National Post (National Edition)
CFL fans finally get place to Unite
League launches online initiative to help fill void
In the absence of an actual Grey Cup game to plan, play and celebrate, the Canadian Football League on Thursday announced a series of virtual events intended to bring fans, players, coaches and officials together online.
Called Grey Cup Unite, it features an interesting enough lineup of events, but it's obviously a poor substitute for traditional November CFL fare, especially when so many other professional sports leagues conducted regular seasons, playoffs and championship games in safe or relatively safe bubble environments.
Commissioner Randy Ambrosie will kick it off Nov. 16 with a fan town hall. If he comes armed with hard facts, figures and dates to support his trademark optimism, he could set fans' minds at ease and they might enjoy the rest of the week's offerings. If he gives them platitudes and empty promises, he will only further damage the brand and his standing at the head of the rare league that didn't play in 2020. He cannot afford to fumble the opening snap.
“I hope to give them an enormous amount of comfort and hope. I really do,” Ambrosie said Thursday. “I'll talk about the work that's being done, the various scenarios we're looking at. It is the intention of our league to be back on the field.
“Do we have absolute certainty how this is going to play out? Well, no, none of us knows exactly what path COVID will take. But there is an enormous effort being undertaken by this league to get back on the field in 2021 and I'm going to share that message with our fans.”
The work being done amounts to number crunching by the CFL's chief financial officer Greg Dick and his staff, as well as nine team presidents.
The aim is to identify the worst-case financial scenario for each team and the league — presumably a shortened schedule and no fans — then find a way to conduct a semblance of a season under those terms.
If a better-case scenario unfolds, so be it.
“We'll take the various scenarios, break them apart, look at all their logistical and financial implications. We're going to be guided by the numbers, by the logic that is revealed in these scenarios,” said Ambrosie. “We've challenged ourselves to understand what our worst-case scenario is in November. That sets the stage for all the work that has to be done, all the partners we have to talk to.”
The CFL isn't working on a traditional Grey Cup week because the league's governors voted on Aug. 17 to kill a proposed six-game season played entirely in a bubble environment in Winnipeg. The governors' willingness to proceed was tied directly to the prospect of receiving federal government funding. The league misplayed its hand entirely, starting with a request for up to $150 million, and when the feds denied a last-ditch ask for $30 million, the CFL went dark.
It was an embarrassing, frustrating day for the league, its players and fans.
It got worse when the National Hockey League finished up in Toronto and Edmonton bubbles without a positive COVID-19 test. The National Basketball Association was only slightly less successful in its bubble in Florida. Major League Baseball just wrapped up the World Series in Texas. And were it not for the selfishness of Los Angeles Dodger Justin Turner, who tested positive but joined the onfield celebration anyway, the league would have come away relatively unscathed, with a COVID positive test rate of less than one per cent.
“I think we'll always feel a sense of regret that we didn't get back on the field,” said Ambrosie. “Look, I know for our players, how badly they wanted to play. In a game that offers relatively short careers, you don't want to lose a season.”
He said the substance and timing of the CFL's challenges were too great to overcome. “I have regrets that we didn't succeed, but I also know how hard we tried.”
With Grey Cup Unite, they are now trying to revive their brand and offer fans some hope. And there is surely merit in a lineup of events that includes three coaches media conferences, a Diversity Is Strength racial justice roundtable featuring alumni and current coaches and players, the presentation of the all-decade team and a virtual business summit.
Those are value-added items, but Ambrosie has to carry the load. He has to dispel the rather popular notion that the league has no real plan.
“Sports is about hope, it's about optimism,” he said. “But we are dealing with one of the most uncertain times we've ever faced, at least in recent memory, and that limits your ability to make high-conviction decisions.”