It’ll be a sunnier State of the League for CFL boss Orridge, but only slightly

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This article was published 24/11/2016 (3268 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — It was exactly one year ago that CFL Commissioner Jeffrey Orridge stood centre stage in a downtown Winnipeg hotel ballroom to deliver his first State of the League address.

At the time, Orridge was still relatively green in his new role as the proprietor of Canadian football, having been on the job just eight months. With his first full season behind him and the Grey Cup game in the heart of the Prairies two days later, issuing a progress report was one of the commissioner’s final appearances before a long off-season.

He would take quite the beating, mostly for what many believed to be empty explanations on the issues that were plaguing the CFL in 2015: declining numbers in TV viewership and gate revenue; an increase in the number of penalties called per game; attempts by some teams to lure coaches still under contract with another club; and the fact the CFL was temporarily without a drug policy after a fallout with the company doing the testing — giving it the distinction of being the only professional sports league operating without any random checks.

“I think your second game is always better than your first game,” Orridge quipped Thursday from Toronto, where he’ll take another run at it when he issues his annual update on the league, two days ahead of the 104th Grey Cup game between the Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa Redblacks at BMO Field.

Orridge said he’s more prepared and ready to defend himself, though he’s not expecting the same issues to pop us this time.

After all, he resurrected the drug policy, making it more effective and transparent; established anti-tampering regulations to prevent the kind of off-season coaching controversies seen last year; and has implemented new officiating rules that have, albeit sparingly, helped clean up the game.

Some things, however, haven’t changed.

Although TV ratings have increased slightly — after plunging 15 per cent overall in 2015, they’re up 3.5 per cent this year — attendance remains a sore spot; overall the league was down three per cent.

Off the nine CFL markets, Orridge is likely to take the most heat over the one he’s in. Grey Cup in Toronto has proven to be a hard sell this year. Ticket prices were slashed drastically — starting prices went from $169 in August to $89 in the fall — in order to fill seats, and the commitment from the city to make it a truly great experience is a subject for debate.

The outcome, in some ways, seemed predictable. The Argonauts — despite a 14 per cent increase in attendance at their new 26,500-seat home, including doubling the number of season-ticket holders — averaged only 16,380 fans over the course of nine regular-season games and one pre-season match. Had Ottawa, a city just five highway hours away, not clinched a berth in Sunday’s final, the race to sell tickets would have surely hit desperation mode. Capacity for the championship game was increased to 35,000.

“We had very, very high expectations with Toronto and perhaps in hindsight maybe a little too unrealistic for the first year of new ownership and new management,” said Orridge, who added he’s been happy with Grey Cup week and is anticipating continued success heading into Sunday’s game. “We’re not perfect, and there are always areas that will take more work… but I think we’re doing the right things across the league to make it happen.”

To be sure, Orridge acknowledged the steep challenges in trying to to grow the league’s biggest city. But he prefers to view Toronto more as an opportunity — the chance to penetrate an untapped market of younger fans between the ages of 18 and 49.

In fact, an effort to growing that new generation of fans has become the top priority for all nine teams; something that, if successful, would ensure stability in the league for years to come.

“We’ve got to grow that fan base, we’ve got to get more people engaged in as many ways as possible,” Orridge said. “That’s really to focus on attracting that next generation of fans through platforms that we had not previously, that had not been available to us and/or we had not invested in before.”

That focus, said Orridge, has been on using technology to create new ways to interact with the game. Efforts have included a revamped website and the launch of a new mobile app. Teams have also been trained to be more engaging on social media.

It has meant bridging new relationships, too. This year, the league signed on with daily sports fantasy site, Draft Kings, which has also helped attract eyeballs south of the border. Last month, the CFL teamed up with EA Sports to create a footprint in the popular Madden football video game franchise — 18 north-of-the-border players are featured in Madden NFL 17.

And in an announcement weeks ago, the CFL revealed Sunday’s game will be live-streamed and available in 150 countries.

The results have been small — a seven per cent increase in viewership for the 18-to-49 demographic — but positive nonetheless.

“We’ve got to continue to give them something to look forward to,” Orridge said. “More news, more information, more content and in new and exciting ways.”

Being innovative has also meant a further commitment to being inclusive.

connecting with a younger audience also requires an awareness of the social climate. The CFL has a history of being a progressive league. It was the first professional football league to employ a black quarterback and the first with a woman in the role of general manager.

Under Orridge, the CFL was the first pro league to implement a violence against women policy for its staff and players. In his two years he’s embraced the LGBTQ community, connecting with You Can Play — a project that ensures the safety and inclusion of everyone in sports — with representatives from every team. This season the league inked an apparel deal, the proceeds of which go to the program. Together, they’ll host a Grey Cup party here Friday at Striker, Canada’s first gay sports bar.

“It’s all about deepening our relationships and broadening our reach and continuing to be relevant, not only to that next generation of fans, but certainly our avid fans that have been supporters for decades and decades and generations and generations,” Orridge said.

Though proud of what he’s been able to do in his second year at the helm, Orridge doesn’t expect a free pass when he’s in the spotlight Friday. He understands there’s still work to be done.

“There will always be questions that I may not have the answer to, but the great thing is, with constructive criticism and feedback, oftentimes that actually promotes action,” he said. “If things are called to my attention then we can act on it. I’m looking forward to it.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

twitter: @jeffkhamilton