How Do We Fix The CFL's Popularity Problem? W/ Steve Simmons

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  • Опубликовано: 26 ноя 2024

Комментарии • 50

  • @144wychwood
    @144wychwood Год назад +1

    I'm a baby boomer who grew up in Montreal in the the 1970s. The Alouettes and the CFL were popular at that time. The generations after boomers grew up watching NFL and they don't consider CFL a major league. Things changed with emergence of Toronto as "world class city" and the Blue Jays in mid 80s. For most part, younger generation don't consider the CFL a major league and they'd sooner travel to Buffalo or New England to watch a NFL game. Expansion into U.S. is not answer either. They tried that 2 decades ago and it didn't fly. Bottom line, it's a very different landscape than 1970s.

  • @partisonpaul7357
    @partisonpaul7357 Год назад +2

    Bombers fan here, living in Toronto. Toronto fans don’t want to play versus the rubes from Saskatchewan or Winnipeg in a league that doesn’t include major league cities. They believe they’re a big league city who should play LA, NYC, Chicago, etc. Don’t embarrass them playing in a minor league, for God’s sake.

    • @FischerFan
      @FischerFan 9 месяцев назад

      They'll likely be more warming to Winnipeg since it has an NHL team; but Saskatchewan, you're right on the money. Playing a team from Regina offers nothing in the way of prestige.
      This is why those who suggest that Canadian-based NHL teams should break away and form their own Canadian league are deluding themselves.

    • @cheukhoma
      @cheukhoma Месяц назад

      If US annex Toronto, the problem is solved. But please don't come back and influence our politics. No one from the rest of the country likes how Southern Ontarians dictate the last federal elections.

  • @SteveMenardDesignDXM
    @SteveMenardDesignDXM Год назад +3

    One major problem is the number of teams in the League. With just 9, there's just not enough variety in the matchups.

    • @buffalobison3424
      @buffalobison3424 Год назад

      Yep too few teams, too many teams make the playoffs. The CFL is also one of the only domestic sports leagues without at least one multi-team city. If the CFL had had teams in Halifax, Quebec City, London, a team in Victoria or Kelowna or another team in the Lower Mainland and one or two teams in the GTA and a 16 team league it would be bigger.

  • @davidjohnson-fw5co
    @davidjohnson-fw5co Год назад

    CFL should be very popular in Toronto. Over the past few years, the Argos have the best record of winning , than any other team in Toronto

  • @jeelsvealnerve1163
    @jeelsvealnerve1163 Год назад

    Let's not forget the blackout years... when the locals couldn't watch the home team on TV because ownership refused to allow CBC/CTV to show the games in the home market if they weren't sold out (to the very last ticket) 72 hours before kickoff.
    The CFL alienated generations of fans with that one. TSN has done a good job promoting the league (and the CFL owes it's survival to TSN's support), but it now is as much a problem as a saviour... if you have/want TSN you might see the CFL. If you don't have it you won't even know it still exists. That is an obstacle to creating new fans. Some of the games have to be moved to CTV... or free streaming. Even if it is one game a week, you have to do it or you will not replace the aging fans who move on. The Grey cup has to be available on free tv to anyone who wants to watch it. Whether that is a CBC simulcast or a free stream I don't know, but if you want support you have to go there. When the CFL was on CBC/CTV ota roughly half the people who watched the grey cup would not watch another football game (of any description) all year. That is gone now.
    As for Simmons suggestion that the Argos make things cheaper, well, Cynamon and Sokoloski tried papering the house... there's no better deal than free tickets. It didn't work. Neither did celeb ownership (McNall, Gretzky, Candy). It built a huge buzz for about 2 weeks but was not sustainable.
    There's just one thing that hasn't been tried. Pre 1980, lots of Argo fans lived in the general vicinity of Exhibition stadium. That is no longer the case. Maybe, just maybe, if you moved the team to a suburb where the boatmen's fan base actually lives, they might come back?
    Whether that means Markham, Mississauga, Vaughn, or where I don't know. But it is basically the only thing that hasn't been tried. Getting downtown to watch a game (and pay for parking etc) can be an obstacle. Maybe moving the team to a suburban stadium would help. Then again, maybe it wouldn't.

  • @johnbrowne2170
    @johnbrowne2170 Год назад +1

    CFL fan from Newfoundland, especially love the Argos.

    • @McRocket
      @McRocket Год назад +1

      Same here...except I grew up near Hamilton.
      So...
      Question?
      Is there even one football field in ALL of Newfoundland?
      I have yet to see one.
      Rugby, soccer and baseball...but never a football field.

