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The Canadian Football League (CFL), also known by its French name, Ligue canadienne de football (LCF), is a professional sports league located in Canada that plays Canadian football, and is the second most popular sports league in Canada.[1] Its eight teams, located in eight different cities, are divided into two divisions (East and West), with each division containing four teams. During the league's nineteen-week regular season, which runs from the Canada Day weekend to early November, each team plays eighteen games, and rests during one bye week. In November, following the regular season, six of the eight teams compete in the league's three-week long playoffs, which culminate in the Grey Cup championship.
HistoryEarly historyImage:Cfl logo-60s.jpg CFL logo from 1958 to 1969 The first Canadian football teams played under the auspices of the Canadian Rugby Football Union (CRFU), founded in 1884. However this union quickly folded and was reorganized as the Canadian Rugby Union in 1892. The CRU was an umbrella organization that several leagues were part of. From the 1930s to the 1950s the two senior leagues of the CRU (the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union and the Western Interprovincial Football Union) gradually evolved from amateur to professional leagues. They found they had less and less in common with the amateur leagues and consequently in 1956 formed a new umbrella organization, called the Canadian Football Council. And in 1958 it left the CRU altogether and was renamed the Canadian Football League. Initially, there was no interdivisional play between eastern and western teams except at the Grey Cup final. Limited interlocking play was introduced in 1961 and by 1981 there was a full interlocking schedule of 16 games a season. The separate histories of the IRFU and the WIFU accounted for the fact that 2 teams had basically the same nickname. To tell the two apart, the IRFU's Ottawa Rough Riders (always 2 separate words) were often called the "Eastern Riders", while the WIFU's Saskatchewan Roughriders (always one word) were called the "Western Riders" or "Green Riders". Other team nicknames had unusual yet traditional origins. With rowing a national craze in the late 1800s, the Argonaut Rowing Club of Toronto formed a rugby team for its members' off-season participation, and the Club nickname remains with the team. After World War II, the two teams in Hamilton--the Tigers and the Wildcats--merged both their organizations and their nicknames, forming the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Image:CFL logo (1970-2002).gif CFL logo from 1970-2002.[2] Attempts at expansion into the United States
The 1995 season saw the loss of the Posse and the move of the Gold Miners to San Antonio, while the Birmingham Barracudas and Memphis Mad Dogs were added (Teams were also considered for Orlando and Miami). However, fan interest in Canadian football, with the possible exception of the Stallions, was sparse at best. At the end of the year, which saw the Stallions become the first American team to win the Grey Cup, all but the Stallions and the San Antonio Texans folded because of financial difficulties. When the National Football League announced that a new team was to be added in Baltimore, the Stallions looked at possibly relocating to nearby Richmond, Virginia, but nothing could be worked out so the team would later move to Montreal (renamed the Alouettes). The Texans would later fold with a similar explanation. Recent historyAfter three seasons of American teams, the CFL returned to an all-Canadian format in 1996 with nine teams; however, the Ottawa Rough Riders folded following the season. In 2002 the league expanded back to nine teams with the expansion Ottawa Renegades. After playing four seasons, the Renegades were suspended for the 2006 season after sustaining millions of dollars in losses in their four seasons, and their players were absorbed by the remaining teams in a dispersal draft. In 2003, the league struck a committee to examine the feasibility of adding a tenth team, with the leading candidate cities being Quebec City and Halifax.[3] Exhibition games were held in Quebec City in 2003[4] and in Halifax in 2005. The Halifax event, dubbed Touchdown Atlantic, was scheduled to repeat in 2006 but was cancelled after the suspension of the Ottawa Renegades franchise.[5] Commissioner Tom Wright had indicated that Halifax was the leading candidate for expansion.