Randy Ambrosie optimistic about 2021

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Hambone
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Murdoch wrote:
Thu Mar 25, 2021 12:47 am
B.C.FAN wrote:
Wed Mar 24, 2021 3:47 pm
Many recently laid off TSN employees might beg to differ.
When they have no competition they can do as they please. The layoffs were to improve efficiency and profitability. Nothing to do with staving off bankruptcy.

Same idea as cutting salaries by 20%. They want more is the bottom line.

Did the stations go off the air or are they just using a national feed?
Bell switch TSN1150 in Hamilton to BNN Bloomberg News, something they had previously done with TSN1410 in Vancouver. They switched Vancouver's TSN1040 and Winnipeg's TSN1290 to their "Funny" comedy format. In October TSN1290 lost the radio rights for the Jets to CJOB, long time Bomber rightsholders and part of the Corus network. That may have been a part of the decision there. Effectively all 4 shuttered TSN sports formats now just rely on cheap syndicated non-sports programming for those who care to listen.

However as a footnote earlier this month the WHL Winnipeg ICE bailed on a 5 year deal they had with CJOB and switched to FUNNY1290 putting a bit of sports content back in there. I'm assuming the fact that CJOB acquired the Jets rights played a part as obviously there would be several schedule conflicts that would either bump the ICE off the air for several games or at least bump them to some sort of alternate station. The latter never works well for the team involved as soon listeners get the vibe that well I don't know when or on what station the game will be aired.
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Hambone wrote:
Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:35 am
Bell switch TSN1150 in Hamilton to BNN Bloomberg News, something they had previously done with TSN1410 in Vancouver. They switched Vancouver's TSN1040 and Winnipeg's TSN1290 to their "Funny" comedy format. In October TSN1290 lost the radio rights for the Jets to CJOB, long time Bomber rightsholders and part of the Corus network. That may have been a part of the decision there. Effectively all 4 shuttered TSN sports formats now just rely on cheap syndicated non-sports programming for those who care to listen.

However as a footnote earlier this month the WHL Winnipeg ICE bailed on a 5 year deal they had with CJOB and switched to FUNNY1290 putting a bit of sports content back in there. I'm assuming the fact that CJOB acquired the Jets rights played a part as obviously there would be several schedule conflicts that would either bump the ICE off the air for several games or at least bump them to some sort of alternate station. The latter never works well for the team involved as soon listeners get the vibe that well I don't know when or on what station the game will be aired.
Thanks for the update. One thing about "those that care to listen" would be that the radio station would know or at least have a pretty good idea of that number. Can't blame them if they are going after a different target market with the digital currency and investment craze if that is what is happening.

I will be surprised if the Winnipeg Ice are in existence in 5 years but good luck to them too.

Best thing about CJOB is Bob Irving but I think the Bombers should have changed it up with the talent available rather than to bring Bob back for his 47th year. His passage into the Ring of Honour and the HOF is already written. Truth is he likes his seats and he doesn't have to pay for them.
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More news about the single game betting and how it is in the final stages of being passed. Comments made about how revenue from could be the answer to the CFL woes and am curious of the details.

A bit dirty to continue squeezing players when they have a potential ace up their sleeve they are not revealing.
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Hambone
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Murdoch wrote:
Thu Mar 25, 2021 1:47 pm
I will be surprised if the Winnipeg Ice are in existence in 5 years but good luck to them too.
It is somewhat interesting what they are doing there. The ICE were playing at the arena at the U of M. They were scheduled to be moving into a new 4000 seat arena under construction at The Rink Training Centre which is just on the southwest outskirts of Winnipeg. The may already be playing there now. The Rink Hockey Academy is based at that complex. TRTC is also home for the Winnipeg Blues and Winnipeg Freeze of the MJHL.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba ... -1.4715200
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BC 1988
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https://podcast.sportsnet.ca/scott-rint ... ly-hrudey/
Dave Dickenson was the guest on Rintoul & Surman today in hour 3. Worth catching in the podcast once it's up. He sounds very cautious about the chances of a "full season" happening.
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Thanks for posting that BC 1988. Love listening to Dave. He is "must listen" radio. Bright, articulate, and always speaks the truth. Not afraid to wade into controversial topics either. When asked which CFL rules he'd keep/ditch, he wasn't about to get into 3 downs and the ratio (but I infer that anything other than an endorsement to mean he is not beholden to them). But did state that he would get rid of the rouge. Said he's not in favor of rewarding failure. Wants to keep the motion.

