Luke Willson goes off on the CFL..

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Maybe, the CFL needs to stop hiring ex-NFL players as commentators, and stick to ex-players that know and love the CFL, for all its quirks and curiosities, and know how to emphasize the uniqueness instead of critique the differences.

Critiquing the fact that the FG try went through the endzone and they still got a point should actually be a termination offence.  I'm sorry, but Luke has a decent pedigree as a football player, but I find nothing special about his sideline appearances, especially his sideline appearance.  I was shocked the first time I saw him, I thought he was in a hallowe'en costume from the 80's.  The pornstar 'stache, really?

I guess he's the result of ratio thinking in the TSN crew, he has the right passport, but sorry, not the right attitude.

I'd rather have a crew of Milt Stegall's and Matt Dunnigan's who are American but embrace the CFL rather than Luke Wilson, who is a Canadian, but clearly does not love the CFL, and finds it a poor shadow of the NFL that he played in. 

He made more in his short career than an entire CFL team, including coaches, makes in a year.  There's going to be a difference.

I didn't have a clue who he was when TSN first introduced him but immediately disliked his demeanour, I think the essential component of a sideline reporter is to exude enthusiasm for their job, most do, Wilson doesn't.

[GOLDMEMBER]

Willllson can go away as he just lacks a respect for the Canadian game. A Loud mouth bafoon I feel  best describes him.

[J5V]

Everyone here is wrong.  The biggest sport by audience in the entire world is... F1 racing, and it has been for a loooong time.

F1 racing is a sport? LOL! J/K!

[J5V]

You get them to a game.  I don't care how.  Discounts.  Bring-a-friend nights.  Referral bonuses.  $5 kids tickets.  Snoop Dog.  Just get them to a game so they can see if it's for them.  Some will get the bug and return and eventually grow into STH.

So true and the only thing I'll add to this is that there is nothing like being at a game live. The pop of the hits, the sound of the ball being kicked, the grunts of the players, the smack of shoulder pads, the speed of the game, the size of the field, the arm strength of the QBs, the leg strength of the kickers, etc. You watch a game on TV and while entertaining, it doesn't convey the reality of the sport and just how good these athletes truly are. A neighbour was kind enough to take me to a Bomber game when I was, maybe, 12 years old and it blew me away and I was hooked for life.

Your point is 100% bang-on, Techno! Just get them to a game!

[J5V]

Hard to take mullet-porn-stache man seriously when he blows this idiom.  "Bald faced lies" is the expression.  It's not a stupid font in Word!  And no, Merriam adding "bold" as a legitimate option because everyone is stupid and Word/fonts became big in the 90s doesn't make it right: certainly not any more than "chomping at the bit" is a thing.

If you want to be taken seriously as a reporter/writer, as in that's your paid day job, learn to write.

This has been a peeve of mine for ages and so many of them do it. It's "Champing at the bit" and I've heard Dunigan say "chomping at the bit" but gave him a pass since he was relatively new to the gig but others say it/write it and have done it so often and for so long and it's annoying as hell!

[GOLDMEMBER]

This has been a peeve of mine for ages and so many of them do it. It's "Champing at the bit" and I've heard Dunigan say "chomping at the bit" but gave him a pass since he was relatively new to the gig but others say it/write it and have done it so often and for so long and it's annoying as hell!

[blue_or_die]

The rules in this case shape the product - sometimes in substantial ways. No one watches football for "holding" calls but if you got rid of holding it would change the game/product quite significantly, and probably not for the better. If we're talking about marketing to new fans, then the rules are a relevant ingredient from the perspective of its shaping of the product (watching or attending a CFL game).

If we're looking at scale, the US is a football factory and they train on NFL rules from 5 years-old. If we aligned some of our rules, the jump would be easier. If we relaxed the ratio, we'd have a bigger pool of talent and therefore, fairly unquestionably, a better product. That might not be enough to make an NFL fan happy but a better quality product is in everyone's best interest. Everything starts with product (which seems to be Luke's point).

Additionally, I'm not saying the league needs to go after NFL fans living in Canada. I'm simply suggesting that to me it sounds like a viable audience. It may be that through research (that I'm sure the league has done) that this group may not be easily motived and while it looks tempting, their existing perceptions of the CFL may be too costly to overcome or the group may be too small and therefore not worth the time and effort. You're usually looking for the next lowest hanging fruit as a marketer.

