Fans growing tired of lack of transparency from CFL

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/04/2021 (1971 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The deciding minds of the Canadian Football League got together Tuesday for an important meeting to determine the immediate future of the three-down game.

Despite the league’s board of governors wrapping up business in the afternoon, an update by the CFL won’t come until Wednesday. What will be revealed is the 2021 CFL season has been delayed.

Here’s to hoping the CFL doesn’t make the same mistake once more; instead of continuing to keep fans in the dark, the CFL should announce a clear plan for the future. That includes real dates as to what the target is to start the season, as well as backup plans, with the understanding the battle against COVID-19 will ultimately determine the success in reaching these proposed deadlines.

Because the status quo of just hiding from the public and treating your players like throwaways — yes, the players know as little as you do — isn’t just bad business, it might just be enough to see a majority of fans pack up their hope and rid the their lives of the CFL. If you think that’s an overreaction, my email inbox says otherwise.

As it stands, the CFL is scheduled to begin training camps in May, with the regular season to kick off in early June. Of course, with COVID-19 still ravaging parts of the country, including in Ontario, where it’s a complete mess, there’s no chance the cash-strapped CFL will begin on time.

While it is certainly disappointing to see the CFL once again delay a new campaign — after all, they were one of the few professional leagues to wipe out the 2020 season — it’s clear without the willingness of the federal government to financially support the league, and ditto for the deep-pocketed owners who also prefer not to throw good money at a bad idea, the CFL is scrambling with how to press on with a season.

After talking to a number of people around the league, the expectation is the CFL, whether it formally announces it or not, will be looking for a re-start no later than mid-July, with camps starting weeks before. It might take scrapping the preseason and a bye week, and/or extending the season into December, but the goal is to play as full a season as possible. It might not be 18 games, but it would be close.

Because the CFL is unlike other, richer leagues such as the NHL, NFL and NBA, its return-to-play plans aren’t as rock solid and therefore aren’t being taken as seriously by provincial governments, most notably Ontario. Under the current restrictions in Hamilton, Ottawa and Toronto, without an exemption — and to be clear, there won’t be an exemption — none of these clubs would be permitted to take the field for practice.

Speaking of players, Canada’s border is currently closed to non-essential workers and CFL players living in the U.S. and elsewhere are not permitted to enter the country.

What’s more, the CFL is largely driven by ticket sales and unless a sizeable number of fans are allowed to attend, there will be little appetite to put on games. The league is quite literally depending on the success of the country’s vaccine rollout, and even that doesn’t necessarily mean thousands of fans will be permitted to attend sporting events, even if sitting outside.

Nobody is expecting the CFL to fix the global health crisis. What it can control is the message — and thus far, it’s been an infuriating exercise of silence and speculation.

When league Commissioner Randy Ambrosie has surfaced, he’s provided little, if any, clarification as to what’s happening. It’s been an interesting practice to watch just how dumb he thinks CFL fans are, because how else would you explain his announcement in March that the CFL and XFL are simply talking?

That’s right, the commissioner of the CFL framed it as “just talking” despite having conversations for more than six months prior. What’s worse, he couldn’t even summon the courage to tell the truth about who started these talks.

While Ambrosie is an easy target, and will be deserving of criticism for the league’s missteps so long as he’s the face of the CFL, it’s the team owners/presidents who are controlling the strings. They deserve just as much shade.

So here’s the next chance to get this right. Because if the announcement comes and goes as merely a reminder the season isn’t starting as planned, fans won’t be wrong in bailing on a league that so clearly thinks little of them.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca twitter: @jeffkhamilton