https://www.tsn.ca/naylor-many-questions-but-few-answers-on-a-2021-cfl-season-1.1543725

The Canadian Football League has been outrageously quiet since it pulled the plug on its season more than two months ago, leaving behind a wake of speculation about where things are headed next.

With the reality setting in that COVID-19 is likely to still be around in some form next summer, there is real concern about what the 2021 season might look like or if it will occur at all.

There are teams that believe it is vitally important to play in 2021 and that without a season the CFL is in danger of being mothballed. Whether every team believes that is another question. And there is a lot to sort out before anyone can accurately predict what a season might look like and how much pain the teams are collectively willing to stomach to make it happen.

The league and its franchises are currently running through various scenarios for next season, trying to get a handle on true costs of each and working at ways to trim budgets and save money. That’s likely to continue until the league can truly choose a course of action, which feels like next April at the earliest.

Why? Well, there’s not much point in fully committing to a scenario that’s seven months away if that scenario might be totally unrealistic by the time you get there.

There has been no 2021 business plan presented yet, only regular updates to the presidents and governors about what the league is doing to prepare for the unknown.

It should be noted that teams will need to make decisions about retaining assistant coaches with expiring contracts by December, which will be the first real economic commitments to a 2021 season. Restrictions on signing players will need to be lifted well before the opening of February free agency, where players are likely to meet a cautious market – one in which signing bonuses will probably be absent.

There’s a collective bargaining agreement to amend, if not renegotiate, with the players, which will require some kind of pressure point because it always does. But the league can’t sit down with the players until it gets a true handle on revenues and it can’t do that until it chooses a course of action.

Will CFL teams be allowed to have full stadiums next summer? It doesn't seem likely. But just what percentage of capacity will be allowed – if any at all – is impossible to guess. It seems as if the league is counting on the restrictions that currently prevent fans from being in stadiums being lifted. But to what degree?

When will we see a schedule? Good question. Or could we see multiple schedules for different scenarios? Never say never.

Could it be a 21-week, 18-game season played in home stadiums? Unlikely, given the losses teams are expected to take with reduced numbers of fans in the stands. Could we see a return to the 10-week bubble? Maybe. A nine-game schedule played in home stadiums before fans? Perhaps.

The point is no one knows, so demanding answers to questions that can’t possibly be answered right now is a waste of time.

All we know is that there’s going to be a lot less revenue for teams to operate with under any scenario, not just because of crowd restrictions but also due to older fans choosing to stay home for their safety. The CFL’s fan demographics do it no favours in this regard.

Getting consensus on a best course of action won’t be easy for the CFL’s nine teams. Back in the summer, there were teams that were willing to play without government support and teams that weren’t. And just like then, the biggest challenge commissioner Randy Ambrosie faces now is finding a scenario they can all live with.

Adopting a revenue-sharing model so that each team absorbs the same amount of red ink would certainly make consensus-building easier, which many believe should be the direction for the future, COVID-19 or not.

The other elephant in the room is federal government, which many in the CFL believe left it high and dry last summer after months of back-and-forth talks where the league believed it was making progress.

Is the CFL prepared to go down that road again, knowing it doesn’t control the timeline and larger forces can change things in an instant? Perhaps, although it’s not as though the feds don’t have a long list of people coming at them with their hands out.

There will be voices demanding the owners suck up the losses of playing a season under any circumstance, as owners have done in other sports. But the business calculation in sports such as MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA is different because of the percentage of revenues those leagues derive from television.

Losses sustained by playing in those leagues can also be viewed as investments towards protecting massive franchise values. That’s not the case in the CFL, where teams can’t just float money on the backs of their franchise values, and where one third of the teams are publicly owned.

It would be beneficial for the league to soon announce its formal commitment to play some kind of season in 2021.

But beyond that, get ready for months more of waiting with lots of questions and speculation but very few answers.

2 hours ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

It's hard to understand the state of denial the Riders Dickenson is in RE penalties.

Penalties:

-Cost you field position

-Keep your defense on the field

-Take your offense off the field

These outcomes take points off the board for your team and set the other team up to score points.  They only contribute to losing, if you win you've overcome these deficits and you probably aren't facing an equal opponent or your opponent has also hurt themselves with penalties and turnovers. 

Its called "grasping at straws"

Ottawa outcoached in Hamilton (& 11 other thoughts on losing to the Ticats) | 3DownNation

Hey look, people other than Bomber fans are finally seeing what weve all seen for years.....

1 hour ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

Ottawa outcoached in Hamilton (& 11 other thoughts on losing to the Ticats) | 3DownNation

Hey look, people other than Bomber fans are finally seeing what weve all seen for years.....

Yeah, Lapolice isn't going to develop a QB.  He never has going on 3 decades.  The fact he started this season with Nichols-Davis proves that he has no interest in it.  Ottawa is done this season.  They need to let Evans play and make mistakes to learn.  The yo-yo stuff is just stupid.  Playing a new QB every week.

