The cup may be grey, but the future of the Canadian Football League looks bright.
This weekend’s 99th Grey Cup is sold out. Attendance is on the rise. Stadiums are being revamped and new teams are on the horizon.
As the Grey Cup says farewell to this century, the league seems to be on a long drive into a golden age.
“(What) we’ve been able to work with our franchises on is bring the pride back; the pride of being Canadian, the pride in what it means to celebrate something that is important to the country,” says CFL commissioner Mark Cohon.
Attendance rose 2.4 per cent as more than two million Canadians went out to games to cheer on their favourite teams this year.
There are renewed stadiums in Vancouver, Montreal and Edmonton, a new stadium to be built in Winnipeg, and eventually one in Hamilton.
People are making money on Canadian football – in some cases, lots of it. Six out of eight of the league’s teams make money or at least broke even. The community-owned Saskatchewan Roughriders even doubled their profit last year from $3.1 million to $6.6 million.
“You’ve got everything from good market conditions, to stable ownership, to frankly, a pretty good product on the field,” says the Conference Board of Canada’s chief economist Glen Hodgson, a Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan, who recently did an in-depth study into the pro sports market in Canada.
The turnover comes after dark days in the 1990s, a decade plagued by setbacks.
An experiment to expand into the United States failed in 1996 after just three seasons.
That same year the Ottawa Roughriders took a knee, leaving the league due to ownership problems, decrepit facilities and a lack of fan support. The team’s reinvention as the Ottawa Renegades in 2002 also failed after just four seasons.
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The fumbled expansion wreaked havoc on the league’s finances, forcing it to take a $3-million interest-free loan from the NFL in 1997 in exchange for access to CFL players.
The athletes played a key role in keeping the league going, taking pay cuts while still trying to excel on the field, according to Mike Morreale of the CFL Players Association.
“One of its strongest attributes if you ask anyone would be its players and their resolve over the years when the league wasn’t doing so well, changes we had to make and other players had to make to try and keep the league afloat,” he said.
Those days seem to be in the past with the CFL now bolstered by an offensive line that includes high attendance, strong television ratings, stable ownership, revamped facilities and new marketing.
The league has worked hard to remind Canadians of its long-standing place in Canadian sporting history, adopting the slogan: “This is our league.”
“When they did that there was an embrace by the fans,” says Morreale.
It was a move propelled by the players themselves, who are known for their interaction with their fans and community.
“The league found a good way of showcasing the talent, the accessibility and the brand to the fans, and players kept the course,” he said. “They knew that eventually it would get better and they always came to play and were the first ones on the field and the last ones off signing autographs.”
The result has been hundreds of thousands of dollars in increased revenue, according to Morreale.
Hodgson says it is not just the league that is being revived. Individual franchises are also making a comeback.
“In Saskatchewan, the Roughriders have never been more popular. In Winnipeg the Bombers have been selling out all season. Calgary and Edmonton are both good markets. B.C. has a new field,” he said.
It’s a reality made possible by owners with deep pockets, he says.
Three of the league’s eight teams are owned by the community, while the others are held by wealthy owners with a commitment to Canadian football.
Hodgson’s analysis suggests the CFL generates annual revenues between $120 million and $150 million.
The league is even poised for expansion, this time within Canada. With an ownership group in place, Ottawa is on the roster for a new team by 2014.
Hodgson’s study shows that London, Moncton and Quebec City could also be fertile ground for new franchises as long as they can find a stadium and owners.
Despite the progress, challenges still remain, particularly when it comes to wooing fans in the country’s most populous region.
Attendance at Toronto Argonaut’s game has been tanking, while the Hamilton Ticats continue to post a losing record. Both teams also continue to post financial losses.
“Our biggest opportunity is clearly in southern Ontario,” says Cohon. “The 100th Grey Cup is going to give us a real opportunity to ignite some passion in Toronto in fans in the nation’s biggest city.”
While they remain strong, television ratings have also seen a mysterious drop in ratings in 2011.
Whatever the condition of the league, the Grey Cup’s popularity in Canada has always been assured. The trophy has been handed out since 1909, originally dedicated to the top amateur rugby football team in the nation.
Over time, it became the top prize for the CFL, and a de facto rallying point to celebrate Canadian heritage.
“There is just this pride in what it means to the country,” Cohon says. “Through the ups and downs people still rallied to the Grey Cup.”
Although it might come as a surprise to hockey fans, the Grey Cup game is the most-watched annual sports event in Canada, snagging a record 6.4 million viewers in 2009.
“(The Super Bowl) really is a celebration of Americana and the Grey Cup is about Canadiana in its own strange way,” says Hodgson.
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