    • @johnbrowne2170
      @johnbrowne2170 Год назад +1

      @@McRocket There's at least one minor football field at Wishingwell Park since 2018. Very few teams. There may be one outside of St,John's. There was a 4-team minor football league in the 1960s, but played on soccer fields and once on a baseball outfield at St.Pat's Ballpark.

    • @clyde38
      @clyde38 9 месяцев назад

      Mt. Pearl Ticat Fan here.

    • @johnbrowne2170
      @johnbrowne2170 9 месяцев назад

      @@clyde38 Ti-Cats suck.

  • @mikerichardson60
    @mikerichardson60 Год назад +3

    CFL is considered minor league football. Toronto demands a major league experience because they have MLB, NBA and NHL teams. The odds of a John Candy/ Wayne Gretzky ownership has come and gone.

  • @davidbuswa9425
    @davidbuswa9425 Год назад

    To increase the popularity of the CFL would be to expand into the US. just like Simmons had said, Torontonians only cared about the Blue Jays when they played New York and Boston, Toronto would care about the Argos if they played Chicago, Detroit and New York teams

    • @jeelsvealnerve1163
      @jeelsvealnerve1163 Год назад

      Who in Chicago, Detroit or NY would watch their own CFL team? Nobody. The CFL has already tried US expansion. It was a miserable failure and poorly executed (Larry Smith).

    • @davidbuswa9425
      @davidbuswa9425 Год назад

      That was in the 90's pal. Times have changed. With more stringent vetting of potential US owners of CFL teams will be utilized. The CFL used the investment firm Park Lane to find Pierre Karl Paladeau to buy the Montreal Alouettes. The same firm can do so again @@jeelsvealnerve1163

  • @cost7569
    @cost7569 Год назад +1

    Steve Simmons going through to his Anti white views.

  • @howardnoseworthy5716
    @howardnoseworthy5716 Год назад +1

    It's an inferior product. Football fans figured that out years ago. It's not 1963.

    • @smokesletsgo2374
      @smokesletsgo2374 6 месяцев назад

      It is, but the price reflects it. I went to one NFL game for the price of 3 years of Argo season tickets. The quality of play was only slightly better. Anyone with a brain knows the NFL is superior but it's not THAT superior.

  • @billbaird2273
    @billbaird2273 Год назад

    CFL needs to be promoted as the only league we have that is our own. Its hilarious that some people, particularly in Toronto like to ridicule the league because its not American. All of the leagues with Canadian teams, NHL, NBA, MLB, MLS these are all run by Americans for Americans. Every country in the world has a top league of some sort of their own of which they are proud, in most countries this is soccer. You don't hear about people from Argentina bashing their top premier league just because it isn't EPL.

  • @buffalobison3424
    @buffalobison3424 Год назад

    Mark Cohon did an interview with Steve Paikin over a decade ago saying the Argos need to reach out to the South Asian community. A decade later, the CFL was doing the same thing. I agree with Steve that the existance and success of the Blue Jays and Raptors have both hurt the Argos but I also think that the fact that the CFL is virtually the only domestic sports league in the world without a multi-team city has hurt them in the major markets.
    I think historically having teams centred around neighbourhoods or sections of the city/GTA (or even blue vs white collar or new vs older Canadian) would've helped stem that tide a little bit. The success of the Scarborough Shooting Stars in the CEBL is kind of a case in point where some people in Scarborough rock the gear. Like Hamiltonians that cheer for Toronto in every other sport except the CFL having a team represent downtown/the old Metro Toronto inner suburbs, or east/west of Yonge, or 416 vs 905.
    The matchups between the Toronto/GTA teams would be major annual events in the way that the games with the Ticats simply aren't (because while Hamiltonians may care, your average Torontonian doesn't).

  • @brenroko3649
    @brenroko3649 2 месяца назад

    Every player he mentions is gone. Lol

  • @eshep71
    @eshep71 Год назад

    Gambling is the key

  • @FischerFan
    @FischerFan 9 месяцев назад

    You can't. It's a low-budget, third-tier league with no star power.

  • @wokebloke7019
    @wokebloke7019 Год назад

    As far as TV goes. I feel that in the summer, I have better things to do than watch football on TV on the weekend. Play the games on a Thursday. have a triple header. Then maybe one Friday night game.
    In fall don’t bother going head to head with the nfl. Put the playoff games Saturday afternoon at 1 and 3 so they run into HNIC.

  • @j.p.spencer1320
    @j.p.spencer1320 Год назад

    Mmmm....hot dogs....