Can we send a Christmas card to the soon to be former Ottawa GM for taking LaPo away??? 

3 hours ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

Yeah, Lapolice isn't going to develop a QB.  He never has going on 3 decades.  The fact he started this season with Nichols-Davis proves that he has no interest in it.  Ottawa is done this season.  They need to let Evans play and make mistakes to learn.  The yo-yo stuff is just stupid.  Playing a new QB every week.

If Lapo wants to be successful as HC, he needs an OC. He can help formulate the offensive gameplan for the week but let the OC call the plays.

23 minutes ago, M.O.A.B. said:

If Lapo wants to be successful as HC, he needs an OC. He can help formulate the offensive gameplan for the week but let the OC call the plays.

Leopards can't change their spots. 

3 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Leopards can't change their spots. 

Lapo is incredibly arrogant. 

3 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Leopards can't change their spots. 

Agree. Given his failure on his first gig as HC and seeing for the previous years how O’Shea run things, I thought he would be successful this time around. But not. Though not 100% the blame is on his. Desjardins should carry most of the blame because of the lack of talent on this team.

17 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

Lapo is incredibly arrogant. 

LaPolice seems like a decent enough person but he appears to be very limited in his adaptability. He keeps using the same approaches again and again even though it is obvious they are not working well. 

3 minutes ago, Tracker said:

LaPolice seems like a decent enough person but he appears to be very limited in his adaptability. He keeps using the same approaches again and again even though it is obvious they are not working well. 

Yep. I think he's a decent player coach too.  But man he's not good at making the best of his weapons. 

Here’s something I found pretty interesting:

With Winnipeg clinching the west division last night, it gives us 3 different top seeds in 3 seasons (Calgary ‘18, Sask ‘19, Winnipeg ‘21)

The last time that happened was ten years ago (Sask 09, Calgary ‘10, BC ‘11)

That is an absolutely bizarre stat. Between 2012-2018, Calgary won the division 5 times, BC once, and Edmonton once.

 

2 hours ago, 17to85 said:

Lapo is incredibly arrogant. 

Based on what?

Incompetent sure,   but arrogant? 

1 hour ago, Brandon said:

Based on what?

Incompetent sure,   but arrogant? 

Based on his arrogance.

Vince Lombardi couldn't win with Ottawa's roster.

7 hours ago, Tracker said:

LaPolice seems like a decent enough person but he appears to be very limited in his adaptability. He keeps using the same approaches again and again even though it is obvious they are not working well. 

Saturday's game was vintage LaPo. Putting both his qbs into situations where they couldn't win. Inexplicable play calls. Little or no support from the bench. Duck Hodges is not a short yardage qb. So, why even put him in that situation? Evans should be doing short yardage. Evans looks like he could be a pretty good qb if he is developed properly. At times, he was flailing away on the field like a drowning man crying for help. Instead of throwing him a life preserver, LaPo threw him a rock. 

Edited October 25, 20214 yr by SpeedFlex27

 

Read as: best Monday ever, woke up to a voice-mail telling me not to come in!

Expect Danny Mac and/or Ted Goveia to get an interview on that opening. If any of them gets the job Lapo’s job might be safe. 

Interesting that they didn't give Marcel till season's end before doing this. Lapo to TSN for 2022?

3 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

Interesting that they didn't give Marcel till season's end before doing this. Lapo to TSN for 2022?

and beyond? 

1 hour ago, MOBomberFan said:

 

Read as: best Monday ever, woke up to a voice-mail telling me not to come in!

I legitimately thought that was a "Fake Marcel Desjardins" twitter account. 

I said, 'well I think you guys are making a mistake, but that's up to you guys and thanks very much' and packed my bag and came back home,” Desjardins said.

 

Douchebag. Good riddance 

2 minutes ago, Goalie said:

I said, 'well I think you guys are making a mistake, but that's up to you guys and thanks very much' and packed my bag and came back home,” Desjardins said.

 

Douchebag. Good riddance 

you'll rue the day!!!!!!!!

1 hour ago, M.O.A.B. said:

Expect Danny Mac and/or Ted Goveia to get an interview on that opening. If any of them gets the job Lapo’s job might be safe. 

I dont think mac leaves. The schedule and flexibility is most important to him from what I understand. Goveia though, yeah I think thats pretty likely. Unless for some reason they give plop the GM title too lol. 

 

9 hours ago, 17to85 said:

Based on his arrogance.

Im not sure that word means what you think it means.

The lapo love in interesting.  He was a boring coach who thought he was the smartest guy in the room. He has a hand in how bad Ottawa is.  Eventually u realize after 3 or 4 head gigs... he's not a leader tho 

Some guys are good prep cooks and not good chefs.. to me lapo is that.. a good prep cook or coordinator but a bad chef aka coach. Lapo just doesn't inspire.  

Edited October 25, 20214 yr by Goalie