Proposed Annual

CFL Schedule 

About Marketing Canadian Style With Better Fan Appeal

July 29, 2023

April weekend 3 & 4:

Voluntary pre-camp indoor conditioning & playbook analysis

 

April weekend 4:

            Rookie Camp: newbies, prospects, QBs (possibly indoor)

 

May weekend 1:

            Preseason Camp opens

 

May weekend 2:

            “Promoted” Intrasquad Game 1 & Autograph Day; heavily involve amateur football organizations for all ages… Make it a fundraiser for them and very much fun… Pass out free “buddy” tickets for next week’s intrasquad game through those organizations

 

May weekend 3:

            Charity & Corporate sponsored Intrasquad Game 2, part of season-ticket package (but discounted), have “buddy” passes heavily distributed; pre-arrangements to locally televise the game and have many CFL heroes on the telecast doing season forecasts... the whole point is to develop new fans cheaply and synergestically

            Lack of preseason travel will help with team budgeting; as well some of those funds can be used for the promotion of these intrasquad games and for the coming season; activating with charities will also deepen interest and possibly bring new fans

 

May weekend 4:

Season Opener – the 2 Grey Cup teams play and otherwise traditional rivals play each other

 

June – September weekends

4 games each except July (3) including afternoons & Thursday nights as requested

 

Last weekend in July

            League Wide Bye … TSN replays four most exciting games … All players can plan for a much-needed family vacation and otherwise refresh

 

Late August, September & early October:

            8 Canadian College games are played in the home stadium of the bye team … Fully priced tickets become  part of the season-ticket package; revenue pickup for both the college teams and the sponsoring CFL team... eventually have TSN televise these college games, perhaps test marketing a couple the first year

 

October:

            two regular-season games

two Sunday playoff games

 

November:

            first week of November:

5 promoted corporate/charity events and activities including Friday night “College & CFL Awards Night”

            Played in indoor stadiums, for now alternating Vancouver & Toronto; all teams participate in the revenue stream; cutting out winter seating will increase attendance remarkably

            Saturday   Vanier Cup included with the Grey Cup package, tickets are heavily discounted but fully paid for. What a fantastic extra event for the travelling fan, something more to celebrate on the trip. Canadian College football is “discovered” and new followers develop

 

            Sunday The Grey Cup Classic

Three weeks earlier than tradition

Regular-season will now have 1 May game, 2 October games, and 15 summer games over the suggested timelines; if there is an extra week over the summer, that can be filled by playing two games one week and two games the following week giving out another bye and the players a chance to recover from injuries.

 

RATIONALE: Schedule Change & Traditional Break

Fans will avoid winter games and will attend more frequently because of spring schedule; they will love to get outside again  in May as spring fully arrives and the Winter departs; attendance will be much higher in June than in early November; further there will be no NFL competition until September and by then football fan interest in the CFL will have greatly picked up; as well teams can still work around the NFL schedule during the brief overlap; furthermore, there will likely be little or no competition or conflict from NHL hockey

The CFL is heavily dependent on Canadian College and Junior football development; it’s the heart and soul of our game and what separates our CFL from the NFL. The CFL needs to do more to align with and promote amateur football in Canada and bring the CFL  fan base to a new enlightenment. Bringing CFL planning into that College realm can only help everybody…  In enjoyment, in player quality, and in revenue increases for all involved

Commissioner Ambrosie is doing fine bringing a maritime team or Québec City in as a tenth  team for our league. However, that is not nearly enough. The CFL board NEEDS TO BREAK TRADITION and make our league primarily a summer league from May to October. It works very well for baseball. Our fan base loves to get out in good weather so the CFL  Board needs to adjust our scheduling to accommodate what the fans really want. They want to get out to the games in the late spring instead of the early winter. They want to drink beer, not hot chocolate!

8 minutes ago, Jesse said:

I'd like to hear how you can "maximize revenue" that makes up for 3 games of attendance, concessions, and TV revenue. The NFL is adding games for this reason.

And again, I don't know why anyone would want less games. I certainly don't.

Football I would NEVER want less.... Hockey, absolutely. They could kill 20 games from the NHL season and I'd be very happy. But I can never get enough CFL.

