I think the league is looking at it from the opposite point of view -- deathly afraid that fans have been lost forever. Attendance was going down long before COVID kaiboshed a season and put the league out of mind for a year (while also creating a coterie of fans who won't be so eager to gather in large groups after the pandemic ends, if it ever does). Anything the league comes up with at this point, whether it's minor rule tweaks, major proposals to change roster rules or a total merger with the XFL, will be designed with the intention of reviving a flagging business.
Year of the Rocket: John Candy, Wayne Gretzky, a Crooked Tycoon, and the Craziest Season in Football History (https://sutherlandhousebooks.com/pro...of-the-rocket/)
Bouncing Back: From National Joke to Grey Cup Champs (https://bit.ly/3fvip5x)
YOTR YouTube https://bit.ly/37jtG4f
BB YouTube https://bit.ly/2TSYPs7
If it is a flagging business the problems lie off the field of play. I apologize for my extremist position but while the CFL books may not be too rosy Bell Media is raking it in. Teams are more or less left to flounder on their own. All the top people are well looked after throughout the league.
If the CFL believed in Canadian football why do they not partner with the CFLPA and give them an ownership share and seats on the board. That would be the way to move forward together. Instead they are rumoured to be considering a partnership with the Rock (who made the best $15 million investment of his life) and are almost certainly headed for some kind of labour dispute related to the 2022 CBA.
It is my impression that they welcome the opportunity to finish the players off and have complete disregard for fan opinion of their moves. Winnipeg Blue Bombers conduct business as if they were invincible. I cringe every time I hear of Wade Miller being a man of influence in the league. I suspect big money is coming with the single game betting legislation through sponsorship of some form. They know the opportunity is now before the legislation changes.
I may not have it right but I thought the CFL turned down the loan with the repayment plan and cancelled the season when they did not get the requested $30 million grant. I wish I could be more trusting.
I'm buying a ticket to OV's Canadian fun league. If he can make a deal with the PA, I will pay more for my ticket. CFL without the players will fade away along with Eatons and Sears. I have no interest in watching Wade Miller be rich. The memory's will live on in my mind
The CFL books may indeed be "not too rosy," but MLSE is a for-profit business, not a charity. Much as we might all wish otherwise, it has no moral obligation to lose money indefinitely on any its operations.
It's arguable whether or not MLSE has done enough to market the Argos, but the suggestion (not made by you, I acknowledge) that it should pour as much money into a money-losing subsidiary as it does to a player on the Raptors seems to ignore the reality that investment requires a reasonable prospect of return. Although there have been many bad ownership groups over the past four decades, and any bad decisions by ownership groups, some of them did put money into marketing the team. Has any of that produced a reasonable return on investment?
I know of no corporation that would simply hand a piece of ownership to its employees. And there is not a single entity here but nine separate entities, with three different ownership structures.
Year of the Rocket: John Candy, Wayne Gretzky, a Crooked Tycoon, and the Craziest Season in Football History (https://sutherlandhousebooks.com/pro...of-the-rocket/)
Bouncing Back: From National Joke to Grey Cup Champs (https://bit.ly/3fvip5x)
YOTR YouTube https://bit.ly/37jtG4f
BB YouTube https://bit.ly/2TSYPs7
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