dont lack for content. The cfl is a fringe style for them too, we arent that different for them from the arena league and their interest in foreign teams is extremely low.

With a larger league and a the potential for an american audience it opens up the potential for significant TV money from the states and they can also tap into things like Fantasy Football that is not really possibly with a 9 team league. Not to mention a video game based on the new league. Stuff like that would really become a possibility.

So does Ambrosie end up being the commissioner of the new league?

TO attendance wouldnt change if they played in a 100k seat stadium or only had 8 lawn chairs and 2 standing only spots. And montreal had good success with over charging for artificially scarce spots when they were a dynasty. Since that ended they havent been on stabile financial grounds and both teams have recently been only kept above water by the cfl. Im sure the bombers could make it work if we only had say 15k capacity and people paid more, Id pay 2 or 3 or what ever times more. but I dont think thatd fly in bc, to, ott and maybe mtl. The league that really optimizes income from sports betting will be an unstoppable juggernaut for generations to come. Thats easily the biggest un tapped revenue source in all of sports. But its dangerous too. Muay thai fights in thailand have been ruined by the gamblers and corruption.

Amount of tests performed have gone up too. over 2100 test yesterday and 1928 of them on Tuesday... up from 1,200 and 1,400 from the days before that...

50 cases in the north

Finished watching the Unabomber season on Netflix and they shared excerpts of his manifesto which sounds a lot like what the GOP is trying to implement.

Well said. It's like you took the words right out of my mouth. I honestly didn't know we have so many people on this forum who have deep knowledge of the pocket books of this league. And know exactly what the future holds for things like the global players etc. TV deals are definitely never going to come from that stuff....We've had commish after commish try to grow the league here and they've all failed. Everyone of them. Which why the league is in the state it is now. But I suppose that's Ambrosies fault too? Trying new things isn't bad, if you never try you'll never know. On top of that. The commish is not and never has been a dictator. The board of governors aren't just place holders. They absolutely have a say. But that fact never seems to hit home for people. My biggest fault with Ambrosie is how he's handled the CFLPA. That baffles me. Everything else is him taking a shot to change the revenue streams for the league which (as we're seeing now) has been desperately needed for some time.

Oklahoma House Passes Bill To Give Immunity To Drivers Who Hit Protesters The Republican-majority Oklahoma state House passed a bill on Wednesday that would grant immunity to drivers who “unintentionally” run over protesters. In an early morning vote along party lines, with 79 votes in favor and 18 against, state lawmakers approved legislation that would remove criminal or civil liability for any driver who “unintentionally” injures or kills someone while “fleeing from a riot,” as long as they have a “reasonable belief” that fleeing would protect themselves from harm. The bill would also allow protesters to be charged with a misdemeanor if they “unlawfully obstruct” traffic, punishable by up to a year in jail and $5,000 in fines. Oklahoma House Passes Bill To Give Immunity To Drivers Who Hit Protesters | HuffPost Canada Politics (huffingtonpost.ca)

sports betting may be affecting the league as well. some people don't follow teams, just the players on their own fantasy "team". The NFL provides far more in that way than the CFL. and moving to a smaller stadium turned out to be not that big a deal to fans in Toronto and Montreal.

Interesting use of words, blending rich heritage with fresh thinking. Where's that sweet spot? I'm really beginning to dislike this Covid19.

cfl has serious problems...... probably more seahawks thanLions fans in B.C. Toronto, Ontario..... not much interest there. Montreal, Calgary.... sketchy fan support. calgary show having a winning team doesnt solve the problem. Edmonton.... dont know. the only solid franchises are Wpg, Sask, and Hamilton.

😂 can't do anything unless Wall stree gives the ok. reuters "Exclusive: Texas power regulator, under pressure to roll back storm prices, huddles with Wall Street. On Friday, D’Andrea, as the sole PUC commissioner, will consider clawing back power price that hit $9,000 per megawatt hour, about $16 billion in all, and another $1.5 billion in fees tied to those prices. The commission rescheduled its hearing for a day to attend legislative hearings." one and a half billion fees. Texas don't need no stinkin red tape...... lol.

I couldn’t agree more. Gentleman Jack forced every leader to be better. The level of integrity he had raised the bar for all. He could have been a dynasty Prime Minister if he lead a more palatable platform.

Doesn’t take a lot of reading between the lines in hearing Naylor in that video to surmise that the CFL is in major financial trouble and may essentially be dead.