The Little League That Could
HEY EVERYONE, remember the Canadian Football League? This country’s only professional sports league is back again for another summer of three-down football, this year with a brand new expansion team, the Ottawa RedBlacks.
Now the last two times pro football was tried in our nation’s capital, both ended in complete chaos. The once proud Rough Riders were put out of their misery in 1996, abandoned by fans and run into the ground by comically fumbling owners. As for the Renegades, which were punted from the league in 2006 for unpaid bills, their tenure was so brief and uneventful, few even remember their existence.
Based on that track record, you’d assume league honchos would steer clear of Ottawa. But in the CFL, unpredictability always rules. That’s not a criticism. In fact, it’s a large part of what makes the league so enjoyable.
Since the heady years of the ’50s and ’60s when it occupied second place in Canadian sports consciousness, the CFL has been dwarfed in popularity by the rise of the bigger, wealthier North American pro leagues: NHL, NFL, NBA and MLB. And now, with competition coming from soccer – nationally with teams in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and internationally by blanket coverage of the Premier League and the World Cup – it’s been pushed further out to the sports periphery.
That this league somehow continues to survive – even thrive in Western Canada – is a testament to its hard-core fan base, not to mention owners who aren’t scared by a little red ink on the bottom line. But lately, with attendance and television ratings up across the country and talk of a new team in the Maritimes, it’s on sounder footing than at any other time since the great Russ Jackson was slinging footballs for the old Ottawa Rough Riders.
This surprising turnaround is due in large part to Mark Cohon, the 48-year-old commissioner who truly loves the CFL. Taking over in 2007, he inherited a league in total disarray, perpetually perched on the edge of financial ruin. Cohon’s first task was to understand his fan base and price the game accordingly. A ticket to see the new Ottawa RedBlacks play, for example, can be had for about $20, approximately the price of a large beer at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. He also encouraged owners to build smaller, cosier parks where fans sit close to the action, moving away from the gigantic stadia like BC Place, Olympic Stadium and Rogers Centre, which were far too big in scale for the CFL game.
Cohon also recognized the need to clamp down on team overspending, negotiating a realistic salary cap that puts CFL players’ wages on par with the rest of society. Henry Burris, Ottawa’s starting quarterback, will be the team’s highest paid player, at $300,000 a year. But with the average salary at $80,000 a year – pocket change for most pro athletes but a wage most of us can relate to – many are forced to supplement their income with an off-season job. It’s unlikely we’ll see Sidney Crosby working a summer job anytime soon.
The CFL still has many other quirks, which sportswriters poke fun at any chance they get. But the punchlines shouldn’t cloud the fact that the CFL offers a charming old-time vibe that’s all but disappeared from the bigger sports leagues. Fuelled by lucrative TV and Internet deals and massive merchandise sales, teams in the big four are little more than vertically integrated entities, branch plants of huge conglomerates that exist solely to squeeze money from their followers.
“The CFL offers a charming old-time vibe”
Worse, they’re becoming rather dull and aloof, like their corporate parents, sacrificing the randomness and colour that has always made sports fun. Can you imagine a commissioner from another league actually mingling with the real fans? That’s exactly what Cohon did recently in Winnipeg, tweeting out an informal get-together for fans at a local bar. Better yet, he promised to buy the first round. Truly, a sports commissioner who gets it.