Since we have another week before game related Bomber action, thought I’d throw out a random topic for discussion. 

You are the commissioner and can change something about the CFL, what would you do? Don’t go for low hanging fruit like “kick the Roughriders out”, “fire Ambrosie”, or “Bombers get the Cup every year”, what rule changes, scheduling, roster moves, or marketing would you implement?

I will throw out a few to start:

Despite people’s love of the cottage in summer, game attendance actually is highest in those months and drops after Labour Day. So move up the season schedule so the league starts in May, and can be done before November. 

Get a 10th team in now, or cut back to 16 games, one home and one road game against each team. Two bye weeks per team a year. 

Bring back the third QB, but mandate that they must be Canadian

Open up the NFL option window, but eliminate the one year comtract. Of a player leaves for the NFL, their CFL team retains first refusal of rights unless player is gone for the entire following CFL season. 

Playoff games on Saturday, especially the Grey Cup. How many fans don’t travel to the big game because they need to be back at work Monday and can’t make the flights out with an evening Sunday game? Saturday late afternoon game allows a lot of Saturday night post-game partying and Sunday is travel day for the fans. 

Anything else?

Edited October 31, 20214 yr by TrueBlue4ever

56 minutes ago, johnzo said:

I agree that early byes are dumb, but how do you schedule games for nine teams in a single week without making one team play twice?  I think one team has to have a bye every week so long as we have an odd number of teams in the league.

Yes, never considered that.

3 hours ago, johnzo said:

I agree that early byes are dumb, but how do you schedule games for nine teams in a single week without making one team play twice?  I think one team has to have a bye every week so long as we have an odd number of teams in the league.

Well it's either that, or we develop a few games a week that require three teams to play... or one team to play.

I'd like to see the CFL consider London, Ontario as a potential expansion city so we can get to 10 teams. Having 4 teams in Ontario & all 5 Eastern teams in the same time zone would be beneficial for scheduling as well as rivalries. That & the fact that London already has a 10.000 seat stadium in place that I think can be expanded to 25,000 makes it a much better choice than Halifax. The economy is better than Halifax & London as well as Southern Ontario has the population base to draw from.  Metro London has a population of 500,000.

 

Edited November 2, 20214 yr by SpeedFlex27

11 hours ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

I think a big reason that today’s player is less engaged and loyal to a team long term than back in the 1970’s is how big the NFL has gotten. Remember that the Argos outbid the NFL for Rocket Ismael when he signed with them, no way that will ever happen again. And the teams don’t have guaranteed contracts, so where is the incentive to sign for more than one year? So players who are looking out for their bottom line are not going to lock themselves in to a long contract if no one else is going to commit to them. 
As for ticket prices, I certainly agree that Grey Cup prices especially are out of hand now. I wonder if the league would go back to considering local blackouts for games not sold out 48 hours in advance as a way to lure fans back to the park. It used to be if you wanted to see a home game, the only way was buying a ticket. Could that work again?

I think the problem with that suggestion is then you lose casual fans who were never going to the game anyways but might tune in on TV just because football is on...

Also, it penalizes long term season ticket holders who have to miss live games due to other commitments... then they have no opportunity to watch the game...

Any combination of initiatives that engage the younger fan has to be explored.  In a perfect world it would be ideal to have a student section for high school kids that allocated a set number of seats for specific high schools that rotate on an annual basis. It would be up to each school to dole out the 25 seats per game. If I was in that age group, I would definitely want to go with my buddies. If not for the game, then to see the girls from the other schools.

6 hours ago, Pete Catan's Ghost said:

Any combination of initiatives that engage the younger fan has to be explored.  In a perfect world it would be ideal to have a student section for high school kids that allocated a set number of seats for specific high schools that rotate on an annual basis. It would be up to each school to dole out the 25 seats per game. If I was in that age group, I would definitely want to go with my buddies. If not for the game, then to see the girls from the other schools.

The Stamps used to give seats to every  pee wee, bantam & HS team in Calgary. They all sat in one section. Four seats per team. We'd give them out to players who either played well thee game before or for the kids who practised the hardest. Then suddenly the tickets were cancelled. That section where kids sat & filled now sits virtually empty every game today. The Stamps do little, if nothing here to engage youth football. All they're doing is shooting themselvess in the foot to spite their face. 

I can also tell you how clueless some CFL owners are & totally out of touch with their fanbase. The year before these tickets were  ultimately cancelled, one of the Stamps owners at the time was a great high school & U Sport basketball player when he was young & before he became a multi millionaire. He wanted to take the tickets away from young footballers & give them to basketball teams instead. 

Edited November 2, 20214 yr by SpeedFlex27

On 2021-11-01 at 10:55 PM, TrueBlue4ever said:

. I wonder if the league would go back to considering local blackouts for games not sold out 48 hours in advance as a way to lure fans back to the park. It used to be if you wanted to see a home game, the only way was buying a ticket. Could that work again?

100% no - for a lot of reasons.

Biggest being that TV contracts depend on that viewership. 
 

Toronto would never see a Toronto game. The TV contract would then cease to exist.

 

Also, blackouts are stupid.