TrueBlue4ever

It seems that the same cast of characters post here every spring saying how god awful the Riders are and how they are so overrated, and yet they somehow managed to top the Western conference last season (2 years ago) and finish 2nd and host a playoff game the year before that. Hate on them all you want, but they were objectively a very good team last time out.

Besides, there are CFLers who go to the NFL. Should we remove all Chris Streveler talk from this forum since he is no longer a Blue Bomber? Of course not. There are some grey areas and crossover with the NFL and CFL, so I think we can recognize this as not just a Bomber forum, not just a CFL forum, but a football forum. And if you don’t like it, then exercise your free will and don’t click on the link.

I will lean to the left, so my bias could show. I have no doubt there is some corruption with the Libs but I would like an itemized list to make a comparison to the former PC or other Liberal governments before declaring them the all-time champs. But I will surmise that when one talks about the disrespect of the public trust, how much is really corruption and how much is a simple expansion of the public distrust of government? Given how much our lives have been flooded with tales (true and false) of government corruption on both sides by the media machine, especially with our downstairs meth lab neighbours in the Obama/Trump/Biden era, it seems John Q(anon) Public is more predisposed to distrust politicians than ever before, so that may skew our perception of just how deep the corruption really is.

Great news for Kerri Einerson’s team. Women’s Worlds is back on and will be held in Calgary along with the Men’s. https://globalnews.ca/news/7680473/curling-team-einarson-womens-worlds/?utm_source=GlobalWinnipeg&utm_medium=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1tyBxCGga84hLdooi0ZqVPuESsu3GYPtiCwPFhQYqfqtd_Js1-bhQDm4g

I have looked into various web sources (Forbes, statista.com, packers.com, Blue Bomber financial statement) and here are some numbers to chew on for those who want to compare the NFL and CFL’s financial situations: In the NFL, the only public team is Green Bay, so all other financial projections are speculation unless the team reports it. The Bombers likewise out out a financial statement. So the numbers I found for the Dallas Cowboys, the Packers and the Bombers are as follows - Expenses in 2019: $32.8 million (Bombers), $439 million (Packers), $425 million (Cowboys) 2019 revenues: $36.3 million (Bombers), $508 million (Packers), $960 million (Cowboys) Of note, the Bombers biggest single revenue increase was $2.2 million more in game day merchandise and concessions, the Packers was $70 million more in league TV revenue Salary cap: $5.4 million in CFL (16.5% of Bombers’ total expenses) $198.2 million in NFL (45.1% of Packers’ and 46.6% of Cowboys’ total expenses) 2019 revenue from ticket sales alone: $11.5 million (Bombers - 31.7% of total revenue), $77 million (Packers - 15.2% of total revenue, $98 million (Cowboys - 10.2% of total revenue) TV contract: $50 million league-wide in the CFL ( and a portion of that goes to the league itself and not each club, so the TV revenue is not $50 million split 9 ways and it does NOT cover the players salaries in entirety - the Bombers received $3.9 million in league payments in 2019, or 72.2% of the salary cap and 10.7% of their total revenue, it covers 11.8% of their operating costs), $255 million PER TEAM NFL (Packers and Cowboys 128.7% of the salary cap, Packers 50.2% of total revenue and covers 58.1% of their operating costs, Cowboys 26.6% of total revenue and 60% of their operating costs) Bombers also generated another 24% of their revenue from game day related money such as concessions sales and merchandise, so 56% of their revenue stream is gone without fans. The Packers estimated that of their $508 million profit, $211 million or 41.5% was internally generated from ticket sales and game day and merchandise sales, and local sponsorships, the rest was league money. The Cowboys projected that without fans it could cost them up to $500 million this past season. The Cowboys other big revenue gain comes from sponsorship dollars, which is why they are the most popular brand and most valuable franchise in the NFL. So the simple takeaway from this date is: no fans for the Bombers (arguably the healthiest franchise in the CFL - Sask and Edm are the only other 2 whose books are public and they both lost money in 2019 - the Riders basically because they had expenses for marketing a Grey Cup they never hosted, but were close to break even otherwise) means they lose about $19.7 million on game day revenue alone and go from a $3.4 million profit to a $16.3 million loss, likely more, the Cowboys lose $500 million from ALL sources yet still turn a profit of $35 million, and the Packers without fans wipe out any profit on ticket sales alone and likely more with no game day associated revenue, but again their ticket revenue is only 15% of their revenue stream vs 32% for the Bombers. So let’s stop pretending that we can compare the CFL and NFL equitably based on not having fans in the stands and TV revenues and assume that because other leagues can do it, we should “just find a way”. Unless fans want to agree that if the league plays with zero fans and we fans will cover any losses next year by paying NFL-style ticket prices for every game (and I think we all saw from the Packers-Raiders pre-season game in Winnipeg, not to mention the last few Grey Cups we’ve hosted, how little appetite there is to pay that much from the fans’s point of view), it seems clear that this is more a gate driven league than other sports and no fans means no football And the Government has no appetite to bail out a sports league because there is no political gain in it for them, and it is more public than a media company bailout supposedly to save thousands of jobs (even if said company *cough* BELL *cough* uses said buyout to pay their stockholders and fires their staff anyway), plus looks better in saving the national economy. Just my two cents