Interestingly (in that he was a QB), his "ideal" football game is 27-24. He doesn't want to see 80+ point football shootouts. Wants to see defenses stopping offenses and QBs earning their keep. Great interview. https://podcast.sportsnet.ca/scott-rint ... ls-future/


DH :cool:
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Hambone
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On a positive on Saturday the registration window opened for my age group 60-64. I quickly and very easily registered thru the government website. Today I received the text advising I can now book and am scheduled for my 1st shot on April 29th up in FSJohn.
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Hambone wrote:
Wed Apr 14, 2021 11:22 am
On a positive on Saturday the registration window opened for my age group 60-64. I quickly and very easily registered thru the government website. Today I received the text advising I can now book and am scheduled for my 1st shot on April 29th up in FSJohn.
Good for you Hambone. Yes, it seems to be going fairly swimmingly now after earlier hiccups and hitches. I'm in the 65-70 grouping and last week it was quick and painless to register and then the following day set up an appointment time for vaccination just one week away now, here in Vancouver. Big trouble around these parts though with especially the one variant (Brazil) doing its damage. The variants will be muddying the waters for a while yet regards a clear picture on the prospects for a solid season of CFL football. So sign up and get jabbed Leo fans!
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cromartie
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Good Morning. We're clearly living on the dumbest timeline, so let's try and make the best of it.

Since we're a bit ahead of you on the vaccine thing (wingnuts aside) I'll tell you that in Ohio, where sporting events are 30% capacity, the actual social distancing piece tends to work pretty well if you have a stadium staff that aggressively enforces seating requirements.

When you're seated at a hockey game here, the ushers know exactly what seats are sold, you show your tickets to the usher and they mark the seating diagram for their section. Police presence is about 20% heavier than average. Transactions at stadiums are cashless. There are no buffets or open bars (all alcohol is provided in containers).

In Florida, seating is alternate row at 50% with spaces between groups. Restaurant areas are open but with spacing between tables. (Florida, aside form the tourist areas, is actually more well behaved than you think).

NFL teams are beginning to announce they'll only allow vaccinated fans into stadiums; the same applies to the NFL Draft festivities here in Cleveland later in the month.

Most states here are 16+ on vaccines; I personally have my second Moderna shot next week.

I would expect that, when/if there's a season you will find that most CFL teams and stadiums will employ similar tactics; reduced capacity, spacing between seating groups and limited vending options with cashless transactions. I have to tell you, as someone who does not love crowds I have personally enjoyed the space and reduced capacity. Are fans coming back? After an initial spurt, probably not, and probably not for awhile, but television numbers should see a bump.

Other items in this thread.

There is no circumstance aside from a Grey Cup under which the Alouettes should ever set foot in the Big O again. I highly doubt the economics work, the turf as it exists is horrific (and the fake grass field they used to have is now at BC Place, IIRC) and that is a horrible venue that should be blown up with the stone recycled to fix Montreal's bridges.

Not playing a season in 2020 when the circumstances relating to the challenges of playing a season was foreseeable, remains, a fireable offense for a commissioner, and Ambrosie should have been removed last year for failing to plan in light of it. Why the league couldn't formulate a reasonable business plan for a reduced season but could spend a substantial amount of energy on a marketing campaign for a farcical cash grab known as the Grey Cup fan base adds insult to injury, frankly.

As Americans have learned the hard way, when you put a clown in charge, you end up with a circus, and that leads us to the XFL idiocy.

As history sighs and prepares to repeat itself yet again, let's get to know some facts about non NFL related professional football in the United States.

Since 1974, there have been thirteen attempts to launch a non NFL related professional football league in the United States as well as one by the NFL. Nine of them (UFL, RFL, WFL, WFL2, USFL, World League, XFL, XFL2,AAF) got off the ground.

They have all failed. All of them.

Adjusting for inflation, the aggregate monetary loss of these experiments exceeds $3 billion US.

The NFL attached it's name to an additional effort for two years. They lost $15 million annually in 1991 dollars, television ratings were non-existent and that red headed marketing disaster was shuffled off to Europe, where it proceeded to lose $20 million annually for the next 15 years before they pulled the plug.

Some of us are old enough to remember the CFL's last foray into the US and how, without a loan from the NFL, the league would have ended up bankrupt in no small part because of it.

Vince McMahon made it very clear when he founded the XFL the second time that he had no path to profitability. Essentially, he was willing to throw away $500 million on a vanity project. Ostensibly, the AAF was a $300 million vanity project until the investors pulled out.

There is no shortage of people out there willing to spend other people's money to chase fool’s gold. If 14 failures over 45 years and $3 billion of losses won't convince you that Americans do not have any significant interest in professional football outside of the fall even when the NFL puts it's own name on the product then you're frankly not worth arguing with.

