TrueBlue4ever

I am waiting to hear of more new cases post-long weekend.

Early results in on Sweden's herd immunity efforts (unless they've gone back to denying that was the reason for no lockdown). Short version, not great, and maybe no better than other countries that did lock down. And if the post 2 above is any indication, testing positive for antibodies is no guarantee of immunity anyway. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/21/health/sweden-herd-immunity-coronavirus-intl/index.html

Not sure if we'd need "buzz" for a CFL season largely without fans in the stands, but with the reigning Grey Cup champs here and the Grey Cup (which they'd still want to have fans in the stands for if possible) in Regina, these two cities would make sense from a higher profile point of view.

With the reigning Grey Cuo Fair point. I know they were one of the early spots hit, had not followed how they progressed. Thanks for the clarification.

Maybe it would be considered "essential" travel? Players would quarantine for the two weeks, so it is not an absolute travel ban. As for being a hub city, there would be benefit for the bottom line of the host cities. Players need hotels to stay in, food to eat, etc. so business would get extra traffic. There's a reason Las Vegas is being looked at hard for the NHL hub plan. They would welcome all the hotel traffic of players and possibly their families. I suspect if the CFL is considering a hub city plan then they will want similar criteria that the NHL looked at: 1) Not a coronavirus hotspot - not sure what the current status of every city is, but Calgary, Quebec and BC seemed to be of particular concern, and Toronto being so big the population density would raise concerns. Winnipeg and Regina seem to be handling it well. 2) A stadium with 4 pro-size dressing rooms minimum to handle the extra traffic. I know IG Field has the Bomber locker room, the Bison locker room, a road team locker room, and a room for amateur athletes. Not sure if they have a fourth full locker room. I'm guessing Roger's Centre in Toronto would have the full number given that the Argos and Jays both played there, can't speculate on any other stadiums. But in Toronto's case that leads to issue #3 3) Not sharing the stadium with another tenant is preferable. 4) Readily accessible practice facilities nearby. It has already been pointed out that with IG Field, Pan Am stadium next door, and the indoor soccer complex which could be divided into two or even 4 separate fields, Winnipeg is well suited to handle to traffic flow. 5) Enough hotel space nearby to accommodate the players and be close to the practice sites - with the University being largely shut down, this might be less of a problem with the dorm space available. 6) A field that can handle the wear and tear of multiple games in a week. Given that natural grass is not an issue in any stadium, this should not be a bar to any of the CFL cities. Other potential issues would be enough space to handle the TV and radio crews for each game, and easy travel between the 2 hub cities. With one TV broadcaster, that would not be an issue, but the league might need to have an in-house radio broadcaster rather than sending a local radio crew for each team. You could do worse than have Bob Irving cover every game on radio, and with Geoff Currier and Kelly Moore you have capable back-ups both with experience calling CFL games. As for the travel, pairs of cities that would work are Toronto-Hamilton, Edmonton-Calgary, Ottawa-Montreal, and at the outer limit Winnipeg-Saskatchewan (if you want to avoid flying altogether). Just some thoughts on the matter.

Here's a new avatar for you, then.

And TSN1290 will be re-broadcasting the Grey Cup on Monday at 3:00 pm I believe.

Good detective work. As for the "rant", even by today's PC standards one would have to be a snowflake to get bothered by that. Not sure why the media would get all bent out of shape.

