there ya go. put a market in every stadium. buy stuff, get tickets at half price
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Here’s an out-of-context quotable from PM Mark Carney that could be applied to sports that aren’t the Big 5 Leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS)
Nostalgia is not a strategy…The question for middle powers…is not whether we adapt to this new reality. We must. The question is whether we adapt by simply building higher walls – or whether we can do something more ambitious
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The CFL circles are largely fans who know a local kid and those kids are all talking about the shrinking field among other things. It’s the minor leagues where the information gets passed to parents and friends more so than these chat boards. If the CFL thinks that they can control the message primarily through here and other media then they need to do some more research.
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I don’t think they actually believe this. The research showed in 2021 that there would be push back to changing the rules. They are doing the best to do damage control after changing the rules because they know about how the fans feel within the CFL circle.
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I’m putting this here instead of making a new thread.
I agree with this. Don’t think an American draft is needed. They can still remove the exclusive negotiation list in my view and anyone can be a free agent and sign with any team.
Farhan Lalji thinks they should remove QBs from the list which can help them negotiate better entry level contracts making the CFL a more attractive option earlier than it currently is
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Removing QBs from the list makes sense. Will be interesting going forward in how the CFL adapts to signing these milionare school kids. Propose that the league adds a seperate coaching budget for the long term developement of QBs because top tier milionare recruits minght be hard to come by.
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While this is true are there many CFL QBs who would’ve been millionaire recruits? Looking at the Ticats QB room we had QBs from Eastern Washington, Eastern Michigan, West Georgia, and Central Connecticut. I’m not sure those schools are offering 7 figure NIL deals.
Montreal had QBs from Portland State, Sacramento State, Louisiana Monroe, Florida International, Brown, and Michigan.
Toronto had Georgia State, Troy, TCU, Trinity, and Ole Miss.
Ottawa had Western Carolina, Oklahoma State, Kent State, Butler, UNLV.
If these schools TCU’s 2025 made $2.6M, Michigan’s QB made $3M, Ole Miss QB made $1.6M.
I think guys coming from major schools will simply continue to not come to the CFL and we’ll continue to find small school gems that want to be here, not necessarily for the money.
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If the CFL penalizes punts that go out bounds it would lead to more punts that are playable and prefer that over coffin corner punts to be honest.
Furthermore, if punts are more returnable, the cost of not going for it on 3rd and short at the opponent’s 40 will be greater thereby promoting 3rd down gambles.
So my solution would be to punish punt that bounce out of bounds.
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Maximum 6 punts per team per game. You get one extra allowance for every 3rd and greater than 2+ yards you successfully convert.
You’re Welcome
The New Commish
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When you look at the Forbes top 50 franchises in the world, I don’t think there is even 1 NHL team. I know it’s big in Canada but it isn’t really a major sport in the USA. Mostly a niche sport. And to put the MLS in that same bracket is beyond comprehension.
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Essentially, the league needs to change more rules in order to justify the rules they are about to change?
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Hope you are right but still think an expanded coaching budget for training up rookie QBs would be a good idea. Teams will tell you that the money isn’t there to do it right.
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Oh yeah that’s a good idea regardless. They’ve had the issue for a while and while NIL may not change things much, it should still be addressed.
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Sure. But in my estimation, 4 down football can be very boring if the team doesn’t focus on passing. 3 down football can be very boring if there’s a ton of 3 and outs and a ton of punting.
The NFL doesn’t run as much as they used to and so they have largely fixed their problem.
We still have to do that. A lot of games are boring. I’ve watched them all. And if that requires multiple rule changes to make our game more exciting then that’s what we should do. I’m all for it. When we look back on this time I think it will reflect positively on the CFL. We can’t get the best players in the world but we will have our best overall product and entertainment possible.
We’re making rule changes because we are acknowledging a problem. Do not make no changes on to say that everything is just fine which is not the case. And it’s only going to get worse and more difficult in finding quarterback talent with the NIL stuff going on. So we need to act proactively.
So that would justify making a second rule change to accommodate the first.
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I’ve always said that that should be the CFL’s strategy. If we can’t get the best players in the world we should be known for coaching them all up.
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When a single player in any of those leagues make more than the entire salary cap of a CFL team (6.28M as just announced by 3DN), I think I still have a leg to stand on for this argument. As a justification, you can’t expect 160 teams (32×5 roughly) to make the top 50 when some leagues are way bigger than others.
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I agree with your quote from PM Mark Carney. Was just being picky about the NHL. Used to love the NHL but have really stopped following it since the Phil Kessel days in Toronto. I only pick it up again for the NHL playoff pool. Lol.
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So another $10M in revenue growth this past season. Translates to an increase of $218,149 to $6,280,514 in team cap money. If i read this correctly CFL records $10 million in revenue growth for 2025, increases salary cap over $200,000 - 3DownNation
the CFLPA has chosen to allocate $50k per team of that increase to preseason pay for vets. Is that correct?
Was another good year and i hope it continues.
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If you look at what has made more games boring over the past decade or so I think there’s many factors.
Defenses are primarily the American players, they are keeping as much as possible in front of them and forcing more ball control.
The above has led to less explosive plays, and offenses are simply taking what the D gives them, which has meant an increase in FGs. FG percentages are through the roof so it’s the constant back and forth of FGs. I would actually make a bet that the “go for it percentage” on 4th and 2 is more than the CFLs on 3rd and 2. Possessions are more valuable in the NFL.
QB injuries has also been a problem. While both leagues have seen an increase in QB injuries, with 9 teams the CFL can’t afford losing 7 starters for significant time which has happened regularly over the past 5-7 years. We really need to figure out how to develop QBs and keep them here.
The operations cap hasn’t helped in my opinion. We should be promoting larger coaching staffs with more specialized positional coaches, making room for more former players (I understand there’s a player to coach development program in training camp which helps, but not enough).
The reasons for rule changes (imo) is a simple evolution. Sometimes the older rules don’t always work with the modern day athlete. Curling is a great example of a sport that has to continue to simply get too good. Men’s curling is almost unwatchable because the players make every shot. You need failure to produce entertainment. Imagine there were no drops, interceptions, missed tackles or fumbles? It would be like watching robots.
I know there were many motives for the rule changes and some likely weren’t said out loud but as someone who grew up anti NFL and very Pro CFL I’ve noticed a big shift in entertainment value from the two leagues. There have been far too many 11-4 games at CFL half time and I’d really prefer that to change and not with more FGs.
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Did a bit of snooping at the stats page. Every team converted more than half of their red zone opportunities into TDs.
Diaz made the most FGs last year with 58. 174 points. The highest point scorers have always been kickers coming in at around 200+ points. All that’s really changed is our perspective. Teams scored around 475 points this year or about 26 a game. Pretty average year.
I think there are more NIs starting on defence than there has been in the past 60 years so the perception of low scoring games is not a ratio thing with only imports playing defense. It’s a coaching thing.
Coaches still press the short stuff but QBs have become so accurate that its primarily zone defenses. Calgary had the worst completion percentage in the league at 64%. That was exceptional back in the day.
Bottom line is that the game style is all on the GMs and coaches in how they want to spend their cap money. The cheapest build is a great defense. Most entertaining build is a great offense. Lions are about Offence, Argos normally about defence and the Bombers typically about balance.
It really doesn’t matter how the league changes the rules. Teams will adapt to plug the holes. For the sake of entertainment i suppose some would say that change is necessary. Some want the shiny new bauble in order to stay amused and some are happy with the old flip phones.
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