Crunch time in the CFL

Looking south of the border at what happens when you open up things too fast too early, should be a cautionary tale for the CFL. Bringing up American players, who would have to be quarantined, would likely mean going with a season starting Labour Day Weekend that means having them up at the end of July.

The border still remains closed and there is a question of whether or not the government would give a green light to bring up professional athletes from all over the States and keep them quarantined. There is also the question of how the players would be paid.

If you consider a pro-rated contract for this season, and let’s say eight games, but you have these games with minimal to no fans, then the CFL will need more than just television money to make this a go. Rod Pedersen broke the story the CFL was considering Winnipeg as a hub city, something the league denied but Dave Naylor of TSN said it was still on the table.

The hub city concept would see teams play in one centre to presumably reduce the risk from constant travel. There might be a hub city in the east and one in the west because having nine teams in one CFL city seems like asking for trouble when you start with practice facilities, meeting areas and where are they going to live?

In Winnipeg Dollarama Field is located on the University of Manitoba and apparently classes are going on line this upcoming semester, which frees up living space. The bigger question is what are the players going to be doing in their off-hours?

I suspect the selection of entertainment options for young men in Winnipeg is much better than it is in Regina, no matter how much the Saskatchewan government talks about having the appetite to be a host city. Then add to this the job Manitoba has done to keep their Covid-19 rates down and if there is someplace that in theory could pull this off, Winnipeg seems to be the leading contender.

There is more than one factor involved with this, with how do American players get up to Canada prior to training camp, where do they stay, and probably most importantly, how do they get paid?

The CFL and CFLPA are finally talking, probably because the CFL was waiting to see how everything was going to shake down in other leagues before they came to the players with a proposal. The problem with Covid-19 is that because it is a new virus, no one has any idea what it does or how to effectively treat it.

I suspect that if it comes to a stage where Winnipeg is the hub city, then I wouldn’t expect a full house of fans, if any, but what we see in Australia and New Zealand with their rugby league gives us a few ideas of how the league can proceed.

The rugby leagues started small and then as the rates continued to stay low, there were more people allowed into the stadiums. Teams had fans willing to pay 20 bucks a shot to have their pictures blown up onto pictures to put into seats.

That is one way to establish a presence and the CFL may be looking at cordoning off the first few rows of seats and use them for advertising purposes. Dollarama Field in Winnipeg could probably start at 25-30 per cent capacity and if they spread them through the stadium, it would probably work out nicely.

The Australians and Kiwis also piped noise into the stadium, and Winnipeg might want to consider the example of the Oakland A’s who are looking at putting up screens in their parking lots for fans to come park, watch the game and make noise. This is something that has been done already with country artist Brent Kissel playing drive in concerts across western Canada.

I would expect to see fans over the age of 60 not being admitted to the stadiums at this time. The elderly seem to be more prone to the adverse effects of Covid-19 so I would think simple common sense would have them stay away until a vaccine or a new normal sets in.

The hub city concept took most of the headlines towards the end of the week, but there were a few other stories that deserve attention. The Edmonton Eskimos released returner Christion Jones after he tweeted out his objections to same sex couples in a badly thought out and timed tweet.

Jones apologized for his tweet, but by then it was too late. June was Pride Month and the CFL needs to avoid alienating as many people as possible if they are going to make a go of it after this season. While Jones made an ill-advised comment, his willingness to apologize and admit the hurt it caused makes one wonder whether or not the league responded too quickly.

The Eskimos also had their own problems this past week when the Washington Redskins stadium sponsored threatened to pull out of their deal unless the team changed its name. One could argue the name is historic, but the awareness of racism in society exploded this past month and has changed a lot of people’s viewpoints.

So if the Washington franchise is doing this, what about the Edmonton Eskimos? Some argue the name is a derogatory colonial description of the people who live in Northern Canada. I used to live on Baffin Island in a community now known as Iqualuit, but then was known as Frobisher Bay.

The northern people at that time wanted to be known as Inuit and that’s how we referred to them. The Edmonton organization had done a survey and sample of northern communities probably directly north from them and said there was no consensus on whether the name should be changed.

The problem is I wonder how many people they talked to actually considered themselves Inuit. There are Dene, Cree and other peoples who live north of Edmonton and if you are going to generalize, I would suggest the Inuit are more located in the eastern Arctic and far north and I seriously doubt Edmonton went to Iqualuit to canvas that communities opinion.

Edmonton said they were going to stick with their name, which probably reflects Alberta’s attitude that nobody is going to tell them what to do, unless of course oil falls below $10 a barrel. If the Washington franchise changes its name, there might be pressure for Edmonton to do the same, but the difference is there is no multi-million dollar sponsorship contract in Edmonton that is at risk if they don’t change their name.

So we are now in the crunch to get a new CBA, an outline of how the hub city will work, how teams and players respond and whether the CFL can pull something out of this season. I still think it is asking a lot with such an unpredictable disease, and the experience in the US where states opened too fast too early is standing as a cautionary tale.

So while my head says a 2020 is not likely, my heart says even if its in Winnipeg, just seeing some games again would go a long way. There are a lot of balls in the air and Duron Carter is not catching any of them.

by Greg Urbanoski

Crunch time in the CFL

What's Trending