Football (or not) in the Time of Covid

The NHL has two bubble cities and so far so good as far as testing goes. Major League Soccer has had some problems but seems to be stumbling towards the end of their season.

Major League Baseball did not go for a bubble concept because first of all, Florida is a breeding ground for Covid – 19 because of political reasons. The problem is by having teams all over the place and in various states of doing well against Covid-19, the chances of infection have gone up and to no one’s surprise, there were simply too many moving parts to make it work.

The CFL has a bubble city picked out – Winnipeg – because they have 30 flights a day compared to the five or so that come to Regina, but unlike the other leagues where TV money can fill in some holes in the budget – the CFL is basically gate driven and if you don’t have fans coming in to watch the games, how exactly do they think the players are going to get paid?

We may not get the answer to that question this year, but the way the CFL has blown this is indicative that maybe the league was not too anxious to play this year, but didn’t want to give the impression it was giving up this year too quickly.

The league in approaching the federal government, first for $150 million, then $40 million, now $33 million, looks like it is simply out for whatever money it could get to try to operate this year simply to maintain its share of public attention and potential profits.

The league in not talking to the players and doing a coordinated effort with them made it clear the players are not partners, but assets that can be easily replaced. Now as things drag out and more players are deciding to sit this year out until someone gets their act together, the Mickey Mouse image of the CFL is starting to look good as the new logo for the League.

With an increasingly political divide in the world, there are those who argue the federal government doesn’t care about football while western Canada does and so this is another slap in the face to the west.

Except that isn’t exactly correct. Conservatives in Saskatchewan gave up their right to make demands when they elected all Conservatives to represent the province.

When the Liberals had one seat in the province, that was a leverage that could be used to get the federal government to help out an industry of concern to Saskatchewan. So while Conservatives may bask in the ideological purity of Saskatchewan being Tory blue, in exchange fo that bragging right they have lost one of the best levers available to get government help.

What a number of people are suggesting is the CFL throw in the towel on the 2020 season and look to reset for 2021, changing the business model so that it is not as highly dependent on fans in the stands because in a pandemic, that is not an option on the table.

Covid-19 is changing a lot of minds as to how business or sports can operate and has made the CFL business model of “sustainable mediocrity” to paraphrase former Rider Coach GM and Head Coach Chris Jones, no longer sustainable.

There have been steps made towards trying to get costs down, from cuts to football operations, to the long list of free agents waiting to hear from potential employers.

The CFL has done well with TSN being the sole televisor of games, but when you look at the States and how NFL broadcasts are split between all the networks including on-line providers, the NFL understands it is not in their interests to limit the number of eyeballs on their product and will do anything they can to find these fans.

So with all due respect and thanks to TSN for the job they have done, they may have to give up some of their rights and allow others into the game.

Let’s start with the pre-season. TSN does a token amount of games because of the potential conflict with NHL broadcasts that presumably bring in better cash. So let’s say the market is opened up where other networks could bid on games and what the hell, let’s even have some games put on Facebook Live.

Rod Pedersen has been going the Facebook Live approach for his show and even the CFL simulated games which I have caught a few when not working, have been drawing good crowds. It’s a way to experiment with getting the game out to people who cut their cable and have no way of seeing games because they find it is just too expensive to pay for something they only watch maybe once or twice a week.

Having games on a platform like Facebook Live or even YouTube would expand the reach of the audience and maybe even bring about some improved innovations in broadcasting. I normally work a midnight to 8 am shift for the RCMP and these nights the only live stuff I see is Australian Rules Football, Rugby and Korean Baseball.

For the Korean baseball, they don’t have announcers at the games, but watching from home. They also bring in guests throughout the game and the way they have changed the broadcast to make it more interesting may have interesting consequences for other sport broadcasts.

Having more games televised on over a wider range of broadcast mediums means more exposure and more money. You could even do training camps, find sponsors and use them as a way to build interest and exposure.

The CFL 2.0 experiment with more international football players came to a bit of ahead when Randy Ambrosie gave a video greeting to the Finland Football League while his own league was looking like an inept clown trying to get out of a clown car without tripping over his own feet.

The CFL failure so far to lever federal funding is a clear sign the CFL needs someone who can deal not just with the federal government but also the respective provincial governments. Watching the CFL trying to operate, it seems they are operating with a world view that is maybe 20-30 years removed from reality, but having someone who can maybe head they off from making boneheaded plays like their first ask of the federal government for $140 million.

Hindsight is 20/20, but when you see how Roger Goodell took a pay cut, but it took longer for say the CFL to move in that direction, suggests the CFL suffers from a serious lack of perception of how the public and the players view their actions.

A majority of that problem comes with the structure of the CFL. The private owners have their own agenda while the community owned teams operate under a more open and transparent fashion. While each team is to be commended for helping to bail out Montreal until it finally sold, it cost each team about $900 K which for some teams was the line between profit and loss.

The CFL is likely facing the need for a salary structure to be more strictly adhered to, with perhaps caps set on various positions. For example BC Lions paid Mike Reilly a king’s fortune to quarterback their team, but as Reilly found out, if you don’t have enough money to pay guys in other positions, you will be sacked on a regular basis.

So if you cap spending on quarterbacks, adjust caps for positional players, you could help to bring down costs. Teams should be encouraged to help players find off field sources of income to perhaps alleviate situations like a global pandemic and mitigate situations like this season. Those efforts should not count against the salary cap although part of me remembers how Edmonton abused that system in the 1970s-80’s to pay players on the practice roster.

The CFL will also have to rid itself of the notion it is only a six month league. The NFL has blazed a trail by turning things like the NFL combine and NFL draft into major events.

The CFL has to step out and make itself known in the off-season by following a similar path. Maybe it will not turn things around overnight, but the CFL has to take a 5-10 year approach that by investing in things like the combine, like the draft, like all exhibition games being televised, it can use the opportunity provided by Covid-19 to remake itself into a league that is sustainable, innovative and necessary.

The purchase of the XFL by Dwayne Johnson, movie star and former Calgary Stampeder, also provides an opportunity for the league to work with former alumni who have done very well but more importantly, also love the league.

I don’t know if anything will come right away from that, but the lines of communication should be opened. Johnson is a showman and he knows as long as the CFL exists, the NFL is safe from monopoly legislation.

All ideas should be on the table. That requires a show of leadership from the CFL that has been lacking to this point, although Ambrosie is being hamstrung by some of the more reactionary owners in the CFL.

But an accurate assessment of the CFL, it’s business model and how to mitigate against a future pandemic that could hit the league where it hurts – in the stands – is the most important thing the CFL could do in my lifetime.

So while a part of me clings to a bit of hope the CFL may actually play this season, another part hopes the CFL will finally rise to meet the challenge of being the league I always believed in and felt Canadians would love.

by Greg Urbanoski

Football (or not) in the Time of Covid

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