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The CFL’s considering going to an earlier season, but it seems highly unlikely it will
REGINA—CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon's state of the league address Friday didn't feature a lot of controversial topics, but one particularly interesting one did come up; the idea of moving the CFL schedule earlier in the year. This has been brought up before, often by people who don't like the late-season weather, but there hasn't been any real momentum to change things. On Friday, though, Cohon seemed open to at least exploring the possibility. He smartly couched that discussion in terms of a business case, though, and it seems likely that when that business case is explored, the league will see that an earlier season doesn't make much sense.
The discussion of moving the season arose thanks to Greg Harder of The Regina Leader-Post asking Cohon about when the Grey Cup would return to the city. Cohon said it would likely be a while, considering the new stadiums in Winnipeg, Hamilton and Ottawa and other established cities' desires to host the event as well. However, he added that while it's perfectly doable to host a Grey Cup in Regina in late November, the cold weather isn't ideal.
"I'm not sure when that will happen," he said, laughingly. "You've got to build a few more hotels, get it a little warmer. Clearly the Riders will get in the rotation, but there's a lot of other teams."
Cohon said he thinks the current temperatures aren't too bad, though, and that Regina's done a great job of hosting this.
"It's a great market; I don't think there are any deterrents," he said. "We're hardy Canadians. All we have to do is put on our Sorel boots and our winter gloves to have a good time. I'm not worried about the weather."
However, from there, he mentioned that there has been discussion in the league offices of potentially moving the season a bit earlier so that Grey Cups aren't often held in quite as cold conditions.
"There have been some conversations about whether we move the season up," he said. "I think that's something we'll contemplate based on a business model."
Cohon was later asked to go into more depth on that by CBC's Bonnie Allen, who posited that the reason the league hasn't moved the season earlier is thanks to the TV deal with TSN (as an earlier season would likely run into the Stanley Cup playoffs and draw lower ratings). She asked "What do you really want, people in the stands or people on the couch?" Cohon answered with an interesting explanation of what would be considered in any debate about moving the season earlier.
"Our biggest revenue for all our teams comes from ticketing, our fans in the stands," he said. "We are open to exploring that, but we have to put a business model in place. If we moved it up a few weeks in June, what does that mean on the television front? Do we go head-to-head? The NHL, obviously, is going later into June with their playoffs and their Stanley Cup. But would it have a better effect on the back end, when the weather is tougher, clearly in the West with the outdoor stadiums? So we have to build a business case. We have to sit down with our media partners. We have to sit down with our teams and look at the availability of stadiums. What I'm saying is we're open to exploring it if it makes the right sense on the business front. If TSN is open to it, if our stadiums are available and the business model makes sense, if we think we can fill up our stadiums earlier in June more than on the back end, we'll contemplate it. That's basically what I've said in the past, and I think it all comes down to the business case, personally."
From this corner, it's hard to see that business case ever making sense. Yes, cold temperatures aren't ideal, but keep in mind that they're only at their worst in four of the nine CFL markets (Calgary, Edmonton, Regina and Winnipeg); while November in Hamilton, Ottawa or Montreal isn't always warm either, it's rarely quite as bad as it is in Alberta or on the prairies, and both B.C. and Toronto play indoors right now. Regina's new stadium also will have a partial roof at the start and could be expanded to a full roof. Moreover, it's not like fans are staying away in droves thanks to the cold, as the Grey Cup will be sold out and even the frigid West Final drew 33,174 fans. The novelty of cold-weather games may actually be helping to boost those TV ratings, too, and playing the Grey Cup in early November instead of late November doesn't necessarily mean it will be all that much warmer. It's still pretty cold in much of Canada during early November.
Beyond that, there are extreme pitfalls associated with moving the season up. Yes, a football game in June sounds nice and pleasant, but will anyone actually go or watch in the middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs? Keep in mind that while the CFL does well in the TV ratings, it's very much Canada's second biggest-sport behind hockey. That's why it was so remarkable that the CFL playoffs beat a regular-season Hockey Night In Canada broadcast, as it's usually the other way around. Put the CFL regular season up against playoff hockey, and you're looking to get crushed both from a ratings standpoint and an attendance one. Moreover, there are elements to consider beyond just the broadcast and the games. Think of it from a media perspective. In Canada in early June, just about everything in the sports media world is revolving around the Stanley Cup playoffs, regardless of which teams are left. See how little attention the CFL preseason tends to receive while hockey's still on. The current schedule is actually brilliant from that standpoint, as there's just enough of a break for media outlets to finish covering hockey and get into hyping up the start of the CFL season. If that season is starting while hockey's still on, it's going to get way less attention. Thus, while Cohon's comments about considering it from a business perspective are smart and diplomatic, it's hard to see that business case ever working out in favour of an earlier season. Cohon's wise not to shoot this down out of hand, and perhaps a business model will reveal that there are significant unexpected benefits to modifying the schedule; if it does, great. Based on what we know at the moment, though, that seems quite unlikely.
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