Unfortunately, the Clown in Charge decided to float yet another idea without substance, plan or a path forward and open up yet another Pandora's Box of Speculative Idiocy. To suggest that this is a bad idea in theory and a bad idea in practice should be evident, but the Dave Naylor's of the world, along with other members of the Canadian sports media that get off on wiping their behinds on the CFL while willingly pulling out their kneepads to slurp up whatever the NFL tosses at them, along with XFL slappys writing blogs for free now get to spend six months dragging the CFL's image through the mud at a point where the league is already struggling to stay afloat because of inept leadership and a mystifying lack of assistance from the federal government.

There is no circumstance under which the CFL should fork over a century of history for the sake of turning its member clubs into a smaller body within a larger North American league. None. History clearly dictates that a North American football league playing either Canadian or American rules cannot sustain itself as an American off season alternative to the NFL. None. All this will do is kill both the CFL and whatever incarnation of the XFL there is. There is zero path to sustainability or profitability through this type of arrangement. It doesn't matter what The Rock's name is.

What you can do, and if I were the CFLPA I would explore this, is establish an arrangement by which the seasons are non overlapping and players are able to sign contracts to play in both alternate leagues. This likely means that players forgo their NFL opportunity, but it enables players to make a living playing football in a manner better than they can now. It also allows both leagues to control player costs in a way that makes the finances a little more palatable for both leagues. I would imagine they could also explore a business arrangement by which American players who play for CFL teams can get paid in US dollars and be subject to US taxation rather than what they have to deal with currently, though I'm sure this would displease Revenue Canada. A joint union agreement between the CFLPA and it's American counterpart would greatly help player development and labor cost control, more so than the equally idiotic global draft we have to endure today ever would, for either league.

This type of arrangement would actually be a win-win, in my opinion, for however long people are content to sink money into the black hole of XFL2022. If history is any teacher, and it is, the over under on seasons that would last is two.

Beyond that, someone in the BOG needs to focus on getting this clown out of office and shutting the MLSE dope that keeps spreading this merger idea up before the product is bruised beyond recognition. Enough is enough.
Last edited by cromartie on Thu Apr 15, 2021 5:05 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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David
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Great read. Agree 100%, Cro. :thup:


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cromartie
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David wrote:
Thu Apr 15, 2021 11:42 am
Great read. Agree 100%, Cro. :thup:


DH :cool:
Let me elaborate on this.

An American player signs a contract with the American League. He plays that season.
He is then loaned to a CFL team, which pays the American League a flat fee for the player or players.

The player is paid in US dollars.
The US league bears the benefit cost of the player.
The seasons and leagues remain separate. The player has year long employment at a taxi-squad NFL salary.
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Wow Cro ! bang-on with that long post. Outstanding !

Ambrosie needs to go.

And MLSE needs a tune-up or else pull their Argo franchise.

I just wish some other CFL fans who would not check in here would get to read your take/perspective on this topic. Wayyyy too much $ucking-up to the idea of selling out the CFL and Canadian football to go with The Rock / XFL shiny new bauble; and led by the likes of Naylor and other Canadian sports media sycophants who just don't get the integrity & tradition of Canadian ball / the CFL.

:rockin: :bang:
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I choose not to get worked up over speculation about the CFL/XFL talks. It's filled with conspiracy theories about secret deals to fully merge the two leagues and play a spring season of four-down football on smaller fields with XFL kicking rules and no Canadian ratio, all in the interest of getting bailed out by American investors with no allegiance to Canada or Canadian football. I respect Dave Naylor but people have taken his personal speculation as confirmation of a clandestine deal to sell out Canadian football. Every day the speculation becomes wilder, with no credible evidence cited for it.
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From John Hodges insider quotes

"Our TV deal is so under market relative to the ratings. Combine that with new gambling initiatives and the league will be more than fine."
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Hambone
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B.C.FAN wrote:
Thu Apr 15, 2021 7:44 pm
I choose not to get worked up over speculation about the CFL/XFL talks. It's filled with conspiracy theories about secret deals to fully merge the two leagues and play a spring season of four-down football on smaller fields with XFL kicking rules and no Canadian ratio, all in the interest of getting bailed out by American investors with no allegiance to Canada or Canadian football. I respect Dave Naylor but people have taken his personal speculation as confirmation of a clandestine deal to sell out Canadian football. Every day the speculation becomes wilder, with no credible evidence cited for it.
As I posted on RF I'm in "wake me up when it's over" mode. No sense getting my shorts in a knot until then because just like the weather a month from now there's not a damned thing I can do about it. When the end result is known I can then determine if it's something I can support or I simply walk away and use that significant disposable income on something else like NHL games, maybe some trips to NFL games or any number of other recreational options.
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