CFL fans should brace themselves for change

[4th&long]

Another potential of the merger is bringing down player contracts. Is Mike Reiley really worth $750k? By eliminating 2 competing leagues, players are now forced to Sh!t or get off the pot. Don't like our salaries, go play for Pesos in Mexico of cannolis in Italy.

Yes Mike Reilly is worth the $$ and the BC Lions have the $$ to pay him. Don't believe this BS that CFL teams are losing $$. Its not true.

If you are a CFL or XFL fan you better hope that salaries increase so you can keep the star players. Most NFL players can't play in the CFL. Most CFL stars could play in the NFL.

So lets keep the players in our league which is great for the stability of the brand of the game. Just like how the CFL was in the '80s and '90s.

The commissioner, on one of the recent interviews, said the LEAGUE (NOT per team) on whole loses $10-20million a year - assuming that's Canadian dollar its $8-16million US dollars. Or about $1-1.5million a team. Not huge but needs to be addressed.

[Migs]

Change is a good thing. As a 45+ year die hard CFL fan living right in the middle of the heartland on the CFL (Saskatchewan) I see this as an exciting time with endless possibilities. I love football of all stripes & I trust Dwayne Johnson, who’s dad was part-Canadian. I loved the XFL product last year, thought it was far superior to the AAF in just about every aspect & I truly believe they would’ve ended that season successfully if it wasn’t for Covid.

That said, both leagues need each other & I look forward to what lies ahead. In the meantime, if all our new American friends are interested, may I present the best football game ever played. Well worth the watch. Cheers.

https://youtu.be/at1mAHfP0QM

[4th&long]

bottomline NFL would love to go international and CANADA is the logic prime target once that pesky CFL is gone

I think you're totally off base. The NFL has been a great friend and supporter of the CFL. If they wanted to move into Toronto, they'd do it, regardless of how many downs the Argonauts get to move the chains.

Well looky looky.... NFL wants to play games regularly in Canada.. Like I said. And also as I stated the real BIG prize in Canada is the big three cities Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver

https://3downnation.com/2021/03/30/the- ... in-canada/

>>“We would love to play regular season games in Canada,” executive vice president, chief strategy and growth officer Christopher Halpin said on a conference call.

“In any market where we’re going to play an international series game, we need the fan base, we need the support from the local governments, and then we also need a stadium that meets our standards.”

Goodell has said in the past Toronto would “a great city for an NFL team,” but there needs to be a state of the art stadium for a team there or elsewhere in Canada. Perhaps regular season games in Canada could be a test run for another potential pitch for a franchise on the other side of the 49th parallel.<<

NFL smells blood

[Tank55]

LOL, what did you say? That the only thing keeping the NFL from Canada is the "pesky CFL". And I said that that if the NFL wants to come into Canada, they'll just do it, CFL or no CFL.

I love how you bolded everything except for how there's no NFL-caliber stadium. You know, the thing that's actually preventing Toronto from being a viable NFL market, not the CFL.

I just want to make sure I'm actually following your train of thought. Is this it?

- The NFL covets Vancouver/Montreal/Toronto
- The CFL's existence prevents the NFL from accessing these markets
- The XFL's involvement will either weaken the CFL to the point that the NFL can capture the markets OR the XFL will somehow sell the markets to the NFL

Is that right? Is it complete? If it's not, please tell what is your complete thought process here.

[4th&long]

LOL, what did you say? That the only thing keeping the NFL from Canada is the "pesky CFL". And I said that that if the NFL wants to come into Canada, they'll just do it, CFL or no CFL.

I love how you bolded everything except for how there's no NFL-caliber stadium. You know, the thing that's actually preventing Toronto from being a viable NFL market, not the CFL.

I just want to make sure I'm actually following your train of thought. Is this it?

- The NFL covets Vancouver/Montreal/Toronto
- The CFL's existence prevents the NFL from accessing these markets
- The XFL's involvement will either weaken the CFL to the point that the NFL can capture the markets OR the XFL will somehow sell the markets to the NFL

Is that right? Is it complete? If it's not, please tell what is your complete thought process here.

Yes, those points are valid. And low and behold....

https://3downnation.com/2021/03/31/olym ... -montreal/

>> Olympic Stadium is the first facility out of the gate to express a desire to host NFL games in Canada.

