THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE
1. GOVERNMENT LOAN WOULD HAVE BEEN WORSE: The CFL needs a lot of things. $30 million of debt, interest-free or not, isn’t one of them. For at least a few teams – and I would argue the entire league – playing in front of no fans in-stadium would be worse than not playing at all. If we can survive the tragedies man-kind has been forced to endure in the past 100 years, we can survive this. If cancelling the CFL season is the worst thing to happen to you in 2020, then you’ve had a pretty good year. This is a first-world problem and I’m not going to cry about this. Neither should you.
2. NOT A PARTISAN ISSUE: I would love to blame all of this on young Trudeau and his western Canada-hating Liberal advisors, but I cannot. I haven’t seen too many Members of Parliament from the other parties stepping up to ridicule the federal government for its refusal to support the Canadian Football League in its darkest hour. Not one of the parties have stepped up to help the CFL. None. Our federal politicians don’t care about our league and that’s a fact. That’s disappointing.
3. CFL WILL NOT DISAPPEAR: The big wild card is 2021. Some are predicting the league’s demise, should it have to shutter its doors for a second straight season. That’s a distinct possibility at this point but we should remember the very prudent observation made by Rider legend and one-time franchise savior Bill Baker back in the spring. CJME’s website quoted Baker as suggesting if the league had to shut down, it would only be temporary and would later re-emerge, eventually. Bill has said this about the Roughriders before, too. And he’s right. We’re not about to bulldoze these beautiful, new stadiums built in Regina, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Toronto or Ottawa. Nor are we about to close Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium or Montreal’s Molson Stadium after pouring tens of millions of dollars in renovating them over the past 20 years. Worst-case scenario: The league might have to suspend operations completely for a while. But don’t buy the ridiculous doomsday commentary about this being the end. Not even close.
4. FRANCHISES TO WORRY ABOUT: 5 franchises are completely viable. Saskatchewan, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Hamilton and Ottawa are all self-sustaining entities in a normal world. That leaves the Calgary Stampeders (who I choose to believe will be viable when they get their new park and have deep-pocketed owners to foot the bill for now), the Toronto Argonauts (who have even deeper pockets to foot the bill for now) and 2 other big problems: The BC Lions and Montreal Alouettes are cause for concern for opposite reasons. The Lions have a great, long-time owner who’s dependable as it gets. The only problem is that David Braley is 79 years old and has had a few health scares in recent years. He’ll be the first to tell you he won’t be around to absorb CFL losses forever and has had trouble finding a buyer for the Leos for years. In Montreal, the new Alouette owners from Crawford Steel look the part, act the part and appear to be in it for the long haul. Only problem is, we don’t really know these guys. It will take 5 years, at least, to really decide if these guys are the real deal or not.
5. THE CASE FOR REVENUE SHARING: As I told one rancher a few weeks back, no Toronto Argonauts, Montreal Alouettes or BC Lions would mean no Saskatchewan Roughriders. The league barely survived not having the Alouettes from 1987-1995 and the loss of Toronto or Vancouver TV markets would almost certainly put the league under. If it really came down to it and these sugar daddies in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver ever decide they’ve had enough with nobody willing or able to take their place, the CFL will be dead as we know it. The Riders, Edmonton and Winnipeg make the big profits but it’s the big 3 who bring in the corporate dollars and TV audience. None of those 6 franchises are any more or less important than the other, including the Riders.
6. EXPANSION AND STADIUM CONSTRUCTION PART OF SOLUTION: You’ll never convince me that new baseball stadiums to replace the diamonds we have in Saskatchewan for the Western Canada Baseball League won’t be good for Regina, Weyburn, Swift Current and maybe even Moose Jaw or Yorkton. Building new stadiums for the Atlantic Schooners and Montreal Expos will be a desperately needed boost to not only the economies of these regions but the quality of life in these places, too. If Canadians and sports fans ever needed this at all, they need it now more than ever.
7. FINISH LINE IS NEAR: Health officials have asked us to bear with this as best we can until late 2020 or even mid-2021. We’re about halfway, give or take. If this is the worst I have to survive, then I’m pretty lucky. I wake up every morning with anxiety for everybody who hasn’t been so lucky. I’m worried about our economy and our mental health surviving all of this. But I’m proud of our world for bending so much to do the right thing. Unlike the United States, our society values health and wellness over commerce. This isn’t something to criticize. It’s something to be proud of.
8. FAKE NEWS: Saw one suggestion last week that our governments should lie to us the way they do in other countries, like Russia, so we can all “get on with our lives”. How ridiculous. Do you like to be lied to? Do you want our country to be more like Russia? Didn’t think so. The answer to corrupt government is not more corrupt government. Our friends south of the border are learning that the hard way right now. Covid-19 is real and not made up. Our case count is low, which is a good thing. This isn’t cause for criticism.
9. LOCAL LIVE SPORTS NEEDS BETTER TV PRODUCTION: For local sports to survive long-term, particularly in a post-coronavirus pandemic world, better quality production is needed to make it a revenue source for the WHL, the WCBL, the SJHL, senior hockey and so on. If the last 6 months have taught us anything, it’s to embrace technology and the digital age.
10. GREAT YOUTUBE MOVIE: The Great Brady Heist is a mind-blowing film surrounding the journey to recoup Tom Brady’s stolen jersey from Super Bowl 51. I was absolutely glued to it as the film grabbed my short millennial-sized attention span and held it hostage for nearly an entire hour. “This is what I miss about football!”, I shouted when I jumped from my couch at the end. You might like it, too.
(Follow Brendan on Twitter at @brendanhowardmc)