Two "sports" related analogies about feeling stupid and judged by others in a mask. When Jacques Plante wanted to wear a mask after taking one too many pucks to the face, there was a lot of public backlash (as much about it being distracting and negatively affecting his game as it was about "not looking right". Fortunately he went on a heater and the public outcry waned. And he had the perfect retort when challenged by Gump Worsley about being scared because he wore a mask when other goalies still went bare-faced: "If you jumped out of a plane without a parachute, would that make you brave?" Once read an SI article about the World Co-ed Naked Volleyball Championships held in upstate New York, and they got a writer to assemble a team of six players together including him. One of the big features of the article was the discomfort about being naked in front of strangers and how to overcome that fear while trying to focus on playing a match with all those eyes on you. Writer said in the first game none of his teammates were really shy about their bodies but didn't want to strip down "just because it was expected", so one guy who was Australian (they have few hang-ups) was naked, two of the men played just in boxers, and two of the ladies wore a t-shirt and underwear while one wore bottoms but went topless. Their opponents all went naked, and the entire crowd gathered to watch the match were all nudists. One line from the article kind of summed up the feeling. "At some point you realize that no one is really gawking at you, and you aren't gawking at anyone else, but you become aware that when everyone else is naked and you have clothes on, YOU are the one that stands out and draws more attention to yourself." Early on mask-wearing was an extreme rarity. Now it is still the exception and not the rule, but I am seeing a significant shift. Before the pandemic I can think of seeing people on an airplane wearing masks and worrying "Oh no. Are they contagious?" As time goes by I realize that same thought will run through my head if I see someone without a mask where the majority of the crowd has one on. On the plus side, think of the fun you could have wearing a designer mask (like the Gerry Cheevers "stitches" for his hockey mask). You can't tell me this wouldn't look way cool as a face mask design.

That would work too.

I don’t imagine anyone is going to write an epitaph on their tombstone saying “It was worth it not to look silly in a mask”.

I'll agree that it was a messed up attempt, but I disagree that it turns more people off than it draws in. At best it's a neutral issue. No hard core fan who is watching the Grey Cup for the football is going to say "Well that does it. Having an in-broadcast interview with this celebrity has soured me so much that I'm going to shut off the TV and not watch the completion of the first Bomber Grey Cup win in 29 years." Many on this site have railed against Rod Black's coverage for what feels like forever, and yet you are all still here following the game and commenting on the things he says, which means you are still watching him. As for the casual fan, they are watching for the spectacle as much as anything, so a bit more Keith Urban is not something they will complain about. Remember when Justin Beiber did the halftime show at the 100th Grey Cup? The game itself averaged 5.5 million viewers, but the halftime jumped to an average of 6.1 million, peaking at 7 million viewers. This for a guy who was booed mercilessly in the stadium. And all the wives who were at my Grey Cup party and had been blabbing in the kitchen in the first half while the hubbys watched the game were glued to Keith's performance and then paid attention when he came up to the booth later to chat, and stayed to watch the football afterwards. I can do without it, but in today's world this is a pretty silly thing to get your knickers in a twist over.

Wasn't '87. That year the league I think created the CFN (Canadian Football Network) and Dave Hodge did the game. Lancaster was at it next year with Don Wittman for the Bomber-Lion Cup in Ottawa. Lancaster was still at it in 1990 with Witt again for the Bomber-Eskie Cup game. I know he went back into coaching the next season with Edmonton and never broadcast again since he coached straight through until 2003.

Mike Jones' "critical" interception came with 36 seconds left on the clock and the Bombers up 33-12. He had 4 tackles in the game (Sayles led with 6) and 1 special teams tackle in the second level of tackling (19 yard gain on the punt return before his tackle). He did knock Banks out of the game and had 3 pass knockdowns, including the big one against his namesake for the Ticats (who also got injured, so if you want to argue that he wins the MVP for causing the most injuries on the opposing side, I'll give you that one). Jones was covering Banks for the first half, and Banks was the game's leading receiver before he got knocked out. Very solid game for sure, and I'd award him the Happy Honker for the timing of that pass knockdown on the goalline in the third quarter when it was 27-12. Jefferson had 2 tackles, 3 sacks, and 2 forced fumbles, including the biggest one that directly led to Harris' first touchdown which gave the Bombers a lead they would never surrender. Splashier stats and his pressures kept Evans off balance all game. He was also part of a line that forced 2 turnovers on 3rd and short when the Ticats had not been stopped all year on that play. I'd put Jefferson over Jones. However, it is arguable that Jeffcoat had an even bigger game. 4 tackles (including a big tackle for a loss against Banks on an end-around sweep that stalled the Ticats drive in Winnipeg territory and forced a field goal to make it 7-3 instead of 7-7 possibly). Also 2 sacks, had a third taken away because of a Jefferson roughing penalty, forced a fumble which he recovered himself, and the aforementioned pressure and 3rd down stuffs. Of the 7 turnovers the Bombers had, 2 were fumbles forced by the d-line and 2 were failed 3rd down sneaks, and add in 6 sacks for good measure, so the line played a critical role in the tempo of the game. I would give it to Jeffcoat barely over Jefferson, but Harris had the biggest first half of them all where the game was essentially decided, so he is probably the rightful winner. Disagree?