[6] PopularityImage:Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton, August 2005.jpg Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium is the largest venue in the CFL and the only one with a natural grass playing surface. Although ice hockey is currently Canada's most popular sport, the CFL is highly popular in Quebec and west of Ontario, and western franchises generally enjoy a greater level of support than Ontario teams. However, since the 2004 season, both Toronto and Hamilton have seen a resurgence in attendance, with Toronto drawing upwards of 32,000 people a game. The BC Lions franchise has also seen a recent resurgence of fan support, going from 14,000 people per game to over 30,000 in just a couple of years, which many attribute to proper on-field and off-field management. The Edmonton Eskimos regularly boast the league's highest average attendance, drawing around 40,000 people per game (Vancouver's BC Place Stadium, Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, and Toronto's Rogers Centre being the only stadiums that seat 40,000+). Saskatchewan Roughriders fans are known for their loyalty and for attending Roughriders games at stadiums across the country. Football has been gaining in popularity in Quebec with the recent success of the Alouettes, and Quebec university football teams now lead the country in attendance and on the field, with Laval University, the University of Montreal and Concordia University consistently in the top ten in the country. In Southern Ontario, the CFL is recovering from the bankruptcy that plagued the Toronto and Hamilton teams in the 2003 season. Both teams have improved their attendance figures dramatically since the 2003 season. A recent survey conducted at the University of Lethbridge confirmed that the CFL is the second most popular league in Canada, with the following of 19% of the total adult Canadian population compared to 30% for the NHL. The NFL had 13% following, with a total of 24% following at least one of the pro football leagues. This could be interpreted to mean that approximately 80% of Canadian football fans follow the CFL and about 55% follow the NFL.[7] In 2005, the league set an all-time attendance record with a total attendance of more than 2.3 million.[8] With the absence of Ottawa in 2006, the league recorded total regular season attendance of 2,112,696 - enough to increase the average per-game attendance to 29,343. This is the third highest per-game attendance of any North American sports league and the sixth highest per-game attendance of any sports league worldwide. Season structureImage:Anthony Calvillo game action, 93rd Grey Cup.jpg Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo looks down field with the ball during the 2005 Grey Cup game against the Edmonton Eskimos at BC Place. Image:RussJacksonRoughRiders.jpg Russ Jackson circa 1969. Considered by many the best Canadian quarterback of all time, he led the Ottawa Rough Riders to three Grey Cup championships. As of 2007, The CFL season includes:
Note: after this season (2007), it is possible that the CFL will return to its old season format with the return of the Ottawa team, that format is a 2-game, 3-week preseason, 20 (18 games, 2 byes) week regular season, and the same playoffs as above. Exhibition seasonTeam training camps open in May, with pre-season exhibition games beginning in early June. The pre-season schedule is two weeks long with each team paired with another in its division for one home game and one away game. Regular seasonThe regular season is twenty weeks long, with games beginning by late June and finishing by early November. With 9 teams, the season format had each team playing 18 games over this 20 week span, thus giving each team at least 2 bye weeks, while one team played 2 games in one week at some point during the schedule because of the odd number of teams. With short notice after the suspension of the Ottawa Renegades prior to the 2006 season, the CFL kept the 20 week, 18 game schedule by playing eight three-game weekends during the 2006 season, thus mainting two bye weeks for all eight teams. Teams are divided into two divisions: the East Division and West Division, with four teams in each division. Each team plays one home game and one away game against each team in the opposite division, three games (2 home/1 road or 1 home/2 road) against two division rivals, and a double home-and-home (four games) against one division rival. For 2006, the double home-and-home pairings are BC–Saskatchewan, Calgary–Edmonton, Montreal–Winnipeg, and Toronto–Hamilton. A featured week in the CFL season is the Labour Day Classic, played over the course of the Labour Day weekend (typically Week 10 in the regular season), where the matchups feature the first half of home-and-home series between the traditional geographic rivalries of Toronto–Hamilton (a rivalry which began in 1873[9]), Edmonton–Calgary (see Battle of Alberta), and Winnipeg–Saskatchewan. The following week's rematch of these games is a popular event as well, especially in recent years, where the rematch of the Saskatchewan-Winnipeg game has been dubbed the Banjo Bowl. Other featured weekends in the CFL season are the Canada Day Bash (weekend of July 1) and the Thanksgiving Day Classic. Unlike the Labour Day games, however, the