What's a go or is that a facetious shot at Marty's penchant for being wrong?
COVID-19 : How it could impact Lions/CFL
Moderator: Team Captains
So 25 web pages later, we know in the direct sense the answer to the subject heading (how (COVID) could impact the Lions/CFL). The season was cancelled. But the much bigger question remains, "What now?" How will this cancellation impact the league's status next year and in the coming years?
A lot depends on a vaccine of course and whether stadia will re-open to a normal capacity for fans by next June. A lot of things will have to go right for that to happen. Also, we need an open border for American athletes to come up. 14-day quarantine will be an impediment for getting some 500 athletes up here attending training camps. But assuming logistics are taken care of, there is the issue of fans.
How comfortable will fans be to attend mass gatherings? What will the long-term damage be to the BOG throwing an entire season away (no exposure, storylines, viewership, disruption to routines etc.). Will some have discovered other things to take the place of the CFL? Sure, there will be "pent up demand" from the diehards. What about casual sports fans? Out of sight, out of mind. It's all-NFL right now, and that's not a good thing.
DH
A lot depends on a vaccine of course and whether stadia will re-open to a normal capacity for fans by next June. A lot of things will have to go right for that to happen. Also, we need an open border for American athletes to come up. 14-day quarantine will be an impediment for getting some 500 athletes up here attending training camps. But assuming logistics are taken care of, there is the issue of fans.
How comfortable will fans be to attend mass gatherings? What will the long-term damage be to the BOG throwing an entire season away (no exposure, storylines, viewership, disruption to routines etc.). Will some have discovered other things to take the place of the CFL? Sure, there will be "pent up demand" from the diehards. What about casual sports fans? Out of sight, out of mind. It's all-NFL right now, and that's not a good thing.
DH
Please sell the team, Mr. Braley.
I'll be in B.C. Place when it reopens to fans but, as David mentions, there is no certainty that spectator sports will be back to normal by June 2021.
Being the only league not to play in 2020 will probably lead to more erosion of CFL fan support to the NFL. I was enlisted for the first time last week to help my daughter draft her NFL fantasy team. As a result, I have reason to follow the NFL more closely this year. My daughter and two of my sons, all in their 30s and 40s, used to share Lions season tickets with me but they and their friends and coworkers are hardcore NFL fans now.
Being the only league not to play in 2020 will probably lead to more erosion of CFL fan support to the NFL. I was enlisted for the first time last week to help my daughter draft her NFL fantasy team. As a result, I have reason to follow the NFL more closely this year. My daughter and two of my sons, all in their 30s and 40s, used to share Lions season tickets with me but they and their friends and coworkers are hardcore NFL fans now.
"I think [Fred Fateri] was like a lot of people who watch football, hockey or any professional sport on television. They sit there and think they could coach better than the professional. Some people really think that." - Bob Ackles, The Water Boy
With the void of 4 missing CFL games a week, I already have started spending more time watching NFL. For decades I watched it only so I could be able to discuss it with my NFL fan friends--and that was just watching Seahawks and Patriots during the regular season.
There are a lot of interesting storylines this season: Brady in TB, Newton in NE, Roethlisberger's comeback bid at 38 years old, the LV Raiders, the new LA stadium, Mahomes in KC hoping to start a dynasty, and of course the bizarre and variable COVID environment (such as playing the crickets sound in Washington for the Eagles--considering the result, they will certainly repeat that).
https://dailysnark.com/2020/09/13/washi ... ake-field/
I've never been an NFL hater, but I still consider it an inferior form of entertainment due to every difference in rules vs the CFL game. I guess I will grudgingly have to accept the NFL is more likely to exist in the "new normal".
There are a lot of interesting storylines this season: Brady in TB, Newton in NE, Roethlisberger's comeback bid at 38 years old, the LV Raiders, the new LA stadium, Mahomes in KC hoping to start a dynasty, and of course the bizarre and variable COVID environment (such as playing the crickets sound in Washington for the Eagles--considering the result, they will certainly repeat that).
https://dailysnark.com/2020/09/13/washi ... ake-field/
I've never been an NFL hater, but I still consider it an inferior form of entertainment due to every difference in rules vs the CFL game. I guess I will grudgingly have to accept the NFL is more likely to exist in the "new normal".
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SammyGreene
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Without a doubt the CFL is putting itself in a further hole to dig out of especially its 3 largest markets.David wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 12:09 pmWhat will the long-term damage be to the BOG throwing an entire season away (no exposure, storylines, viewership, disruption to routines etc.). Will some have discovered other things to take the place of the CFL? Sure, there will be "pent up demand" from the diehards. What about casual sports fans? Out of sight, out of mind. It's all-NFL right now, and that's not a good thing.
DH
Hard to shred the "second rate" label when the BOG decided it wasn't worth spending their own money to salvage at least a bubble season. Meanwhile 27 MLS owners have no trouble doing it with hardly a lucrative TV contract.
How much money has Kerfoot/Mallet sunk into the Whitecaps as they now head back to the US for phase 3 of their season?
We know the CFL's final federal loan ask was $30 million but what we don't know is if that meant the owners were intending to subsidize some of the costs or what the cost would have been per team to play the six game bubble season with no loans.
It's just a bad look when other leagues have managed to pull it off, with and without big TV deals, while the Seahawks now have a chance to win over even more casual sports fans in this market at least.