  • @Matty-vw8vw
    @Matty-vw8vw Год назад

    bottom line - the CFL is a minor league playing in a major league city

  • @SelfMadeFailure
    @SelfMadeFailure Год назад

    These 3 will never stumble onto the reason that no on watches CFL. And good luck getting all those new Canadians to buy in. We can barely pass on traditions to our own children. You think someone new here who has grown up on soccer and cricket is going to give the first fuck about a second rate football league? CFL is all but dead if you think people from across an ocean will save it.

    • @buffalobison3424
      @buffalobison3424 Год назад

      They would if the game was first and foremost about experience and community as opposed to understanding the game itself. I think if Toronto had had multiple teams historically say a downtown/suburb; 416 vs. 905 or east/west of Yonge more new Canadians would have an easier time getting into the game. You see this in Melbourne with AFL-teams and the immigrant fans/communities who support them. When someone moves here and they're told they have to pick a side based on where they live or where they work, it makes it personal for them. And the CFL is virtually the only domestic sports league without at least one multi-team city lol

    • @davidbuswa9425
      @davidbuswa9425 Год назад

      Racist much? BTW, The CFL isn't second rate. It's the second best professional football in the World behind the overly hyped, crooked NFL. Put down the NFL Kool-Aid, it rots your brain

    • @SelfMadeFailure
      @SelfMadeFailure Год назад

      @@davidbuswa9425 I don’t watch the NFL and nothing I said is racist. CFL is at best a regional sport in Canada that flirted with National success on occasion. They’ll never be able to claw their way back to relevancy in the national consciousness much less the consciousness of new Canadians especially now that MLS is getting bigger by the day. CFL should adopt NFL rules and essentially take on its proper role as a development league for the NFL. At least then you would have American interest and possible expansion. They won’t do that and the league will wither and die as a result. You could plop another Doug Flutie into Toronto tomorrow and no one would notice aside from the people forced by the CRTC to sit through Canadian sports content on the morning loop and the smattering of fans that still watch this shit.

    • @davidbuswa9425
      @davidbuswa9425 Год назад

      Your comment was eerily similar to PQ separatist Jacque Parizeau blaming "immigrates votes" for the Quebec Separation vote in the 90's. Once the CFL gets that 10th team in Halifax, it becomes a coast-to-coast National league, Why should the CFL convert to NFL rules. It was the Americans that bastardized the rules of gridiron football by adding the 4th down and shortening the playing field. It was the CRTC that loosened the rules of allowing more US programming on Canadian airwaves including the NFL to be on OTA broadcasts. Get a clue. Don't be an unpatriotic hater. US expansion helped the NHL grow from Original 6 teams to 32. The CFL can do the same in underserved US markets.@@SelfMadeFailure

  • @Logan69420
    @Logan69420 Год назад

    Simple. Merge the teams into the NFL.

    • @FischerFan
      @FischerFan 9 месяцев назад

      Yes, only allow those cities with NHL teams. Pay the Roughriders to disband.

  • @McRocket
    @McRocket Год назад

    I think Steve Simmons ideas were really good ones. And relatively simple to implement, imho.
    My CFL ideas:
    1 - Have Grey Cup game on/before Labor Day.
    It's lunacy to try and compete with NCAA/NFL head on. It was fine before 500 channel cable TV/internet. Now, it's insane. I can watch ANY NCAA/NFL game online, for free. Sure, I love the CFL so I watch the games. But if I didn't, I probably wouldn't, respectively. Especially if I was under 25... since the CFL is known as a 'white, old fart' league. The CFL season MUST end before the NFL/NCAA ones begin.
    Yes, that means competing with the NHL early in the season. But I would rather do that then go up against the juggernauts of the NFL/NCAA. Besides, most early season CFL games will be on Saturday/Sunday afternoons. When few in the East (where attendance is the worst) are watching NHL games.
    2 - More Canadian players.
    The European League of Football limits it's non-EU players to 10 maximum out of 53 (I believe). Whereas, roughly 1/2 of CFL rosters are non-Canadian. That is ridiculous. Make it that at LEAST 80% of CFL rosters are Canadians. Though existing, non-Canadian CFL players would be exempt. I am not xenophobic. Personally, I don't much care. But if you want to attract young Canadian fans to a league. You probably have to make that league more Canadian.
    3 - All QB's MUST be Canadian.
    Again, except those non-Canadians who have already played in the CFL at QB. QB is THE star position in the CFL. It needs to be filled with Canucks. And, possibly, make that apply to all 'skill' positions eventually.
    4 - The CFL should give me a million dollars (optional).
    5 - (this is an idea I first heard from Bob McCown) Have BOTH Sportsnet and TSN carry the games.
    TSN is doing a fantastic job. But give Sportsnet one game, every week. In a time slot all to themselves. Like Monday Night Football used to be in the states. You want both sports leagues pulling for the CFL... not just one.
    6 - GET A TEAM IN THE MARITIMES.
    This falls under the 'well duh' category, imo. Even if it fails - then stick another one in it's place. But get it done.
    7 - Measure the field in meters - not yards.
    This is Canada - not America. We are metric. Yes, 10 metres is almost 11 yards. So, figure out some way to make getting the first downs as 'easy' as they are now. Perhaps give each team, one offensive mulligan per half. Whatever... something.
    I am flexible on this one, though.
    I think if you do most/all of these things PLUS the ideas the gang here mentioned?
    Toronto attendance will pickup.
    BTW - John's doing a great job, imho.
    But get well soon, Bob...even if you never return.

