CFL 2024

[K1984]

Riverhawks took advantage of that with a sold out stadium yesterday.

That was probably a bigger crowd than any of the Elks games so far in actual attendance.

 

[bone]

I just noticed there aren’t any games scheduled today. It doesn’t seem that long ago that the CFL was a staple of Canada Day. There’s a lot of reasons why this league is in the toilet. Abandoning traditions doesn’t seem to be the answer to fixing any of them.

I can understand how they'd occasionally skip it if it was a Tuesday or Wednesday (as it will be the next two years), but skipping it when it's on a Monday is craziest misstep of all.

 

[bone]

Add horrid scheduling practices to the long list of issues with the CFL. It's stunning to me that they haven't established a consistent scheduling cadence so that fans know when games are on. There are only 9 teams, it isn't that hard.

One feature game Thursday night, two games Friday night, then a feature game Saturday afternoon, or some iteration of this. Then include some "tradition games" (Labour Day, Canada Day) in the formula. It's so simple, but instead we have random Tuesday games, random Wednesday games, then no games on days you would expect to see them.

Well they have landed on a standard pattern. Through the summer months, almost every week it is Thursday at 7 or 7:30 PM local time, Friday at 7 or 7:30 PM local time, Saturday at 7PM Eastern, Sunday at 7PM Eastern. With the lone exception an oddball double header on Friday, July 19 (and Elks got to bump their first Saturday game to 2PM because of Game 1 for the Cup Final)

Labour Day weekend they move the Thursday and Friday slots to Monday keeping the Sat/Sun 7PM EST. Then from there all games are Friday and Saturday with either it being two double headers, or triple header on Saturday, with the lone exception a Thanksgiving day game. There will also be a 3PM EST Saturday game every week post-Labour Day except October 5th for some reason. In total there will be 4 Friday double headers post-Labour Day, 6 double header Saturdays and 1 triple header Saturday.

They have landed on a pattern. It's just not an overly great one in the summer since it creates schedule disparities with short weeks for some, and Thursday night games have become very poorly attended even in the better markets.

There are no more Tuesday or Wednesday games. Those only happened due to scheduling issues for the Argos over the years.

 

[K1984]

Well they have landed on a standard pattern. Through the summer months, almost every week it is Thursday at 7 or 7:30 PM local time, Friday at 7 or 7:30 PM local time, Saturday at 7PM Eastern, Sunday at 7PM Eastern. With the lone exception an oddball double header on Friday, July 19 (and Elks got to bump their first Saturday game to 2PM because of Game 1 for the Cup Final)

Labour Day weekend they move the Thursday and Friday slots to Monday keeping the Sat/Sun 7PM EST. Then from there all games are Friday and Saturday with either it being two double headers, or triple header on Saturday, with the lone exception a Thanksgiving day game. There will also be a 3PM EST Saturday game every week post-Labour Day except October 5th for some reason. In total there will be 4 Friday double headers post-Labour Day, 6 double header Saturdays and 1 triple header Saturday.

They have landed on a pattern. It's just not an overly great one in the summer since it creates schedule disparities with short weeks for some, and Thursday night games have become very poorly attended even in the better markets.

There are no more Tuesday or Wednesday games. Those only happened due to scheduling issues for the Argos over the years.

4 is just too many days IMO, although it's probably not a priority as the TV ratings are still strong. Needs to be consolidated into 2 or 3 days max, with the third game being a feature similar to MNF (although this is tough to do with limited teams).

One game a day on 4/7 days of the week doesn't make you think "it's Friday, wonder who's in the double header?" similar to "who's playing MNF" or "who's in the late game on HNIC."

Minor issue in the grand scheme of all their issues, but it's a missed opportunity IMO.

 

[PositiveCashFlow]

Maybe because it’s not practical to have TSN do a game in the midst of NHL free agent frenzy

 

[timekeep]

Riverhawks took advantage of that with a sold out stadium yesterday.

Pretty impressive that they can sell out for baseball at that level. And its not a small park.

 

[timekeep]

I just noticed there aren’t any games scheduled today. It doesn’t seem that long ago that the CFL was a staple of Canada Day. There’s a lot of reasons why this league is in the toilet. Abandoning traditions doesn’t seem to be the answer to fixing any of them.

