major announcement - big changes to cfl playoff and season start

[jets4life]

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

 

I swore I heard Stewart Johnston say this to CFL long time fans, if they do not care for his "improvements" to the game.

Having said that, the CFL enjoyed a decade of increased attendance and viewership from 1997-2007. By the late 2000s, the CFL was in great shape. This was after the infamous "American expansion" nearly killed off the league. As an added bonus, the CFL thrived in spite of the NFL becoming the preferred football league for Canadian fans.

Maybe we should go back 20 years, and study what the league did right, instead of changing the game that has existed for over a century.

[Tecno]

There's also the aspect of covid ruining many people making them scared to go anywhere ever again.  Add into that the generational shift and the rise of everyone-has-autism-itis.  It may be that filling stands (or putting butts in seats anywhere) will never happen again until/unless the health of society turns around.

And even many "healthy/normal" people (especially middle/upper-middle class ones) all decked out their pads with massive TVs and hifi, and are happy saying "nah, I'll watch at home, it's better".

The way of the future may be less crowds but a larger TV audience.  We may have to tailor the league more in that direction.  Just look at movie theatres now vs 25 years ago.  Used to have 250 seats and you'd go to shows with all filled.  Now the theatres have 50 seats tops, and usually most are empty.

I am very involved with a club in town and post-covid we're still in "recovery mode" in terms of membership.  A ton of people are just plain anti-social or scared, and I'm in a club that is traditionally full of introverts to begin with.  But we're slowly recovering, and the CFL should be able to, too.

[BlueInCgy]

The way of the future may be less crowds but a larger TV audience.  We may have to tailor the league more in that direction.  Just look at movie theatres now vs 25 years ago.  Used to have 250 seats and you'd go to shows with all filled.  Now the theatres have 50 seats tops, and usually most are empty.

Not disagreeing with you, especially if your team isn't within a 1 hour drive of your house.  I haven't been to a Stamps game in years even though I've watched nearly every one.  Ignoring ticket cost, the drive + parking add nearly 3 hours to the day for me.  And if gas sits at 2 bucks a litre this summer, stadiums attendance will suffer a lot because disposable income will shrink and out of towners won't make the trip.


The problem with the theory is that COVID proved this is a gate driven league, and the televised experience feeds off the live crowd.  Remember how exciting crowdless NHL games were.  CFL would be worse.  And if Stewjos goal is no one in the stands, spending piles of money on field mods make no sense.