matchups do not always feature traditional rivalries and the games are not usually as popular. PlayoffsThe playoffs begin in November. After the regular season, the top team from each division has an automatic home game berth in the Division Final, and a bye week during the Division Semifinal. The second-place team from each division hosts the third-place team in the Division Semifinal, unless the fourth-place team from the opposite division finishes with a better record (this provision is known as the crossover rule, and while it implies that it is possible for two teams in the same division to play for the Grey Cup, no crossover team has ever won the Semifinal game). The winners of each Division's Semifinal game then travel to play the first place teams in the Division Finals. Since 2005, the Division Semifinals and Division Finals have been sponsored by Scotiabank and are branded as the "Scotiabank East Championship" and "Scotiabank West Championship".[10] The two division champions then face each other in the Grey Cup game, which is held on the third or fourth Sunday of November. Grey CupThe Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the CFL and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. The Grey Cup game is hosted in one of the league's member cities. In recent years, it has been hosted in a different city every year, selected two or more years in advance. The 2006 Grey Cup game was held in Winnipeg on November 19, 2006, where the BC Lions defeated the Montreal Alouettes by a score of 25-14. The 2007 Grey Cup game will be held in Toronto on November 25, 2007. The Grey Cup has long served as an unofficial Canadian autumn festival generating national media coverage and a large amount of revenue for the host city. Many fans travel from across the country to attend the game and the week of festivities that lead up to it. Television and radioThe principal television broadcasters are TSN (who began televising CFL games in 1985) and CBC, while RDS broadcasts Montreal Alouettes games in French for the Quebec television market.[11] Games are typically scheduled for Thursday to Saturday evenings during June, July and August, but switch to more Saturday and Sunday afternoon games during September and October.[12] TSN has created a tradition of at least one Friday night game each week, branded as Friday Night Football, while CBC airs at least one game every Saturday. CBC and TSN drew record television audiences for CFL broadcasts in 2005.[13] The 2006 season was the first season in which every regular season game was televised, as the league implemented an instant replay challenge system.[14] In 2006, the CFL also began offering pay-per-view webcasts of every game on CFL Broadband.[15] CBC and RDS are the exclusive television broadcasters for all playoff games, including the Grey Cup, which regularly draws a Canadian viewing audience in excess of 4 million.[16] Starting in 2008, TSN will be the exclusive provider of televised football, playoffs and the Grey Cup as part of a massive rights agreement. The five-year agreement, which includes an option for a sixth year, cuts out the CBC completely as a CFL broadcaster. The CBC network has been airing CFL games since 1952, when it showed the first televised Grey Cup game. The 2007 season will be its last. TSN, along with its French language arm RDS, will pay the league about $16-million annually, or $2-million for each club. They will also provide broadband broadcasts via the internet. It means that starting in 2008, Canadians will not be able to watch the CFL on terrestrial TV, although the move to TSN all but assures that all CFL games will be in high definition.[17] As of 2007, TSN was available in about 8.8 million of Canada's 13 million households. [1] Teams have local broadcast contracts with terrestrial radio stations for regular season and playoff games, while Corus Entertainment owns the rights to the Grey Cup. In 2006, Sirius Satellite Radio Canada gained exclusive rights for North American CFL satellite radio broadcasts and will broadcast 25 CFL games per season including the Grey Cup through 2008.[18] In the United States, CFL games are broadcast on America One, which feeds the broadcasts to regional cable outlets, such as NESN and Comcast Sportsnet.[19] In Europe, games are available on NASN.[20] From 1962 through 1986, CBC and CTV simulcast the Grey Cup. For 1962, 1965, 1967, 1968 and 1970, CTV commentators were used for the dual network telecast. In 1963, 1964, 1966 and 1969, CBC announcers were provided. From 1971 through 1986, the two networks fully pooled their commentary teams for the game. One crew called the first half while the other called the rest of the game. After the 1986 season, CTV dropped coverage of the CFL and the Grey Cup. From 1987 through 1990, the CFL formed its own syndicated network, CFN. CFN had completely separate coverage of the Grey Cup, utilizing its own production and commentators. Players and compensationThe CFL will begin enforcing a salary cap for the 2007 season of $4.05 million per team. Financial penalties for teams that breach the cap set at $1 to $1 for the first $100,000 over, $2 to $1 for $100,000 to $300,000 over, and $3 to $1 for $300,000 and above. Penalties could also include forfeited draft picks.