I don't know if the rules are still the same but it used to be that the field could not be used for either 24 or 48 hours before kickoff. The World U20 was using Commonwealth and Clark all week, medal games were on Sunday and yesterday was the Indigenous championships. Maybe that was the reason that they weren't at home. If you think the crowds are small for the Esks, you should have seen them this week.

 

[bone]

4 is just too many days IMO, although it's probably not a priority as the TV ratings are still strong. Needs to be consolidated into 2 or 3 days max, with the third game being a feature similar to MNF (although this is tough to do with limited teams).

One game a day on 4/7 days of the week doesn't make you think "it's Friday, wonder who's in the double header?" similar to "who's playing MNF" or "who's in the late game on HNIC."

Minor issue in the grand scheme of all their issues, but it's a missed opportunity IMO.

I agree. It spreads it out too much. The September-October schedule is fine, but the summer schedule blows.

I was only countering the argument that there isn't a pattern for people to get used to. There is a pattern, just not a particularly good one.

 

[rboomercat90]

I don't know if the rules are still the same but it used to be that the field could not be used for either 24 or 48 hours before kickoff. The World U20 was using Commonwealth and Clark all week, medal games were on Sunday and yesterday was the Indigenous championships. Maybe that was the reason that they weren't at home. If you think the crowds are small for the Esks, you should have seen them this week.

My comment wasn’t a complaint that the Elks weren’t playing a home game on Canada Day. It was to question why the league didn’t schedule any games at all on Canada Day.

As far as the rules for using the field go. I assume those were for when Commonwealth Stadium used natural grass and every effort was made to protect it. Sadly those days are long gone as the switch to turf happened years ago.

 

[bellagiobob]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1808501580909699182

 

[bone]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1808501580909699182

Oh man. Don't threaten to do this and then not.

 

[MoontoScott]

Oh man. Don't threaten to do this and then not.

They might be talking about a completely different name other than Eskimos or Elks. I thought if there was going to be a "new start" then Edmonton "Huskies" represented an animal that is tough and excels in the snow and cold weather and thus would be far more accurate in terms of symbolism than an animal like the Elk which is not symbolic of the North.

That's in accordance with the selection of the name Eskimos in the first place so many years ago. It was all about people of the north who were tough and excelled in the cold. There was never any affront intended towards anyone.

It would take some pretty big balls to change it back to the Eskimos. You would have to deal with a hurricane of backlash but perhaps it is possible if the new owners want to weather the storm that would follow.

Meantime, I hope the new ownership group is soon revealed. Keeping the team alive financially is the most important thing. The name won't matter if they have to close the stadium doors for good. Even with new private ownership, survival is not guaranteed.

 

[PositiveCashFlow]

Oh god unless you’re changing it back to Eskimos just keep Elks the name and logo are fine

 

[K1984]

They might be talking about a completely different name other than Eskimos or Elks. I thought if there was going to be a "new start" then Edmonton "Huskies" represented an animal that is tough and excels in the snow and cold weather and thus would be far more accurate in terms of symbolism than an animal like the Elk which is not symbolic of the North.

That's in accordance with the selection of the name Eskimos in the first place so many years ago. It was all about people of the north who were tough and excelled in the cold. There was never any affront intended towards anyone.

It would take some pretty big balls to change it back to the Eskimos. You would have to deal with a hurricane of backlash but perhaps it is possible if the new owners want to weather the storm that would follow.

Meantime, I hope the new ownership group is revealed soon. Keeping the team alive is the most important thing.

But what about the antlers!? Soooo cool.

The most common sense compromise was always "Esks, Eskies," or in an extreme compromise "Empire." Unfortunately the clowns running this organization were too spooked by the mob to even consider go there, with Empire being too "colonial" the icing on the cake.

There is no such thing as an "Esk" or "Eskie" so it is not possible to be offended by it unless you really badly wanted it to. Crying about "Empire" says a lot more about the person upset about it than anything.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1808501580909699182

That would be spicy but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a conversation about it possibly even with some fan input.

Maybe the new owner is a long time Eskimo supporter who has more than enough money to disregard what a couple opportunistic sponsors want.

I think it’s unlikely they would go back to Eskimos but as 1984 mentioned, I’d bet Esks or Eskies would be on the table and would be a reasonable compromise. It would likely help get fans back in the stadium and the people who complain about the name don’t really have a leg to stand on because both esks and eskies are made up words.

 

[MoontoScott]

But what about the antlers!? Soooo cool.