After the NFL stated the league would love to play regular season games in Canada, Montreal Olympic Park vice president Alain Larochelle wants his building to be considered.

“We would be very interested in hosting an NFL game and we are eager to show the numerous planned investments and the many possibilities of the Montreal Olympic Stadium to the promoters around the globe,” Larochelle said in a statement.<<

The NFL would love the CFL to evaporate and canada to be a full NFL dominated territory. No Canadian pol is going to do that openly. IF RBC buys in keep an eye on things.

[GDAWG]

Mike Florio has said that if the NFL decides to expand to 18 games, the one solution would be expansion.

[GregParks]

I came across an interesting Q&A that could be relevant to the "NFL to Canada" discussion here. It's about NFL expanding into Europe, but I think it could apply to the discussion on Canada as well. This is from Vic Ketchman's website (askvic.us) where he does Q&A from fans (Ketchman has covered the NFL for probably 40 years and is a former editor of Jaguars.com and Packers.com):

John from Green Bay, WI
Vic, do you believe playing games in Europe is less about eventually establishing a franchise there and more about creating a market in which to sell TV rights?
I covered a preseason game in 1993 in Barcelona between the Steelers and the 49ers. I got off the plane after an all-night flight, staggered onto the practice field, saw someone I knew from the league office and decided he would give me an easy story so I could go to bed. "Pete," I said, "why am I here?" He smiled and explained the NFL sold $49 million in merchandise in Europe the previous year, expected to double that number and the team I covered was a big seller. In Pittsburghese, it's abaht da money n'at, jano. TV and merchandise is where the real money is.


So perhaps it's not about moving/expanding a franchise to Canada, but exploiting the merchandise & TV rights revenue there? That would certainly be logistically and financially more feasible than putting a team there, at this moment anyway. I'm pretty agnostic on the NFL to Canada discussion, so I don't really have a dog in this fight; just thought it would be interesting to bring up given the discussion on here, giving perhaps a different view.

[4th&long]

I came across an interesting Q&A that could be relevant to the "NFL to Canada" discussion here. It's about NFL expanding into Europe, but I think it could apply to the discussion on Canada as well. This is from Vic Ketchman's website (askvic.us) where he does Q&A from fans (Ketchman has covered the NFL for probably 40 years and is a former editor of Jaguars.com and Packers.com):

John from Green Bay, WI
Vic, do you believe playing games in Europe is less about eventually establishing a franchise there and more about creating a market in which to sell TV rights?
I covered a preseason game in 1993 in Barcelona between the Steelers and the 49ers. I got off the plane after an all-night flight, staggered onto the practice field, saw someone I knew from the league office and decided he would give me an easy story so I could go to bed. "Pete," I said, "why am I here?" He smiled and explained the NFL sold $49 million in merchandise in Europe the previous year, expected to double that number and the team I covered was a big seller. In Pittsburghese, it's abaht da money n'at, jano. TV and merchandise is where the real money is.


So perhaps it's not about moving/expanding a franchise to Canada, but exploiting the merchandise & TV rights revenue there? That would certainly be logistically and financially more feasible than putting a team there, at this moment anyway. I'm pretty agnostic on the NFL to Canada discussion, so I don't really have a dog in this fight; just thought it would be interesting to bring up given the discussion on here, giving perhaps a different view.

Yes its of course about merch sales and TV rights, but What better way to get a country more interested in your sport than putting a team there and help those sales and TV deals. They don't need 9 teams, 1 or 2 will do and bye bye cfl

[Tank55]

Random tidbit:

MLSE is believed to be among the CFL owners most bullish on the idea of an XFL collaboration, presumably seeing it as a way to turn their football asset into something of value.

https://www.tsn.ca/dave-naylor-status-q ... -1.1616719

[4th&long]

Random tidbit:

MLSE is believed to be among the CFL owners most bullish on the idea of an XFL collaboration, presumably seeing it as a way to turn their football asset into something of value.

https://www.tsn.ca/dave-naylor-status-q ... -1.1616719

Saw this too, these corp owners are just like RBC - ie they want to make $$$ more than love FB. Like say the estate of the owner in BC, who clearly loved FB.

So yes CFL needs to find ways to turn a profit across the big city teams or else...