XFL 2022 season on Hold Pending CFL conversations

[4th&long]

CFL season is not “on hold” pending a conversation.

Big difference.

I mean, the PR line is different, but there's a lot of skepticism around whether their season is going to played. Do you think they're definitely playing their published schedule in 2021?

2 years off is too long to bounce back from - Covid is reeling (at least in US) - yes they will play.

[laxtreme56]

Lol, comparing the CFL to Blockbuster Video. You are reaching for something and grabbing air.

Well blockbuster was a lot more relevant in the past 20 years than the CFL has been. It's a league that's stuck in the past that nobody under the age of 50 watches. Commissioner Ambrose has admitted these talks have been ongoing for months, perhaps as soon as Redbird and company bought the league. Saskatchewan, the leagues most profitable franchise is on board with a partnership. If they're for it you can bet Toronto, BC, and Montreal are all on board too.

What this does as well, keep the CFL commissioner and front office in charge and have redbird and the Rock solely focus on streaming and broadcast opportunities here in the US. They could do that at a fraction of the cost Vince was paying oliver luck at the time.

[MGB01]

Lol, comparing the CFL to Blockbuster Video. You are reaching for something and grabbing air.

Well blockbuster was a lot more relevant in the past 20 years than the CFL has been.

Yeah this after puffing about the CFL "surviving a world war", the CFL wasn't even formed until a few months after the Argos were mentioned a couple times in Airplane! precursor
Zero Hour (Side note: Had Elroy Hirsch played in the CFL he probably would have the trifecta of the Pro, College, and Canadian Halls of Fame--although he'd retired after 12 years by the time the CFL came around). Teams and associations, yes, the league? No

It's a league that's stuck in the past that nobody under the age of 50 watches.

The Shock had a player, Ryan Cave, that went up to BC and played for the Lions for a few weeks in 2014. He wasn't hitting it off right away (transition, scheme, who knows) and then got completely blasted by the Lions' beat writer as some scrub who doesn't even belong on the field. Now Cave is a 6-5 330 pound OL, maybe this guy didn't think much of Arena players (and BC's scout at the time was former Shock GM Ryan Rigmaiden, must have just loved that), but he also played in the UFL--including for the late Marty Schottenheimer

But in retrospect, this whole episode happened a year after the book End Zones and Border Wars, which by its title was about the US expansion but was rather critical of the CFL in the 90s as a whole, came out. I chalk it up to CFL fatigue, when their own local writers don't even like the product anymore.

[laxtreme56]

RoughRiders optimistic about what the future of the XFL could hold

If the leagues most successful team is on board, this bodes well for the future. The 3 down game is dead and buried in BC, Montreal, and Toronto, but does well enough in the Prairies and western Canada. The team with the most diehard fanbase knows they must change their structure and look to be welcoming the XFL with open arms. If this merger/partnership does take place I'd expect an 80/20 mix of XFL to CFL rules. The rest of the world doesn't play the Canadian game and most likely never will. It's time to change or ultimately die.

[Firecop]

What's to stop them from merging the top 3 or 4 XFL teams (attendance and merch wise) with the top 3 or 4 CFL teams? It would provide a more stable international league than either league was before. I'm sure some kind of TV deal could be gotten. I'd love to see a BC/Seattle rivalry!

[laxtreme56]

What's to stop them from merging the top 3 or 4 XFL teams (attendance and merch wise) with the top 3 or 4 CFL teams? It would provide a more stable international league than either league was before. I'm sure some kind of TV deal could be gotten. I'd love to see a BC/Seattle rivalry!

The CFL TSN contract is valued at about $45 million a year but had provisions for an increase with expansion teams and incentive to pay out more if ratings met a certain threshold. In a decade they've gone from drawing 820k viewers a game, to just a tad over 500K. However a few new teams, even if they are American, gives TSN more broadcast opportunities. Plus a Toroto-NY matchup or BC-Seattle rivalry could start drawing in excess of 750k viewers a game.

[Tank55]

What's to stop them from merging the top 3 or 4 XFL teams (attendance and merch wise) with the top 3 or 4 CFL teams? It would provide a more stable international league than either league was before. I'm sure some kind of TV deal could be gotten. I'd love to see a BC/Seattle rivalry!

What would you say are the top 3 or 4 CFL teams? They're sort of upside down, where the biggest markets are the weakest performers.

If all of this ends with a Dragons vs. Lions game, that's going to be really, really cool.

[MGB01]

In 2013 the CFL also left CBC for TSN, as I've pondered over the last couple months, is there seller's remorse? Thats the equivalent here of basically the BCS (even predating the CFP, as the 2009 BCS bowls were the last to air on either FOX or ABC), which in some places has had the same effect: the 2010 (09 season) Sugar Bowl on FOX had 15.5 million viewers; ten years later (non-CFP) it dropped to 10.2 on ESPN, but in both cases we're playing with a much larger base than the CFL so it wouldn't be as noticeable.

Would that interest return if the CFL was attached? ESPN, although we've gone back and forth as their viability going forward, has had the U.S. rights the last few years and pre-NFL years the CFL was a fixture in the early days; NBC aired a few CFL games during the NFL strike in '82 but ditched it after a couple weeks of blowouts--with the shutdown of NBCSN but possibly looking to rebuild USA as a sports venture; or maybe CBS and Turner--in some ways like the NCAA Tournament setup; FOX I have no idea, too much of a wildcard

[4th&long]

Well based on media reaction and board activity this CFL "talks" and worse the 2022 Hold is not going over well with the press and less so with the fan base...

[KJE]

In 2013 the CFL also left CBC for TSN, as I've pondered over the last couple months, is there seller's remorse? Thats the equivalent here of basically the BCS (even predating the CFP, as the 2009 BCS bowls were the last to air on either FOX or ABC), which in some places has had the same effect: the 2010 (09 season) Sugar Bowl on FOX had 15.5 million viewers; ten years later (non-CFP) it dropped to 10.2 on ESPN, but in both cases we're playing with a much larger base than the CFL so it wouldn't be as noticeable.

Would that interest return if the CFL was attached? ESPN, although we've gone back and forth as their viability going forward, has had the U.S. rights the last few years and pre-NFL years the CFL was a fixture in the early days; NBC aired a few CFL games during the NFL strike in '82 but ditched it after a couple weeks of blowouts--with the shutdown of NBCSN but possibly looking to rebuild USA as a sports venture; or maybe CBS and Turner--in some ways like the NCAA Tournament setup; FOX I have no idea, too much of a wildcard

If you're wondering if CFL wishes they were back on CBC, that's a big, fat no. CBC was an awful partner. Blackouts, switching to different programs if a game ran long (ie overtime).

Plus nowadays CBC won't go into a bidding war for sports products so they won't offer much for a league.