It’s the news that CFL fans have been waiting to hear: the league is coming back in August.
There’s still a lot that needs to happen first, and a lot that can go wrong, but the league’s board of governors has approved a 14-game regular season that will begin in early August.
Teams now have less than two months to fill out their rosters, get the players across the border, holding training camps, and get ready to play.
Yes, teams have some players on contracts signed before COVID, and yes, there was free agency this past winter, but it’s still going to assemble rosters for 2021.
CFL teams are often criticized for roster turnover, but it will be especially pronounced this season.
Programs, can’t tell the players without a program. Or without the CFL app on your phone.
Once the season does begin, you’ll see varying capacities for games. The Government of Saskatchewan has said that it hopes to have capacity crowds for Rider games this season; in fact, it hopes to have all crowd restrictions lifted before August. We’ll see if other markets in the league have similar attitudes.
It’s not a coincidence that many of the games in the first weeks of the season are in the west, while teams in Ontario get home games later in the season.
League finances will take a hit this season, which is to be expected in a gate-driven league that will have a reduced schedule and reduced capacities.
But at least we know there will be a season, and hopefully we can end the speculation that this venerable league, which has a history that dates back more than 100 years through its various forms, is finished.
I’m pretty much a lifelong CFL guy. Thanks for that one, Dad. I knew about three-down football before I knew about the four-down game, and I knew who Matt Dunigan and Roy Dewalt were before I knew the name of Joe Montana.
My first live sporting event was a B.C. Lions home game during Expo ’86. Some of my most cherished sports memories are from the CFL, most notably attending three Grey Cups, and watching the Lions beat the Baltimore CFLers in the 1994 Grey Cup (even if I wasn’t at the game).
When you think about it, it’s pretty incredible that the CFL has been through so much, has survived so much, and is still here. Not many leagues have contracted 33 per cent of their teams in one offseason and lived to tell about it.
There likely isn’t an independent, non-major, professional league in North America that has the longevity of the CFL, or that can say it’s the second best league for its sport in the world. To top it off, it’s based solely in a country with less than 40 million people.
And yet I won’t spend a lot of time watching games once the season begins. I’m excited we have football to entertain us again. I’m just not going to go out of my way to watch games in August.
I’m at the stage in my life where if it’s a beautiful summer night outside, I don’t want to be inside. Even if I’m merely sitting on my covered patio, I’d far rather do that than be indoors and watching something on TV.
(Maybe I’ll have to listen to a CFL game on a radio broadcast).
Give me a beautiful Saskatchewan evening, with a view of the valley from my third floor patio, and a cold Saskatchewan craft beer within reach, and I’m in some form of a happy place. It’s as close to relaxed as my ADHD-fuelled mind will get.
Now, if I’m spending that nice Saskatchewan evening at Mosaic Stadium, with 30,000 fans, watching the Riders play, having my second hot dog and Saskatchewan beer of the night, well, that’s a pretty good use of a night. (Maybe I’ll be wearing my B.C. Lions jersey).
Sitting inside watching TSN? Not a good use of a summer night.
Once the fall arrives and the temperatures become cooler and the daylight hours wane, that’s when I’m glad I’ll have a CFL season to watch.
The Grey Cup on Dec. 12? That’ll feel a little weird.
But our league is back. And for that, we should be thankful.
Hopefully, it’s here to stay, and we can put to rest any speculation about its future.
