So what I read today is that the Toronto ownership group wants the XFL CFL merger and doesn’t want the Argonauts to play this season. In a sense they are saying the Argonauts are done in the current CFL.

(04-14-2021 09:58 AM)No Bull Wrote:  So what I read today is that the Toronto ownership group wants the XFL CFL merger and doesn’t want the Argonauts to play this season. In a sense they are saying the Argonauts are done in the current CFL.

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment owns the Argos along with the Leafs, Raptors, and Toronto FC. They know that the Argos are the least profitable asset (of at all) and they make more money with Toronto FC.

Merger or partnership, as long as you can get them on the same field occasionally, it would work.

But they don't have to play the same schedule...

CFL can maintain their current schedule and rules...it's what works for them.

The XFL should do what works for them and play a similar schedule, but it doesn't have to align with the CFL on the calendar. That will do 2 things. 1) The respective leagues will have better opportunities to market themselves in their respective markets given the different schedules. 2) If the XFL plays more games in the Spring then the dates on TV for the combined entity would increase dramatically. So on that point alone, why not?

Basically, they need a combined TV deal across both markets. They don't actually have to play the same schedule. They don't have to use interleague play either.

What I would do is set up a game between the respective champions of each league and play by a 3rd set of rules...NFL rules.

The XFL just needs to choose some decent markets: San Diego, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, St. Louis, Memphis, Birmingham, Orlando, and Louisville. The odd team out just gets their week off when everyone else is playing.

Here's how you market it...Americans vs Canadians in a similar manner than you used to market the NL and AL against each other in baseball.

The game between the respective champions can be held in the middle of the season. Much like soccer, no one's really going to care who the representative is. They will root for their league's rep to win.

Problem number one is payroll. AAF had crazy high salaries I don’t recall the XFL pay but my recollection was it was higher than AAF.

G League pays around $35,000 per year. AHL players have a salary minimum of $47,000 so average is higher but the ECHL is around $20,000 a year. USL is less than $30,000. Triple A baseball is $14,000

AAF was paying $70,000 and playing a tiny fraction of games compared to minor league hockey, basketball, baseball and soccer. CFL average was set to be just under $52,000 US (current exchange rate) in 2020. Contrast that to the final year of Arena when pay was $750 per game that would have been $7500 for a 10 game season like AAF had.

Even as a year round gig the $15 minimum wage of some places is only $31,200.

I don’t understand the logic of paying such high salaries as AAF and XFL shelled out. Where are players going if they don’t want $35,000 a year? CFL only has around 200 slots for US players. Anything else pays peanuts per game.

I don’t think a CFL XFL merger is impossible. CFL has struggled financially with teams folding, teams being run by the league, and Saskatchewan having had two save the team telethons over the years.

I suspect some CFL owners would love to fold and move to XFL to kill their collective bargaining agreement and play 11 man football which could allow for cutting a few roster spots.

Tradition dictates the Grey Cup is played late November but attendance has tended to struggle late in the regular season which ends in October and means the season overlaps a full month of the NHL. Of course a spring start means overlapping the end of the NHL season and Stanley Cup playoffs.

Adopting US rules and reducing or even killing the Canadian player requirements to more closely align with the NFL increases the odds (however slim) of NFL player development assistance.

US stadiums able to accommodate the width and length are few. Easier to narrow the field and if you want to keep the deeper end zone as a field by field quirk you can but the goal posts have to go off the goal line for consistency, but I think they’d opt for 10 yard end zones.

You can keep the single by changing it to a kick that is caught or lands in the end zone.

The truth is the CFL’s three largest cities can’t fill their stadiums and long-term the healthy franchises are in cities that will never have NBA or MLB teams. Canada once hosted a number of minor league teams and is now down to one the High A West Vancouver Canadians with a bunch of Washington and Oregon teams.

The Super Bowl draws bigger audiences in Canada than the Stanley Cup playoffs even when a Canadian team has been involved and more than the Grey Cup. There is no disdain for US style football though the Buffalo Toronto experiment failed through a combination of fans in Toronto preferring to have their own team, games being on weeknights or the late afternoon slot and Buffalo fans not traveling for fear that if it were a success the team would move more games or move completely to Toronto.

The problem with start up football as documented in the outstanding article The Athletic did as an obit for AAF is you’ve got to make it to year 4 or 5 before you can really make it. USFL played 3 seasons, CFL America experiment last three years. WFL 1.5. XFL 1, XFL2 and AAF less than a season. AAFC made it four years with 3 of the remaining 7 teams joining the NFL and the LA Dons merging with the Rams. AFL lasted 10 years though the last four were quasi-merged even though the Super Bowl was the only inter-league competition.

TV isn’t going to pay any real money until year four. You’ve got to survive that long and establish value. The TV value is speculative until you have a track record.

There are some CFL teams that would likely benefit from a combined league. An XFL with a Seattle team would be very attractive to the BC Lions. Montreal and Toronto would certainly want to align with a New York team or even less likely cities like Buffalo and Boston.

The AAF and XFL time management rules kept games shorter and that is critical for keeping fan interest.

Starting a league 9 franchises that are mostly not rolling in money but are mostly stable is a big deal.

I suspect many CFL fans especially in the smaller markets would be vehemently opposed. Saskatchewan has struggled financially and it would likely be far easier to collect sponsor money in say Houston than in Regina a metro roughly the size of metro Fargo, ND.

I think if you see it happen it will either because the CFL owners think it’s the last hope of survival or they think this time can work and XFL would let their existing brands and equity be their entry fee in the expectation of it raising revenue and franchise value.

I’m skeptical it happens.

https://beta.ctvnews.ca/national/sports/...02896.html


You don't do that press piece if you don't feel the heat. I think the Canadians would get their way on some things (rouge, pre-snap motion, halo, some form of Canadian quota) and lose on some others (field dimensions, downs, number of players on the field).

(04-18-2021 01:54 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  Problem number one is payroll. AAF had crazy high salaries I don’t recall the XFL pay but my recollection was it was higher than AAF.

G League pays around $35,000 per year. AHL players have a salary minimum of $47,000 so average is higher but the ECHL is around $20,000 a year. USL is less than $30,000. Triple A baseball is $14,000

AAF was paying $70,000 and playing a tiny fraction of games compared to minor league hockey, basketball, baseball and soccer. CFL average was set to be just under $52,000 US (current exchange rate) in 2020. Contrast that to the final year of Arena when pay was $750 per game that would have been $7500 for a 10 game season like AAF had.

Even as a year-round gig the $15 minimum wage of some places is only $31,200.

I don’t understand the logic of paying such high salaries as AAF and XFL shelled out. Where are players going if they don’t want $35,000 a year? CFL only has around 200 slots for US players. Anything else pays peanuts per game.

I still don't consider the per game salaries which both AAF and XFL paid players were excessive, however, both paid executives and coaching staffs were much bigger drains of money to me. XFL HCs were getting $600K on average and coordinators $250K. AAF was paying $500K.

(04-27-2021 02:47 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  https://beta.ctvnews.ca/national/sports/...02896.html


You don't do that press piece if you don't feel the heat. I think the Canadians would get their way on some things (rouge, pre-snap motion, halo, some form of Canadian quota) and lose on some others (field dimensions, downs, number of players on the field).

And with XFL publicly saying their 2022 season is on hold, XFL really needs specific CFL markets, Toronto for sure, in order to get a TV contract that actually gives them revenue. It does seem that Johnson, Garcia, and RedBird overestimated the ease of getting one from an OTA provider.