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.

I don't think for a second the Riders are doing anything wrong here. Sell the tickets you can and hope, with the odds in your favour, that it works out. Pandemic has hurt all teams. 

Back office taking care of finances, while the team takes care of the rest. 

Shoot your shot. 

8 hours ago, JCon said:

I don't think for a second the Riders are doing anything wrong here. Sell the tickets you can and hope, with the odds in your favour, that it works out. Pandemic has hurt all teams. 

Back office taking care of finances, while the team takes care of the rest. 

Shoot your shot. 

Agree

37 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Agree

Regardless of how we feel about the Riders, they have built a great fan network and marketing. There are several CFL teams that could learn from them.

I don't trust anyone who doesn't outright abhor the Riders franchise and especially their fan base.....

Edmonton got jobbed.

And now they get to play 2 more games this week that mean nothing and have to travel from Vancouver to Toronto to do it. 

12 hours ago, Tracker said:

Regardless of how we feel about the Riders, they have built a great fan network and marketing. There are several CFL teams that could learn from them.

Step no 1 have zero entertainment or sports competition in your market lol

12 hours ago, Noeller said:

I don't trust anyone who doesn't outright abhor the Riders franchise and especially their fan base.....

40 minutes ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

I always wonder if that line was meant to be ironic or just another example of Lucas's poor writing. 

4 hours ago, wbbfan said:

Step no 1 have zero entertainment or sports competition in your market lol

Ban the NHL! 

Strevy goes in as colt Mccoy goes down too. Wonder if he will start next week 

13 hours ago, Geebrr said:

Edmonton got jobbed.

And now they get to play 2 more games this week that mean nothing and have to travel from Vancouver to Toronto to do it. 

Edmonton got jobbed in the game, but they jobbed themselves schedule wise.  They're lucky to even get to play the game against Toronto (though at this point it doesn't really matter because they're out of the playoffs).

1 hour ago, Sard said:

Edmonton got jobbed in the game, but they jobbed themselves schedule wise.  They're lucky to even get to play the game against Toronto (though at this point it doesn't really matter because they're out of the playoffs).

Still sucks. Particularly for the guys on the team that did what they could to avoid it.

But, yes, the team as a whole made their bed.

 

3 games in 7 days and traveling across country is unheard of. 

They are going to be in a lot of pain. 

7 hours ago, Geebrr said:

Still sucks. Particularly for the guys on the team that did what they could to avoid it.

But, yes, the team as a whole made their bed.

 

3 games in 7 days and traveling across country is unheard of. 

They are going to be in a lot of pain. 

Most of them won't be back next season. 

13 hours ago, Sard said:

Edmonton got jobbed in the game, but they jobbed themselves schedule wise.  They're lucky to even get to play the game against Toronto (though at this point it doesn't really matter because they're out of the playoffs).

so you're saying they should've got jabbed to avoid getting jobbed...

https://3downnation.com/2021/11/15/sprinkles-of-jesus-cody-fajardos-interception-wiped-out-duke-williams-gets-up-after-potential-serious-looking-injury/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=sprinkles-of-jesus-cody-fajardos-interception-wiped-out-duke-williams-gets-up-after-potential-serious-looking-injury

 

🤢 🤢 🤢 🤢 🤢 🤢 🤢 🤢

Sprinkles of Jesus?

That Brendan McGuire is an utterly godawful writer.

1 minute ago, blue_gold_84 said:

Sprinkles of Jesus?

That Brendan McGuire is an utterly godawful writer.

It is like taking the worst posts on RF and making an article out of them.

Jesus is still no match for Mike O'Shea. 

26 minutes ago, Geebrr said:

It is like taking the worst posts on RF and making an article out of them.

Qft

If Cody is Jesus sprinkles then the Bombers are a legionaire with a spear.

One more game this year for cf against our defence might make an atheist out of him. 

I hate how 3dn panders to the riders. Even when they suck. It's sickening. 

The 'sprinkles' must have been in the form of a pain killing 'shot' the way the Dukes' leg was bent backwards...I'd be very surprised if he's a 100 percent the rest of the year....He may need a lot of 'sprinkles'

1 minute ago, wbbfan said:

Qft

If Cody is Jesus sprinkles then the Bombers are a legionaire with a spear.

One more game this year for cf against our defence might make an atheist out of him. 

I hate how 3dn panders to the riders. Even when they suck. It's sickening. 

 3rd. down articles it appears, originates and is edited in the riders offices.....therefore the slant

1 hour ago, Stickem said:

The 'sprinkles' must have been in the form of a pain killing 'shot' the way the Dukes' leg was bent backwards...I'd be very surprised if he's a 100 percent the rest of the year....He may need a lot of 'sprinkles'

Lucky for them that Williams can't get any slower than he already looked. "go be tall and hope they don't cover you" seems to be the only plays he has anyway. 

On 2021-11-13 at 9:47 AM, JCon said:

No, you pay for the ticket and carry that playoff ticket over until you use it. 

No one sells tickets beforehand because you have to deal with the logistics of returning all the money. 

Riders are confident and are taking a chance. 

I mean, end of the day its just so the club can retain ~$100 of your money early. Lots of clubs do it now as a means to better manage cash flow

Hey if Rider fans are dumb enough to pay for pixie dust, jesus sprinkles, and magic beans then all the power to the Rider club for getting them to do it.

41 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

Lucky for them that Williams can't get any slower than he already looked. "go be tall and hope they don't cover you" seems to be the only plays he has anyway. 

Pretty much. They are stoking Duke up pretty good but Edmonton's secondary is pretty poor.

1 hour ago, 17to85 said:

Lucky for them that Williams can't get any slower than he already looked. "go be tall and hope they don't cover you" seems to be the only plays he has anyway. 

If they shoot him up with ac Leonard juice he could possibly kick it up into Jamie Stoddard gear. Other wise he's gonna have to be happy with wade Miller time. 

Edited November 15, 20214 yr by wbbfan

Maybe that's what McGuire does, he posts on RF and then uses the worst to "write" his bird cage liners.