Calgary Stampeders President Gordon Norrie made the following statement.

 

 

“There’s actual traction at the league level,” Norrie said this week. “It’s pretty much unanimous amongst the teams. We’re working with a couple of our partners that also have a stake in it, namely TSN, so it’s still very much at the top of the priorities of all the teams.

“For the most part right now, the topic is ending the season sooner. Once we get everybody involved that has an issue or has a stake in it, then we’ll start to work out the details.”

While the players are fine with earning a paycheque in any type of weather, the changes are being looked at with the fans in mind.

Seems it's more likely that with the way the weather seems to be changing a blizzard is more likely to happen in may than November.

Last year in Winnipeg on grey cup day it was very cold... probably somewhere in the -20 to -25 range.... then a week later, early December, it was closer to 0... incredibly hit or miss, especially in the prairies...

My daughter was born Nov 24 lady year. We left the hospital the 26th and it was what I'd say the coldest day of the winter. Freezing that day. Don't recall much snow but Def icey as it could be

My daughter was born Nov 24 lady year. We left the hospital the 26th and it was what I'd say the coldest day of the winter. Freezing that day. Don't recall much snow but Def icey as it could be

Lady year? is that like year of the monkey? I don't remember that one from my place mat.

 

 

 

 

The CFL could also look at whether training camp needs to be as long as it is...maybe shave a week off main TC? With the number of veterans taking a week off anyways for "injuries", it seems most veterans don't need it to be as long.

But ya, I'd like to see more warm weather games and the Grey Cup played no later than mid November.

People already complain that the first couple games are glorified exhibition games and you want to shorten preseason even more?

Not fewer games, but maybe less practice time. Maybe start rookie camp earlier as veterans don't seem to need/want as much practice time during TC. I'm just looking for some creative solutions, unlike you who just likes to complain.

Yeah cause less practice time is sure to make those first games better played. You say creative ideas, I say stupid ideas not even worth considering. Longer preseason would be better for the leagues overall play

Your reply really doesn't surprise me. You're the "Debbie Downer" of MBB.

 

I'm only down on stupid ideas. Sorry your got your feelings hurt but shortening the preseason is not a good idea. Makes the start of the regular season even uglier and I'm not interested in seeing more glorified preseason games in the regular season. The early season games are already meaningless enough. 

 

 

I'm not a fan. I prefer fall football to June football.

Who said anything about getting rid of fall football? Its the winter football that sucks. From a business perspective it makes a lot of sense. What's attendance like in Late October? There is infinitely more opportunity to sell out a couple of June ganes then give away free tickets in late October or early November.

Winter starts December 21. June is usually a combo of oppressive heat and storms when the cold fronts finally appear. I don't think it's necessarily an easier sell than October for regular season. Meaningful games in October and November will sell in most CFL cities, and where they don't sell changing the schedule would make little difference.

 

That hasnt been my experience in June.

June is usually nice, we usually open up the pool on May long and then have nice warm weather before it gets really hot on July long.

The CFL could also look at whether training camp needs to be as long as it is...maybe shave a week off main TC? With the number of veterans taking a week off anyways for "injuries", it seems most veterans don't need it to be as long.

But ya, I'd like to see more warm weather games and the Grey Cup played no later than mid November.

People already complain that the first couple games are glorified exhibition games and you want to shorten preseason even more?

Not fewer games, but maybe less practice time. Maybe start rookie camp earlier as veterans don't seem to need/want as much practice time during TC. I'm just looking for some creative solutions, unlike you who just likes to complain.

Yeah cause less practice time is sure to make those first games better played. You say creative ideas, I say stupid ideas not even worth considering. Longer preseason would be better for the leagues overall play

Your reply really doesn't surprise me. You're the "Debbie Downer" of MBB.

I'm only down on stupid ideas. Sorry your got your feelings hurt but shortening the preseason is not a good idea. Makes the start of the regular season even uglier and I'm not interested in seeing more glorified preseason games in the regular season. The early season games are already meaningless enough.

I'm suggesting less practice time for veterans, start rookie camp earlier and still play 2 preseason games. It's a complex idea that I wouldn't expect you to understand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The CFL could also look at whether training camp needs to be as long as it is...maybe shave a week off main TC? With the number of veterans taking a week off anyways for "injuries", it seems most veterans don't need it to be as long.