    • @buffalobison3424
      @buffalobison3424 Год назад

      As the guys said, the Grey Cup still draws so it's not an issue holding it after Labour Day but it should be moved earlier. Also making the league more Canadian would make it worse. With the exception of Nathan Rourke and Tre Ford a lot of the Canadian quarterbacks in recent decades haven't been that good. The yards vs metres thing I don't think is a big issue but I do agree that there should be a team in Halifax (and Quebec City, southwestern Ontario, another in the GTA, another team in BC). I also think that CTV should be airing a game once a week. They air NFL games why are CFL games only on TSN?

    • @cheukhoma
      @cheukhoma Месяц назад

      I like the metric idea. That's Canadian

  • @Dream-be8nf
    @Dream-be8nf Месяц назад

    CFL needs to reinvent itself.
    It is at the same time the only major league of its sport but it feels like a minor league.
    It needs to attract people and interests... and there's actually a way to achieve that.
    Just look at UFL and MLS.
    What do I mean? There's demand for football in the US but there are cons: even not battling NFL, a new league has to contrast college football. The UFL (as the XFL and the USFL before) is trying to emerge with a modified rulebook.
    The point is that... that is weird american football. Isn't it more interesting to follow a different kind of football? Such as the Canadian one?
    So what's my plan?
    Including also rule changes to make games more engaging.
    1. field goals from 50 yards or more are awarded 4 points instead of 3
    2. 3 points conversion from 10-yard line
    3. CFL Replay Command have the authority to overrule incorrect personal foul calls
    4. Add a designated player rule for salary cap
    5. Free copyright issues for players and content creators
    6. Start a docureality show
    7. Exclusive streaming provider
    8. Trainings camps in campuses
    9. Improve links with college football
    10. Become kind of a development league but at the same time retirement league for the NFL
    11. Links and connections with the LFA and the ELF
    12. Exclusive apparel provider
    13. Develop and publish an indie mobile game
    14. Start a fantasy league game
    15. Add a tenth team in Quebec City
    Doing this the league would become more entertaining to watch and would acquire viewership in both Canada and the US, being a way to showcase foreign LFA and ELF talents as well as youngsters and reserve players of the NFL. In addition, adding a designated player rule (like the MLS), teams could have superstars retiring there.
    Also, being small in the number of teams (10), it would also be so easy to broadcast a TV show like Drive to Survive.

  • @rogueoakley4439
    @rogueoakley4439 Год назад +6

    Easy, make the CFL the farm teams for the NFL. Change the rules to the NFL and there you go.

    • @McRocket
      @McRocket Год назад +4

      And that is the end of Canadian football.
      I think you are missing the point.

    • @andrebitoff3726
      @andrebitoff3726 Год назад

      NFL has college, don't care about Canada.

    • @rogueoakley4439
      @rogueoakley4439 Год назад +1

      That’s the point. The NFL is way more exciting. Mahomes is way more exciting than anyone in the CFL

    • @davidbuswa9425
      @davidbuswa9425 Год назад

      BS, The NFL has taken a lot of plays out of the CFL play book like the RPO, Quarterback sneaks which they call the Tush Push. Tre Ford is more electrifying than Mahomes who doesn't run anymore. Tre Ford is the fastest QB in all of pro Football, Quit drinking the NFL Kool-Aid@@rogueoakley4439

    • @billbaird2273
      @billbaird2273 Год назад

      This is the dumbest idea I have heard in my lifetime. The CFL is our league, Why should it be a farm league for crappy American rules rugby football.

  • @jamesbucsis6296
    @jamesbucsis6296 Год назад +1

    Who cares about the Argos