Thanks for that. Sometimes this list of deaths in the RIP thread comes across as just that - a list - and it is easy to overlook that each name carries with it a memory, an impact, an influence to many of us. Always important to remember the person and not just list the name. As for a deeper understanding, this particular analysis of dealing with death and grief has always stuck with me as a pretty accurate take on things: https://www.ofieldfuneralhome.com/grief-from-the-perspective-of-an-old-man

Schultz’s death is gutting news to me. Always liked his approach on the TSN panel, and he was one of the originals who helped create the TSN football brand and build the Friday Night Football panel and phenomenon. Not a stretch to say that the success of that experiment went a long way to establishing the TSN CFL partnership and grew the popularity and exposure of the league in a big way. Was sorry to see him depart the airwaves, and very saddened by this news today.

But if ever the phrase “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades” was to apply, it would be with these tests.

Ok, first male to stand up and move to the right edge of the frame facing left with the squirting sanitizer at waist level mimicking, well you figure it out, wins my eternal respect, and likely the whole internet too.

I guess some fans will never be satisfied with him and criticize his moves, his lines, which players play and which ones sit. But if he is winning with his strategy, then I don’t understand those fans who gripe about his methods. It’s not like he is “getting away” with something. It’s a results driven business and he is getting results, so I am prepared to defer to his decisions over the arm chair coaches out there. The proof is in the winning percentage.

These two statements seem inconsistent, like you kind of are wishing, hinting at, or intimating (but not overtly advocating to cover yourself) for his removal. If you aren’t advocating for his dismissal, why even pose the initial question in the first place?

I have never seen Schitt’s Creek and I am not a big binge watcher or streamer. The last episodic tv show I invested in on network TV was Big Bang Theory, and online it was Game of Thrones. So it got me wondering, what tv show (either network or online) have you never seen or barely watched that was seemingly very popular or that “everyone else” watched? I never had HBO so many of them I could only see later on Netflix and such and couldn’t be bothered to binge. My short list would include Sopranos (seen snippets but never even a full episode), Breaking Bad (quit after one season on Netflix) and Arrested Development (not even one second of it), to name but 3 of many. So what are others not watching that would surprise the general public?

Got to feel bad for Einerson in that she will have won the Scott twice and yet will again not get to go the World’s, as they have already cancelled this year in Switzerland (the men’s worlds in Canada is still a go though). I would be very happy if Curling Canada compensated her by giving her the Olympic berth now and skipped the trials. Not like she has’t earned it or that she isn’t the best women’s team we could send right now.

Yep, there’s only so many times you can gut the front office and fire the coach before you have to look squarely at the players and conclude that the mix there just is not working, no matter the perceived talent. Or accept that it starts with the ownership not knowing how to build a front office, and then the fans are really screwed - see Senators, Ottawa.

All fair points, but defence is more than just puck movement out of the zone (although I will concede that this has been a glaring issues at points in many games). Need a big body to clear out the net front, scrum in the corners, and be physical to provide the smaller partner time and space to move the puck. Trouba-Morrissey, Byfuglien-Enstrom worked that way with a bigger guy-smaller guy pairing. Our best pair now is Forbert (who is the next biggest guy after Stanley)-Pionk (who is the smallest height-wise and second lightest behind Niku), so not sure Heinola at 5’10” and 178 would be a good match with Morrissey. Our defence needs help overall no doubt, but I don’t see Heinola as the cure-all just quite yet. I prefer to preach team d and get those forwards involved in helping out rather than letting them assume that the back end will handle it all themselves. Some of the best team defence in the past few years happened when our d-corps was ravaged with injury and everyone thought we would collapse. Forced the rest of the team, especially the forwards, to step up and play responsible defence, which frankly is how it should be all the time. But good topic and nice to be able to worry about this problem while we are still winning.

Problem is we need size on the back end, IMO. Heinola does not fill that need. If Poolman and Stanley can get healthy, that could help. As good a puck handler Heinola could be, we don’t need a team full of Toby Enstroms.