But ya, I'd like to see more warm weather games and the Grey Cup played no later than mid November.

People already complain that the first couple games are glorified exhibition games and you want to shorten preseason even more?

Not fewer games, but maybe less practice time. Maybe start rookie camp earlier as veterans don't seem to need/want as much practice time during TC. I'm just looking for some creative solutions, unlike you who just likes to complain.

Yeah cause less practice time is sure to make those first games better played. You say creative ideas, I say stupid ideas not even worth considering. Longer preseason would be better for the leagues overall play

Your reply really doesn't surprise me. You're the "Debbie Downer" of MBB.

I'm only down on stupid ideas. Sorry your got your feelings hurt but shortening the preseason is not a good idea. Makes the start of the regular season even uglier and I'm not interested in seeing more glorified preseason games in the regular season. The early season games are already meaningless enough.

I'm suggesting less practice time for veterans, start rookie camp earlier and still play 2 preseason games. It's a complex idea that I wouldn't expect you to understand.

 

I know what you're suggesting, apparently my objections are beyond you. Even veterans need practise time. They sacrifice reps so that they can evaluate more rookies but that doesn't mean they always hit the season in stride. Give them more warm up time as well as giving the rookies more time and you see a sharper team overall come game 1. See how easy it is to follow? That's the point of why I keep bring up the ugly early season games, vets are still shaking the rust off in those games. 

Maybe eliminate the bye weeks. Probably won't fly but you could have a couple teams play Thursday one week and then they don't play again until Saturday or Sunday the next week. But eliminating the bye weeks won't happen

CFLPA would never agree to that

Prior to last season there was only one bye week per team.  The return of the Redthings changed it to 2 bye weeks per team.  There might be a way to shave a week out of the season and still give every team a bye week, which would just return things to the way they were prior to 2014.

Prior to last season there was only one bye week per team.  The return of the Redthings changed it to 2 bye weeks per team.  There might be a way to shave a week out of the season and still give every team a bye week, which would just return things to the way they were prior to 2014.

Simple math, there are 9 teams so one team has to sit out each week, since we play each team twice (at least) every team gets 2 byes over the course of the year. Impossible to eliminate one bye per team unless the schedule has that goofy "sandwich a third game mid-week between the 2 normal weekend games" stretch and make every CFL team do it.

 

Easiest way to shorten the season and keep a reasonable schedule with reasonable rest (i.e. 6-8 days) between games: shorten the season to 16 games. Every team plays every team twice (one home, one road) and gets 2 byes. 18 week schedule instead of 20. Season starts Canada Day week (last game of the week played no later than July 1), Labour Day week therefore is week 10, regular season is done before Halloween, playoffs end no later than November 18 every year. This is how it was before 1986 (they actually had 4 pre-season games then too, but it was felt that 4 exhibition games were too many and weren't profitable enough to justify the expense).

 

Of course, extra "real" games mean extra revenue, so the league will not ever want to shorten the schedule back to 16.

 

Prior to last season there was only one bye week per team.  The return of the Redthings changed it to 2 bye weeks per team.  There might be a way to shave a week out of the season and still give every team a bye week, which would just return things to the way they were prior to 2014.

Simple math, there are 9 teams so one team has to sit out each week, since we play each team twice (at least) every team gets 2 byes over the course of the year. Impossible to eliminate one bye per team unless the schedule has that goofy "sandwich a third game mid-week between the 2 normal weekend games" stretch and make every CFL team do it.

 

Sure, if you want to give it more than a passing thought then it's easy to find flaws...

 

 

Prior to last season there was only one bye week per team.  The return of the Redthings changed it to 2 bye weeks per team.  There might be a way to shave a week out of the season and still give every team a bye week, which would just return things to the way they were prior to 2014.

Simple math, there are 9 teams so one team has to sit out each week, since we play each team twice (at least) every team gets 2 byes over the course of the year. Impossible to eliminate one bye per team unless the schedule has that goofy "sandwich a third game mid-week between the 2 normal weekend games" stretch and make every CFL team do it.

 

Sure, if you want to give it more than a passing thought then it's easy to find flaws...

 

Yep, I'm the jackass who points out when people make predictions for the teams' records for the season and the wins and losses don't equal out.