I can't imagine how this place would be right now had we not won the Cup again and had the delay to the start of the season right now. That win has washed away so many frustrations and kept a lid on the anxiety of the current state of things. I still remember this board at halftime of the Calgary game, when O'Shea was being fired and run out of town along with LaPo and Richie Hall.

I was in Regina for the West Final (which is now the best CFL game I have ever attended live, replacing the 1994 Division Final against Baltimore and the Matt Dunigan 713 game as my previous co-favorites), and driving home after I listened to the entire pre-game, game and post-game show on the CJOB audio vault just to hear how Bob Irving called the game I had just seen live. Most enjoyable 6 hour drive of my life.

I still have all 3 playoff games on my PVR. Will not be deleting those for a long time, especially while the current season is on hiatus.

So I am curious as to why you each see this as the outcome? What kind of hard numbers do you think would be needed? I saw one quote of over $100, if you are talking per game I'm not sure where that figure would come from. I don't think you can compare to a $65 cost for a UFC "event" evening and need to consider a package like NHL Network of NFL Sunday Ticket. I'm just throwing out numbers with no real heavy in-depth analysis, so please point out all the flaws in my accounting (I'm sure there are many). But the stats I found showed an average weekly 2019 TV audience of around 500,000 fans per CFL game on TV, with increased numbers for bigger games like Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, and playoffs pushing 1,000,000 viewers, and Grey Cup 3-4 times that. If you charged $10 per game based on 500,000 average TV fans per game, over an 81 game season that's over $400 million. For me, who spends $1600 per year for 2 season ticket seats and parking (and I'm not considering buying drinks, food, or 50/50 tickets), the cost of $810 for an entire year of every CFL game doesn't seem that exorbitant to me given what I'm already paying for just 10 games. And the NFL Sunday ticket is something like $300-400 is it not, just to be able to watch an early and a late afternoon game of your choice, but you are paying for 2 full games of action. Now of course, ratings for free TV do not equate to the same ratings for pay-per-view, but the boost in CFL Draft ratings does show an appetite for the game, and with nothing else live or new on, one would think that this would create a boost in the numbers, especially to those won't have no other option to see a game with fans not allowed in the stands. Yes, one PPV subscription could cover 2-4 people vs. one person, one seat bought at a game, but even if you cut ratings in half and factored in that one PPV purchase covers 2 people, that's 125,000 subscribers per game and over $100,000,000 in the season. So I'm sure this is way too simplistic, and I'm not trying to be contrarian here. I want to explore what the numbers would be and how people get to the individual figures they think are realistic. How far off are my estimates and why are they off?

All I know is, without Ambrosie, this would never have happened.

Without citing any evidence of women’s intelligence, I can confidently say that, based on the actions of men throughout history alone as my basis, I have every reason to believe women certainly are inherently no dumber.

Criminals are accused of many things. Being smart is never at the top of the list of those accusations.

If the Rodney King video could result in acquittals, nothing would surprise me here.

Aw, and we were doing so well just ignoring Pigseye's posts for a while.