The Commissioner of the NFL held his state of the league news conference yesterday (February 1st) in Arizona and made it official. The Buffalo Bills will play eight home games in Toronto over the next five years. There was hardly a soul in the room who didn't think that the announcement marked the beginning of the end for the CFL.
Toronto is the media and marketing capital of Canada whether we like it or not. Ninety percent of the advertising and sponsorships come out of Toronto agencies. Whatever monies that went into the CFL will inevitably be channeled to the NFL. The NFL says it's going to take steps to protect the CFL but don't attempt to take that to the bank. The NFL just extricated itself from their NFL-Europe fiasco. They're not about to get into another money-pit .
In 1974 the World Football League was formed including the Toronto Northmen.
the minority Trudeau government of the time stepped in and threatened economic sanctions against what they considered a threat to the CFL. The franchise shifted to Memphis without ever playing a Toronto game. Don't expect the government, especially a conservative one, to step in and save the CFL this time.
So, say "goodbye" to the Argonauts and then the Tigercats and then in a slow agonizing death, the rest of a league that has existed in one form or the other sfor ninety-nine years.
What we have is another example of what's good for Toronto is good for the rest of the country no matter what is destroyed in the wake.
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Too bad the CFL doesn't survive on government corporate handouts like the vagabonds at Bombardier.
Actually, that's a good thing.
Canada is a funny place. Nationalistic until it comes to supporting its own - with dollars.
Does anyone really doubt that if the NFL would ever come to Canada, the new motto would be, "CFL who?"
The CFL is a second choice league now. Too bad. Had the CFL been a little more proactive they could have at least blitzed Canadians with all sorts of marketing propaganda to keep people connected to it.
That's my perception anyway. I go on the CFL website and find it to be wanting. Same with NHL.com. There's not enough there for a guy like me who salivates for information.
Since, I'm officially in rant territory a-la Brian Wilde on Picard, how about improving on the darn ticker on RDS, TSN and CBC?
Is it that hard or expensive? Or do we lack originality?
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