9 minutes ago, Noeller said:

Football I would NEVER want less.... Hockey, absolutely. They could kill 20 games from the NHL season and I'd be very happy. But I can never get enough CFL.

And that's a place where they absolutely could/should. Play-offs are two months long and into the summer. I can't hold interest for that long. Craziness.

But they won't, because games = money.

21 minutes ago, Jesse said:

I'd like to hear how you can "maximize revenue" that makes up for 3 games of attendance, concessions, and TV revenue. The NFL is adding games for this reason.

And again, I don't know why anyone would want less games. I certainly don't.

1. By having higher attendance for the games that are played 

2. By having more and better concessions

3. By increasing playoff revenue, especially GC revenue, due to improved weather conditions

 

1 minute ago, Mark H. said:

1. By having higher attendance for the games that are played 

2. By having more and better concessions

3. By increasing playoff revenue, especially GC revenue, due to improved weather conditions

 

1. I don't see why this would happen. Why would more people go to games?

2. You can do this anyway?

3. This may add a couple of thousand people over 5 total games - with no increase to TV numbers. You're going to sacrifice 100's of thousands of people over multiple weeks of missed games and lose TV dollars.

22 minutes ago, Jesse said:

1. I don't see why this would happen. Why would more people go to games?

2. You can do this anyway?

3. This may add a couple of thousand people over 5 total games - with no increase to TV numbers. You're going to sacrifice 100's of thousands of people over multiple weeks of missed games and lose TV dollars.

1. Increased playoff attendance

2. Less games = more incentive to do a better job with concessions

3. Not all of those games are turning a profit. Have Fewer games and run them more effectively

4. A better product, due to improved weather, will eventually increase TV revenue

2 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

1. Increased playoff attendance

2. Less games = more incentive to do a better job with concessions

3. Not all of those games are turning a profit. Have Fewer games and run them more effectively

4. A better product, due to improved weather, will eventually increase TV revenue

None of these have the slimmest chance of happening. 

Less game = less people = less money.

Literally every sport is adding games, increasing amount of teams that make play-offs, to create more games to create more money.

6 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

1. Increased playoff attendance

2. Less games = more incentive to do a better job with concessions

3. Not all of those games are turning a profit. Have Fewer games and run them more effectively

4. A better product, due to improved weather, will eventually increase TV revenue

The bombers had 30.3k for the west final, higher than any non-Rider game all season. 

You figure they should cancel up to 3 regular season games at an average of 28k for max increase of 3k for one playoff game?

Just now, bigg jay said:

You figure they should cancel up to 3 regular season games at an average of 28k for max increase of 3k for one playoff game?

The Prairie teams are an anomaly.

10 minutes ago, Jesse said:

Literally every sport is adding games, increasing amount of teams that make play-offs, to create more games to create more money.

Sure, but the CFL doesn't have that option.  

4 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

The Prairie teams are an anomaly.

The Argos got 21k for the east finals last year when they hadn't cracked 15k all season.  Their last regular home game only drew 13k. 

Nicer weather did not affect the crowd 

12 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

Sure, but the CFL doesn't have that option.  

No one is arguing they should.

But you are trying to say that doing the opposite - taking away games - will somehow lead to increased attendance and revenue. 

It's a completely unreasonable take.

Let's say 20,000 in attendance per game at an average ticket price of $25. That's $500,000 in ticket revenue per game. Let's say each team plays two less games, so that is 18 games or 9 million in lost ticket revenue or 1 million per team. The contract with TSN is for about 43 million but if you reduce the number of games, you're looking at a reduction there. At that price, each game is worth $500,000 or again another 9 million. So we're at a loss of 18 million before you get into concessions. I don't see how you make that revenue up.

47 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

1. Increased playoff attendance

2. Less games = more incentive to do a better job with concessions

3. Not all of those games are turning a profit. Have Fewer games and run them more effectively

4. A better product, due to improved weather, will eventually increase TV revenue

It won't increase TV revenue because it decreases inventory significantly.  That's one of the main things the CFL is selling and what they are getting paid for by TSN.

Unless all of the production teams and football players are willing to get paid less there's no way this could work.

I'm against having less games,  I'd rather have the same amount of games but bumped up earlier in the year so that the later games in the year have a  higher amount of attendance. 

Thanks for the feedback guys. It was just something I thought I'd throw out there, to see what happens.