Woohoo! Thanks Ricky!

For some reason—don’t ask me to explain it—this year I decided to do something rash and impulsive. I bought two season tickets for the Toronto Argonauts 2006 season.

I don’t know why I did it…I mean sure, I’m a sports fan. I follow most of the major ones and even some minor ones—I’m a homer in that I will root for any Toronto team regardless of sport or standing—and I have even dished out the shekels to watch the odd live sporting event—I’ve attended many more on someone else’s dime. But never did I expect to buy season tickets for a team in any league.

That is…never, until this year.

I mean it’s not like it’s season tickets for the Leafs or the Raptors—I couldn’t afford those in this city—the Blue Jays are a little more reasonable, but it would be too much of a commitment to go to 80+ baseball games in a year. I’ve been meaning to go to a Rock game, there are only 16 of those—i believe—but I haven’t yet, so I’m not going to risk buying season tickets to a sport that I haven’t watched live yet. So that left me with the Argos…

Let’s see, affordable? Check. A reasonable schedule? Check. A good time out? Check. A winning team? Check, check and double-check!

So I did it…

It was a very impulsive thing for me to do. Man am I glad I did it because today the Argonauts announced the signing of star NFL running back Ricky Williams! The value of my tickets just doubled. Thanks Ricky! The attendance at the Skydome—I refuse to call it the Rogers Centre—probably just went up significantly. Thanks Ricky! The Argos look like they’re going to be a better team. Thanks Ricky!

The CFL, A Brief History

The Canadian Football League (CFL) is one of the most storied leagues on the planet. It has gone through many iterations: first as Canadian Rugby Football Union (CRFU), founded in 1884, then as the Canadian Rugby Union (CRU) in 1892.

Between the 1930s and 1950s, the CRU comprised of 2 leagues, the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU). In 1956, these two leagues formed the Canadian Football Council which became the Canadian Football League two years later.

Because there were two separate leagues under the CFL umbrella, there came to be two teams with the same nickname. Both the Ottawa team and the team from Saskatchewan had the nickname Roughriders (Ottawa were the Rough Riders). I guess neither team wanted to change their name.

The league enjoyed great success in its heyday rivalling and surpassing—at times—the NFL in luring top American players to play in Canada. Things began going downhill fast in the 80s though when the NFL began getting giant TV contracts and the CFL remained mainly a gate-driven league.

In attempts to get more people in the stadia, the CFL began blacking out games on television. However this had an adverse effect when the CFL lost an entire generation of football fans to the NFL. Once NFL salaries began to rise and the CFL couldn’t keep up with the kind of money they would need to pay top football players, the CFL began to slide in popularity and attendance.

The next 20 years saw a comedy of errors in the league:

• Montreal lost their team in the early 80s;
• Winnipeg was moved to the East in order to balance the two conferences;
• Toronto made a brief comeback with an ownership team consisting of John Candy, Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall, but ended up sliding again over the next few years, despite having Doug Flutie as their quarterback;
• The league tried expanding into the US and failed miserably;
• Ottawa lost their franchise when they couldn’t find ownership;
• The Hamilton franchise was also almost lost when the league had to take over the team’s operations so that they could finish out the season;

With weak interest in Toronto and BC—Canada’s two largest markets—the league looked to be doomed.

Then things began to turn around:

• The league appointed a new commissioner named Tom Wright. Wright quickly became an advocate of instilling a league-wide strict salary cap;
• Montreal got their franchise back when the failed Baltimore franchise moved there. They tried playing in the Big O (Olympic Stadium) but finally—and smartly—decided to play in the smaller, more intimate, better situated McGill Stadium. They’ve had sellout after sellout ever since;
• BC, turned their franchise around with smart marketing and management decisions;
• Hamilton found new owners who have managed to stabilize the franchise and bring back some of its lustre;
• Ottawa got another franchise, this time they didn’t call it the Rough Riders—they’re now the Renegades—and their owners seemed to be more stable;
• Winnipeg was returned to the Western Conference;
• Toronto began turning things around by getting new owners and a better tenant deal with the Skydome, giving them a better share of the revenue. They also hired former player and super-popular guy Mike “Pinball” Clemens as their head-coach. In 2004, Toronto won the Grey Cup;
• Attendance in the league is up and now there are talks of expansion, this time to other Canadian markets such as Halifax, Quebec City and London;

Things aren’t perfect yet, the Ottawa franchise has once again been iced while they find new owners, but the league’s prospects are definitely looking up once again and I’m hoping the expansion plans go through sooner rather than later. Especially in Halifax, since then we can truly call this a coast-to-coast league.

Hey, Americans!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the game—I’m talking to my American brethren. If you’re a football fan, give the CFL a try, you might like it. There are few differences in the rules, the fields are wider and the end zones deeper, there are only 3 downs and almost unlimited movement behind the line of scrimmage. This makes for a faster-paced game with lots of passing. If that’s your thing, then you’ll love the Canadian brand of game.

Thanks Again Ricky

The signing of Ricky Williams couldn’t come at a better time with the league on a definite upswing. Let’s hope they don’t find a way to fuck things up—like they did in the past.

The way I see it, it’s a win/win situation for the league. If Williams succeeds, he will be hugely popular and perhaps he’ll even draw some attention to the league from fans south of the border. If he fails, then people will see the league for what it is—not an inferior product, but a different game, and just because you come from the NFL, doesn’t make you an automatic star in this league. Many have tried and failed.

Besides—and here is where I bring out the age-old CFL vs. NFL argument that I, as a Canadian sports fan have had to endure a million times before—why do we have to chose one over the other? Both games have their pluses and drawbacks. What’s better, the seasons hardly overlap! That means you can watch them both!

So enjoy football fans…I know I will.