Horseman is just bitter because their big expensive signing of saviour and career sub-.500 goalie Jacob Markstrom has turned out exactly how most hockey people not dazzled by one hot 40 game stretch figured it would, and he needs to convince himself that the competition doesn’t have better goaltending.

a) I would bet big money you couldn’t stop that one or pretty much any shot. b) Here’s a look at those disheartened players There is no c) because the rest of that post was nonsense. “Let’s trade the 27 year old Vezina winner”.

Naylor said most of the protocol was developed last summer for the proposed bubble in Winnipeg. There is also overlap of people working on the CFL’s return to play protocol that also worked on the NHL’s document, however the CFL has other challenges. “You’re going to have to satisfy the provincial authorities with not the same amount of resources that you’re putting behind it,” Naylor said. Naylor felt the proposal was being offered to provinces by “late this week," but might not be offered to all provinces with CFL teams at the same time. “You give it to one government and they sign off on it then you feel confident you’re going to the next province or if you give it to one provincial government and they say 'hey, we have an issue with this, if you address it by the time you get to the others you’ve already addressed what may be a red flag,'” Naylor said. With case numbers slowly trending downward, the league's return to play plan might appear less dangerous than when the NHL began its season in January. COVID-19 numbers were soaring in Canada and the vaccine rollout had only just begun. The protocol will focus primarily on COVID-19 testing and stopping the spread of the virus. “It’s really just laying out how much testing, when does the testing happen and what’s the protocol for players that test positive," Naylor said. "Also how are players going to interact and train and practice in hopefully a preventative protocol that would avoid any spread of the disease if somebody was carrying it." While government approval is a major part of the return to play process for the league, Naylor said getting fans in the stands also provides another road block. “Before you can even get into a conversation about how many fans you’re going to be able to put into stands, you have to get approval just to be able to play the games and hold team activity,” Naylor said. “I think the fans in the stands issue can be largely dependent on how much virus there is.” Naylor revealed in one Canadian province, a committee was formed to discuss fans in the stands with provincial authorities in 2020. However, discussions quickly came to a halt with the second wave hit. “That was essentially put on hold with the idea being that the conversation would be resumed once it came around to the end of winter, cases came down, vaccine rollout and the governments might be more willing to engage in that topic,” Naylor said. The CFL’s regular season is scheduled to begin Jun. 10, however, there are still restrictions in place that would make it difficult to begin on the anticipated start date. The United States-Canada border is still closed and many CFL teams laid off staff that will need to be re-hired to prepare for the season. “Still got a lot of the population that isn’t going to be vaccinated. Teams are going to need some lead up to this because, as we know, they’ve laid people off,” Naylor said. The league averaged 23,000 fans per game in 2019 and gate revenue is the highest source of revenue for teams. “I don’t think the league wants to begin the season without fans in stands, I think they might be willing to do so if it were only a few weeks,” Naylor said. Based on numbers from the Saskatchewan Roughriders 2020 Annual General Meeting, the team made $17.1 million from gate receipts in 2019-20, which makes up approximately 43 per cent of their revenue. It’s unclear at what the capacity of stadiums will be, but it’s not expected to return to 100 per cent this season. “If you want games without fans in the stands, you’re basically asking owners to throw tons of money away that they’ll never get back,” Naylor said. Looking at the Riders numbers there. 43% from gate receipts, and how much more from game day revenue (beer, food and merchandise sales, and parking revenue among other things)? And I recall the Bomber books saying 32% from ticket sales and another 24% from game day related revenue in 2019. And then there is this. I have to think no fans, no season.

I think of it less as attention he craves and more like the beating he deserves.

So, should the Jets go after Corey Perry early as retribution for the Ehlers fight? Perry was fighting outside his weight class (he has 3 inches and 34 pounds on Ehlers), so should we send another guy out to fight him early like the Canucks did on Sunday sending McEwen to challenge Forbert after the Hollander dust-up the game prior? And if so, whom? Vote Lowry, Forbert, Thompson, other, or don‘t bother.

I thought the first period was OK but too many “cute” passes and the two mistakes they made ended up in the back of their net. First half of the second period was their ugliest stretch, but the talent finally shone through. Hate these repeated 3-1 deficits though. This is not a sustainable strategy. As for Beaulieu, he should be a 3rd pairing defenceman at best, but I am more worried that Morrissey is the real problem. Whether it is trying to live up to the contract, or that not having Trouba at his side has exposed him, but he is looking bad to me. I see the coach trying to find a bigger partner for him to allow him to not be so rushed, so Beaulieu fits the Bill there, but I would prefer to see Forbert, who has been a pleasant surprise and keeps the game simpler, paired up with him. Pionk is playing very well but he and Morrissey would be too small a pairing, and DeMelo will get the inexperienced partner because again he can simplify things. Maybe if Stanley could pair with Pionk then Forbert could join Morrissey, but that is a lot of inexperience on the back end then.