The most common sense compromise was always "Esks, Eskies," or in an extreme compromise "Empire." Unfortunately the clowns running this organization were too spooked by the mob to even consider go there, with Empire being too "colonial" the icing on the cake.

There is no such thing as an "Esk" or "Eskie" so it is not possible to be offended by it unless you really badly wanted it to. Crying about "Empire" says a lot more about the person upset about it than anything.

Haha--yes indeed they were spooked by the mob but in fairness, the cancel gang will come after you and your family tooth and nail if you anger them. These people are capable of anything.

Re-branding and re-naming probably doesn't happen for a more practical reason. If you want yet another name change then its going to cost a huge pile of money that the club doesn't have.

 

[K1984]

Haha--yes indeed they were spooked by the mob but in fairness, the cancel gang will come after you and your family tooth and nail if you anger them. These people are capable of anything.

Re-branding and re-naming probably doesn't happen for a more practical reason. If you want yet another name change then its going to cost a huge pile of money that the club doesn't have.

That's fair, but it might be an investment that they end up seeing the benefit of.

I'd be shocked if they didn't have numbers on the rough number of ticket holders they lost due to the name change. It might make legitimate business sense to spend the money.

 

[bellagiobob]

That would be spicy but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a conversation about it possibly even with some fan input.

Maybe the new owner is a long time Eskimo supporter who has more than enough money to disregard what a couple opportunistic sponsors want.

I think it’s unlikely they would go back to Eskimos but as 1984 mentioned, I’d bet Esks or Eskies would be on the table and would be a reasonable compromise. It would likely help get fans back in the stadium and the people who complain about the name don’t really have a leg to stand on because both esks and eskies are made up words.

I think the new owners will be a conglomerate headed by Belair and BP and that they bring back the old name.

 

[DavidHasselhoffsFist]

Oh man. Don't threaten to do this and then not.

I’ve been told there has been extensive outreach up north discussing a possible return of a certain name for a certain football club.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

I think the new owners will be a conglomerate headed by Belair and BP and that they bring back the old name.

That was their plan all along.

I think new ownership will be a sole owner or a majority owner possibly with some minority owner(s) involved and it will be someone who is a long time supporter of the franchise and who has the financial ability to do what needs to be done.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

the Elks name is a cursed name and will forever be associated with Chris Jones' reign of error and bad football teams

change it to Esks

 

[K1984]

If the "Elks" goes away my favourite memory of the terrible brand will be how hard the antlers and "Elk Charge!" call were pushed out of the gate.

The players running around making antler horns with their hands, the incredibly annoying elk call sound, people showing up with Elk call horns, etc, etc. It was pushed SO hard, but I don't know if any of these antics made it past week 5 after it was apparent that the team stunk, the brand stunk, and they basically torched any goodwill they had prior to the name change.

"THEY SOLD THE SAME AMOUNT OF MERCH AS THREE WHOLE HOME GAMES IN THE FIRST WEEK!" - as if significant amounts of merchandise retails every game from the two small kiosks in the stadium. "THEY SURE CAN DO A LOT WITH THE HORNS!!"

Ugh. Feel like I have to take a bath haha. Only thing worse than a name change nobody wants is the full court press trying to force you to like it.

 

[bone]

But what about the antlers!? Soooo cool.

The most common sense compromise was always "Esks, Eskies," or in an extreme compromise "Empire." Unfortunately the clowns running this organization were too spooked by the mob to even consider go there, with Empire being too "colonial" the icing on the cake.

There is no such thing as an "Esk" or "Eskie" so it is not possible to be offended by it unless you really badly wanted it to. Crying about "Empire" says a lot more about the person upset about it than anything.

Well there is such thing as an "esker" but a ridge of sand isn't something to be afraid, though since it's essentially just a speed bump, it would have been an apt description for the team over the last 4 years.

 

[bone]

Anyone see how the NHL scheduled a Canucks home game at the same time as the Grey Cup.

Based on current schedule fans will be leaving BC Place likely between 7-7:30PM local time and the hockey game would end around 7:30PM local time.

SMRT.

 

[K1984]

Anyone see how the NHL scheduled a Canucks home game at the same time as the Grey Cup.

Based on current schedule fans will be leaving BC Place likely between 7-7:30PM local time and the hockey game would end around 7:30PM local time.

SMRT.

I doubt the NHL even knows the CFL exists, or actually cares about it if they do.