POLL: MORE CANADIANS FOLLOWING SUPER BOWL THAN GREY CUP
Millions of viewers will gather with friends and family to view one of the biggest spectacles of the year in sports this weekend – Super Bowl Sunday. The game is a largely unmatched commercial and sports extravaganza, but depending on where they are in Canada, some Canadian football fans would give it up to support their home league instead.
A new study from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds that while three-in-five football fans in Canada (62%) would choose the Super Bowl over the Grey Cup if they could only watch one, two-in-five (38%) disagree, including a majority in Alberta and the Prairies.
On a broader scale, each league has its strengths and weaknesses among the Canadian public. The aforementioned Prairie advantage is evident for the CFL, with close to twice as many Saskatchewan and Manitoba residents saying they follow that league closely (41%) than say this about the NFL (22%). That said, the American game has key strengths in Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada which will likely hearten NFL Canada executives and dismay CFL brass.
Age is also a factor. One-quarter of men aged 18 to 34 follow the NFL closely (26%) compared to just one-in-nine (11%) for the CFL. A similar ratio is evident for men 35 to 54 (34% NFL vs 19% CFL), while older men (55+) follow both leagues at an equal level, approximately three-in-ten.
Source: Angus Reid
It’s pretty much like the Canadian political scene. The west against the east. This is where I love Ralph Klien’s famous quote.
The NFL is a well run league. A NFL casual fan could tell you the season starts in early Sept, playoffs after christmas and Superbowl early Feb. Now ask 10 hardcore CFL fans today when the season starts and when the Grey Cup is this year. No one knows. Folks that work in the CFL can’t tell you when free agency actually starts or what is and isn’t tampering. When the CFL is run like a 2nd class league why wouldn’t the general public treat it like one?
It is a tribute to the CFL that it is that close. The NFL is the world’s richest sports league with a marketing budget hundreds of times, perhaps thousands of times bigger than the CFL. It is not a sign that the CFL has failed to come second to a juggernaut like that. For sure the CFL has plenty of areas to improve but the league can hold it’s head high.