Maybe it's new Canadians. Maybe it's younger people who don't watch the NFL, rural communities. This is typically the work of marketing to diagnose and find out though. Some combination.

One thing I hope you're wrong about though is your description of 'why' people watch. If they watch because their Dad did or because it's a fun atmosphere, what happens when it's not a fun atmosphere (Edmonton, Toronto) or even worse, Dads don't watch because they prefer the NFL or other alternatives? Are you suggesting that the league is out of options for those people? If those are indeed the real reasons, and they don't make changes, then the CFL will assuredly slowly die of attrition.

Are you suggesting that by aligning some CFL rules to those in the NFL, it would remove differences that you describe as "friction points" (which I interpret as micro-barriers to new fandom), thereby reshaping the game slightly into a product that is ever so slightly more recognizable to an NFL fan, culminating in >0 new CFL fans?

If I'm interpreting your point correctly - and this is said with love from the bottom of my heart - then you are an insane person.

[The Zipp]

i would hope that the CFL has done some analysis and data mining on trying to understand the markets that are successful and why they are that way as well as finding out the various reasons that new fans have been generated in some of the more challenging markets.

I would love to see some of the answers to questions like:

1) how long have you been an active CFL fan
2) what are the reasons you attending your first CFL game
3) what are the reasons you continue to attend CFL games
4) what are the reasons you don't attend all CFL games in your area

stuff like that - I hope someone is asking those questions among others to a sizable number of people.  Reasons people may not be attending games in Toronto could be the sheer choice of other options, travel to the game, not knowing who the argos are, gameday experience...

Edmonton is odd because they did have a pretty good fanbase - what has turned those fans off?  poor team, low chance of seeing a win is likely it.  Winnipeg is booming for lots of reasons but I think it's a very competitive team and the gameday experience.  I haven't been to a game in Edmonton so  I don't know what it's like.  The two cities are very similar - maybe the game day experience is more deadmonton that they want to admit.

Who has been to a game there recently - fun or dead?

[Blueforlife]

I want to do a anti Wilson sign at the Bomber game lol

Bo knows

Bo Levi Mitchell pushes back on Luke Willson's CFL criticism: 'Tell me it's not exciting' - 3DownNation https://share.google/rcELbPGmhZxr75DjZ

[Blueforlife]

This topic is a great debate and lots of great content all

One thing that is clear is that is show who wants to change our game and bow down to "the great" NFL (rules) and those of us that would fight to the death to keep this great unique Canadian game as is.  You see that in some posters comments when we talk about retaining minimum number of Canadians rule.  I see it when we debate our great Canadian depth players.  Kinda cool that this has helped me learn more about people's take on things, no right or wrong just how we are.

Lots needs to be done to keep the CFL growing and help the weaker clubs gain more fans and build our TV numbers.  I don't have those answers but I strongly believe the rules are what makes us great!

Love the passion everyone, regardless on what side of fence you on

CFL live is king!!!

[theaardvark]

This has been a peeve of mine for ages and so many of them do it. It's "Champing at the bit" and I've heard Dunigan say "chomping at the bit" but gave him a pass since he was relatively new to the gig but others say it/write it and have done it so often and for so long and it's annoying as hell!

Both are acceptable for slightly different references... elitists who argue who/whom and whether is is Steve and me or I and Steve seem to prefer "Champing", I think because it is different, correctable, mansplain compatible and/or elitist.  Might just be me being erudite.

That said, time to start a write in campaign to remove a certain journeyman NFL fifth round pick receiver whose claim to fame is cracking NFL AR's without putting up big stats (just over 1300 yards... total).

[J5V]

Yeah, what would the British know about English? Let's Americanize everything.

[dd]

I couldn't give a roaring rip what a Luke Wilson has to say about anything, let alone the CFL. Don't remember where or what he played and couldn't care what he says. If TSN or whomever wants to hire him to slam the CFL, they got a bigger problem than they think

[J5V]

Sounds like he click-baited fans by dumping on the CFL. Maybe one day he'll say something that's worthy of a listen but until then he's lost this reader. Addition by subtraction -- I don't even miss him! ;-)

[GOLDMEMBER]

Sounds like he click-baited fans by dumping on the CFL. Maybe one day he'll say something that's worthy of a listen but until then he's lost this reader. Addition by subtraction -- I don't even miss him! ;-)

good choice "Kindly Cal" as Dunnigan would put it, lol.