CFL THINKING OUTSIDE LINES
Brainstorming kicks off after Grey Cup is awarded
Here are the four seasons as imagined by Canadian Football League commissioner Randy Ambrosie: regular season, post-season, business season, innovation season.
The first two are self-explanatory, the last two not so much. Last year, in his first as commissioner, Ambrosie made it clear to CFL staff that the off-season was being replaced by business season, and they certainly got down to it, forging partnerships with 10 countries as part of the CFL 2.0 global outreach initiative.
Next spring, if the CFL’s brand new innovation committee bears the kind of fruit Ambrosie is hoping to see, the pre-season will be renamed innovation season.
“We spend a lot of time talking about promotion and the other two Ps of marketing (product and price), but do we really spend a lot of time on the question of our product itself?” said Ambrosie.
“At some point, going back now many, many decades, somebody hatched the idea of the forward pass and it changed the game forever. Many would argue the game became infinitely more entertaining and exciting.
“Through that lens, it was just an idea, why don’t we put people who love the game in a room, and just challenge them with the question of what’s the next innovation? They might not be as dramatic as the creation of the forward pass, but there are probably things we could do that would make the game more entertaining.”
The CFL will gather team coaches, GMs and presidents, CFL Players Association reps and other stakeholders, to think outside the lines.
“Our games regularly clock in at 2:55, 2:54. Could we speed our game up? Could we create more flow in the game? Our game is fast and fun, but maybe there is something out there that we’re just not seeing today,” Ambrosie continued.
The committee will meet for the first time, some time after the Grey Cup is awarded. Ambrosie hopes to take their innovative ideas on his annual cross-country trek to speak with CFL fans, to get their feedback.
“And we’ve actually talked about renaming our pre-season the innovation season, so we actually invite our fans to attend those games because we want to show them some things. We want to try some things that they might not otherwise get a chance to see live.”
He can envision using the innovation season schedule to audition potential new wrinkles that wouldn’t be incorporated into the rules for at least a year.
“Again, you have to engage your key stakeholders, your coaches, who would ultimately play a big role in this. We know their jobs are tough, so we can’t ask them to do something that isn’t practical or manageable.
CFLPA executive director Brian Ramsay said “players are going to have an active voice on the (innovation) committee. I think it’s a very positive development.”
The Atlantic Schooners haven’t set sail yet, but they’re already experiencing some pretty rough seas.
The Schooner Sports and Entertainment proposal for a new football stadium in Halifax has been met with political opposition. Earlier in the month, Halifax Coun. Sam Austin brought a formal motion to stop the SSE proposal in its tracks, so upset was he with the financial ramifications.
“We’re going to pay to build the stadium, help with the ongoing costs, assume the risks, fix the offsite transportation needs, but not own anything and leave the profit to Schooner Sports. This is quite the business proposal and not what I would have characterized as private-sector driven,” Austin said during a council meeting.
The SSE proposal pegged the cost of buying the land and construction at about $130 million for a stadium with 12,000 permanent seats and capability to double capacity. SSE proposed five financial options for Halifax council’s participation in the plan and Austin didn’t like the looks of them. Austin’s motion didn’t gain the two-thirds majority necessary to proceed. Council instead asked for a staff report on the financial impact of the SSE proposal in December.
“The city manager has been asked to accelerate their review of the stadium proposal,” said Ambrosie.
“I still believe in my heart that having a truly national CFL would be great for this league, great for Canadians, great for the game, but largely we’re now at the mercy of a stadium process.”
There was nary a CFL game on Thanksgiving Day, and the league heard enough grumbling from fans to warrant a rethink.
“We had a management council meeting a few weeks back and we put this back on the table as something we want to look at for the 2020 season,” said Ambrosie. “There are at least a couple of teams that have indicated an interest in hosting.”
This and that: Ambrosie said the league is committed to limiting the costs of the seven international player combines it will hold around the globe in January. “We’re not sending 20 people out to do the combines. There will likely be three people and we are going to rely very heavily on our federation partners to manage these combines.” … The eight teams of Mexico’s Liga de Futbol Americano Profesional will draft at least 16 unsigned Canadian players on Friday.