The CFL wouldn’t be the CFL if a season glided by with out hiccups or issues.
This 12 months is not any exception — the Chad Kelly and Shawn Lemon suspensions, the Command Centre confusion, and the refusal of the league or workforce to provide a direct reply on if the Edmonton Elks will revert to an previous title beneath new proprietor Larry Thompson come to thoughts as issues that might have been dealt with higher.
However — and it’s an enormous however — the CFL does have one crucial facet of its enterprise again on observe. Heading into the all the time anticipated Labour Day weekend, the play on the subject appears higher than it has in years.
The uncommon clunkers — take final week’s Toronto Argonauts-Saskatchewan Roughriders recreation determined by a rouge on a missed subject purpose — have been very a lot overshadowed by common thrillers.
“We were just looking at some data and 67 per cent of the games have been decided in the last three minutes. Seventy per cent of the games so far this year have been come-from-behind victories,” commissioner Randy Ambrosie mentioned in a phone interview from Victoria, web site of Saturday’s Landing Pacific recreation between the host B.C. Lions and Ottawa Redblacks.
“With quarterback play, it wasn’t that long ago there was a little bit of question about the quality of our quarterbacking. I would say, man, just look across the country at the names and new stars that have emerged in the quarterback ranks. I think the play has been exceptional. It is certainly living up to our fun, fast and entertaining mantra. It’s just been a great season so far and frankly, we’re just getting started. The Labour Day weekend really kicks off the drive to the playoffs.”
Labour Day weekend — that includes three conventional rivalries (Winnipeg at Saskatchewan on Sunday, Toronto at Hamilton and Edmonton at Calgary on Monday) and a neutral-site contest this 12 months — is a good time to try the state of the league. Ambrosie took a while to speak about numerous storylines this week.
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The Landing collection
Landing Pacific is a by-product of Landing Atlantic — held three of the previous 4 seasons in Atlantic Canada — and it appears to be doing fairly properly.
The preliminary wave of 14,000 tickets bought out in beneath an hour, and Saturday’s recreation now has the bonus of seeing Victoria-born quarterback Nathan Rourke begin for the host Lions.
So what’s the plan for neutral-site motion subsequent 12 months?
“I don’t know if it’s only going to be one,” Ambrosie mentioned, leaving the door open to a few journeys to non-CFL websites. “It’s certainly going to be an interesting conversation to see where we go from here.”
Quebec Metropolis looks as if the apparent selection with Montreal Alouettes proprietor Pierre Karl Peladeau having deep ties to the metropolis.
“I think you can say Quebec City is on our list for lots of reasons,” Ambrosie mentioned. “It’s such a good football market.”
In the meantime, Windsor, Ont., metropolis councillor Renaldo Agostino confirmed this week he’s fascinated about bringing a recreation to the southwestern Ontario metropolis
Different medium-sized Ontario cities like Kingston or London may very well be matches, too, and will assist the box-office-challenged Argos have a extra profitable dwelling recreation.
A return to Victoria is also a really actual chance. No matter the case, it does seem the CFL has choices.
“When people want your product, when there is an appetite to bring your product into new markets, that’s a really good sign of your overall health,” Ambrosie mentioned.
Growth
Whereas the Landing collection has been profitable, it hasn’t but led to enlargement and a much-needed tenth workforce.
The CFL has lengthy held hopes of increasing to Atlantic Canada. Finally 12 months’s Gray Cup, Ambrosie mentioned he was speaking to at least one potential proprietor from the area.
This week, nevertheless, Ambrosie acknowledged nothing is imminent. Even when there’s a really possession group, there isn’t any appropriate stadium in Atlantic Canada.
“Getting to 10 teams would certainly have many, many benefits, which we’ve talked about a lot,” he mentioned. “But ultimately we have to be patient because it’s not going to happen overnight. I believe it is going to happen. It’s just going to take time.”
Would Ambrosie think about one other crack at American enlargement?
“That is not part of the mainstream conversation,” he mentioned. “It’s always out there. It would be disingenuous to suggest it never comes up, because it does. But I wouldn’t say that’s front and centre on our radar right now.”
Large markets
For many years, the CFL by no means might get it proper persistently in the league’s three greatest markets — Toronto, Montreal and B.C.
Toronto definitely hasn’t been solved, regardless of being owned by sporting large Maple Leaf Sports activities and Leisure. The Argos routinely entice fewer than 15,000 followers, and are barely seen in the crowded GTA market.
However the Lions and the Alouettes, not less than proper now, are two Ambrosie success tales. He recruited Peladeau and Lions proprietor Amar Doman to take over bumbling franchises, and the outcomes are promising.
The Als received the Gray Cup final 12 months in Peladeau’s first season and the buzz is again at Molson Stadium with Montreal 10-1 this 12 months. Doman, in the meantime, has Landing Victoria and an enormous Gray Cup on his 2024 agenda, to go together with elevated attendance at different video games.
Regardless of the Lions’ latest struggles, don’t guess in opposition to the two franchises clashing for the ’24 Gray Cup.
“One of the things I’m excited about here in B.C. is Amar’s passion to make the Lions a team that belongs to the entire province,” Ambrosie mentioned. “I feel they’ve been strolling that discuss. With coaching camp in Kamloops and now being right here in Victoria for Landing Pacific, I feel they’ve simply finished a tremendous job of placing out the open-for-business signal throughout the complete province.
“What Pierre Karl has done, coming in that first season and winning the Grey Cup and now the atmosphere at McGill, has been just spectacular. You have to tip your hat. They have brought a ton of energy to these two major markets.”
The schedule
Elks quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson criticized the league for two-games-in-five-days stretches, whereas the Saskatchewan Roughriders had their worst crowd in years for one Thursday evening recreation.
With 9 groups, the league merely can’t have an ideal schedule — and there are methods it will possibly do higher (the Argos ought to attempt to play two consecutive dwelling video games throughout the Canadian Nationwide Exhibition and the Roughriders, with followers throughout the province, by no means ought to play a house recreation on a Thursday).
The league can get extra inventive too — how a couple of faculty or camp day weekday matinee for the Argos, a la the Blue Jays and Marlies?
However having one recreation on most Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays earlier than Labour Day has given the league a level of consistency it hasn’t had till lately.
“I think we have to start by saying this program has really been successful for us,” Ambrosie mentioned. “Could it be better? Is there a better approach? We always have those discussions to kick things off every fall.”
The Olympics
The NFL has mentioned it’s exploring the chance of getting its gamers be eligible to play flag soccer when it makes its Olympic debut in 2028 in Los Angeles.
Ambrosie wouldn’t fairly go that far when requested if he’s fascinated about the CFL taking part (it could be in the center of the league’s season, and in the better-for-business summer time months). However he didn’t dismiss the thought, both.
“We see flag as a huge opportunity to expand the game, get more people playing, get more kids participating. The pathway to being a fan by being a player is a really good one. But we haven’t had the conversation (about CFL players participating) and we certainly haven’t made any decisions at this point,” he mentioned.
Like Main League Baseball, the CFL owes it to itself to contemplate taking an Olympic break and having its gamers expertise a once-in-a-lifetime alternative.
The inclusion of flag soccer on the Olympic program is open for criticism, however how enjoyable would it not be to see Canada’s Rourke and American Patrick Mahomes squaring off for a gold medal? You may’t purchase that sort of publicity.
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