Quote Originally Posted by paulwoods13 View Post
Bell's unwillingness to put games on Sunday (except playoff games, go figure) contributes to scheduling in this league being a real mess. Thursdays are lousy for ratings, Friday doubleheaders cut out some eastern viewers who aren't willing to stay up until 1 a.m., and some Saturday doubleheaders do that as well. And tripleheaders on Saturday mean one game in the middle of the day, when viewership is bound to be low. And scheduling games on three (occasionally four) days in a week (so that all games can be televised nationally) means some teams get screwed with very short weeks. There is no solution in sight to any of this. I suppose if a non-Bell network came in it might be willing to try games on Sundays, but in view of the NFL ratings juggernaut that seems like a bad idea. Another idea, which Bell would oppose, would be to have some games played simultaneously, with the same start times every week. Say Fridays at 8 ET and Saturdays at 5 and 8 ET, with one "overlap" game each week. Viewers would choose which one to watch when two games are on at the same time. It would almost certainly reduce overall viewership, but it would eliminate the "I don't know what day and time the games are" excuse, and it would mean an end to short weeks except the week after Labour Day.


Horrible decision to eliminate the Sunday games, I still can't believe the league would let Bell/TSN dictate this regardless of the $40M annual contract.
Some stupid Toronto Ad agency decided to eliminate NFL competition and remove our league when in fact our Sunday numbers were stronger than the No Funners.
Not to mention the gross elimination requirement from the CTV national network for a minimum playoffs and Grey Cup showing.
I remember a few years back at BMO when then commissioner Jeff Orridge came down into the stands and I had a good conversation with him for a good five plus minutes.
He was fully aware of the need and said all the right things about the league negotiating with multi potential partners to increase the rights and not like the current no competition TSN situation.
Also for what it's worth he agreed with me to have a regular game schedule to include Sundays.
Maybe that's why the got rid of him as he was not a yes man.
The league I am afraid has done everything possible to shoot itself in multi feet and the damage looks to be irreparable.