100 Days Until Training Camp

I always saw a football stadium as an anything can go place. I started going to Rider games in the 1970s when we moved to Regina and saw why only a fool bets against Ron Lancaster. Then in 1977 the whole team got old fast and I became fascinated wondering what a football team does to stay successful?

For most of the 1980s, Taylor Field was the scene of more accidents than any stretch of the Trans-Canada or Highway 11 between PA and Saskatoon. When I moved around the province and finally out of the province for work, I discovered the Riders is the lifeblood of the province.

Wear a Rider cap or shirt anywhere in the province and someone will talk about the team with you. When, thanks to Ron New of the Prince Albert Daily Herald, I discovered I could score press box seats, I discovered a whole new level of football conversation. And ladies and gentlemen, I kid you not, the Daily Herald newsroom of the 1990s, at least the male side, were solid Rider and CFL fans. If you knew what was going on, and could make a smart-ass comment, there were no better  people to watch a CFL game with than with George Harcus, Darren Oleksyn, Derek Holtom, Gary Leach and myself.

We would drive from PA to a Rider game, cover it, and then we drive back and were back at work the next day. Twenty years later, we still manage to catch a game in some kind of combination, usually joined by Trevor Doroschenko, formerly of CIPA TV, and last year, we walked out of Winnipeg as winners in their Dollarama Stadium.

So when the CFL announced their new commissioner, Jeffrey Orridge, I looked at him and wondered if this guy is going to screw up this over 100 year Canadian institution. Orridge was a surprise candidate who was formerly with the CBC and ran their Olympic television and multi-platform coverage, which has been said to have been among the best ever.  This is kind of good news because of the major things the CFL needs is a football game so junkies like me can play during the off-season.

Event Centre funding

City may hire lobbyist for event centre money

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International honours

Raiders' Kubiesa to represent Czechia at IIHF U18 Men's World Championship

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Learn the signs

How often should you change your brakes?

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Orridge says making the game more accessible to younger generation of fans is first and foremost. He also plans to visit each CFL city in his first nine weeks to meet fans and get their input. So with no further ado, here is what I would do to make the CFL more fans friendly.

1). Get the CFL version of a Madden football game. There have been some half assed versions in development, but I would break down and buy a gaming system to play a CFL game. It’s a win-win because the players would get paid for likeness and it would lead to game players competing for prizes etc.

2) Settle the Toronto Argonaut situation and get them at BMO Field and leave Braley with just the BC Lions to fool around with.  Braley did the league a favor by propping up Toronto, but trust me readers, the PA Raiders have a better sales staff than the Argonauts. If Rogers weren’t such an anti-Canadian (meaning anything outside of Toronto) organization, we could avoid screw-ups like Toronto spending the first half of their season on the road. Getting a sales staff like the Riders have would go a long way to ensuring Toronto did not look like a clown’s breakfast amongst CFL teams surviving on merchandize sold by Riders and kept afloat by Rider fans in Toronto buying tickets en masse to hold Rider parties during Argo games.

3) Set up a winter arena type league so CFL players who are not starters can get necessary game experience. Holding these games in arenas opens up the Quebec City and Halifax markets to see how open they are to the CFL and gives young Canadian players more experience to get better and increase the player quality of the CFL. It also gives TSN some additional programming during the winter since they lost the NHL contract.

Those would work for starters. The entry of Ottawa showed the Canadian talent base in the CFL is pretty thin, but that is because the Canadian university football season is only 10 games or so. The CFL could also hold pre-season controlled scrimmages in places like Saskatoon, Fort Mac, Halifax and Quebec City to increase the exposure of the CFL in those communities. Since these are scrimmages and not games, it should not seriously be a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

I’m looking forward to the Riders and their push to be the number two sports property in Canada, knocking off the Toronto Maple Leafs. That means more Rider rallies in other CFL cities when the Riders hit the road and the Riders continue to be the number one road attraction in the CFL. The Riders need to continue to improve their store facilities and services, ensuring that out of town Rider fans get the same access to goods that Regina fans get. Not that I mind going with my cell phone, taking pictures and sending stuff to Winnipeg, Calgary and Toronto.

The CFL will be bringing in approximately five rule changes, or enhancements if you will next week. One of them appears to be no contact on a receiver after five, or maybe 10 yards. This is meant to open up the offenses which took a step back last year, likely due to the dilution of talent going to Ottawa.

Consistency in the reffing will be one of the issues the new commissioner will have to address and here the CFL may want to sit down with their NFL counterparts and compare notes. How the refs prepare may go a long way to ensuring a good game is called and not bogged down with a flag every play.

In Rider news, it was sort of a quiet week, but Chris McKenzie the linebacker has announced he will sign a one day contract with the Riders and retire as a Rider. Which is strange because his last contract was with the Riders, but since I have my CFL contract framed, why not for Chris? He was a good linebacker and adept at moving around to other positions when needed.

For pure laughs, the Riders signing of receivers Greg Hardin and Naaman Roosevelt were a welcome sight this week. Hardin broke Weston Dressler’s records at North Dakota and when he was interviewed Monday, said he was well aware of who Dressler was.

Now Scott Schultz, former defensive lineman great with the Riders, was also a North Dakota alumni but Hardin drew a complete blank when asked if anyone at North Dakota remembered who Schultz was. Hardin was a receiver the Riders have had their sights on for a while and with Taj Smith’s legal situation still unresolved, the Riders need to be prepared in case Smith gets convicted and likely gets deported as a result.