[21] Also in 2006, the active roster limit was increased from 40 to 42. The "import/non-import ratio", which required teams to keep at least 20 non-import (Canadian-born or Canadian-trained) players on their active roster, was increased to 21. Teams may have up to 4 players on their reserve roster, and up to 7 on their practice roster.[21] Eligible non-imports (usually, players having played CIS football, or Canadians playing American college football) are drafted by teams in the annual Canadian College Draft. An exceptionally talented non-import player in the locale of a team may be claimed as a "territorial exemption" and sign with that team before beginning collegiate play (one recent example is Mike Maurer, who was signed by Saskatchewan as a territorial exemption in 1997[22]). Teams maintain "negotiation lists" of import players that they wish to sign as free agents. CFL players are represented by the Canadian Football League Players Association (CFLPA). Each team elects two players to the CFLPA Board of Player Representatives, which meets once per year. Every two years, it elects an executive Board of Directors.[23] TeamsDefunct teams
Notes
Commissioners
Comparisons with the NFLIn the days when sports teams were financed almost entirely by ticket sales; the CFL and NFL were, financially speaking, on relatively equal footing, and the CFL could sign top U.S. college football stars such as Johnny Rodgers and Joe Theismann. In fact, during the 1950s and 1960s exhibition games were played between CFL and NFL/AFL teams using a mixture of rules. The last such exhibition game saw the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats defeat the AFL's Buffalo Bills, the only time in which a Canadian team defeated an American team in those series. As late as the 1970s and early 1980s when high-capacity stadiums were built in Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver and Toronto's stadiums were expanded, people such as Montreal Alouettes owner Nelson Skalbania continued to believe that relative parity could be sustained so long as the CFL could get larger stadiums built in its other cities and sell them out. However, by the 1980s it became clear that financial parity between the two leagues was not going to be maintained - not so much because of the disparity in attendance figures as due to the NFL's increasingly lucrative television contracts that now bring in a majority of the NFL's revenue. The CFL could not hope to negotiate similar contracts with Canadian networks because the U.S. television market is more than ten times the size of Canada's. A notable exception to this trend occurred in 1991 when the deep-pocketed owners of the Toronto Argonauts (tycoon Bruce McNall, actor John Candy, and hockey star Wayne Gretzky) signed US College star Raghib "Rocket" Ismail to the then unheard of sum $18.2 million spread over four years, but this did not prove to be sustainable and Ismail left for the NFL after two seasons. Currently, the difference in average salaries between the CFL and NFL is significant, with only a handful of CFL players making more than the NFL minimum. While the general consensus among football fans is that the average NFL player is more talented than the average CFL player, the disparity in talent is not nearly as great as the disparity in salaries. Due to the difference in rules and field size between the two leagues, they are mostly not in competition for the same types of players. For this reason, there are few players who have played in both leagues, and even fewer who have managed success in both leagues. It is so rare, in fact, that only one man has been elected to both the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and the US Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player, quarterback Warren Moon, though Bud Grant has been elected to both halls as a coach. Of course, there are other cases of CFLers going to the NFL and having success. Examples of this include Pro Bowlers Joe Horn, Jeff Garcia, Brendon Ayanbadejo and Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie. There have also been a few cases of NFL stars coming to the CFL and failing to excel, such as NFL Rushing Champion Ricky Williams[25] and 5-time Pro Bowl Wide Receiver Andre Rison, who was cut from the Toronto Argonauts. Because size is not valued as much as mobility on the larger Canadian field, CFL teams are constantly on the hunt for skilled players who are cut from their NFL teams for being undersized.[5] The signing of Williams by Toronto following his drug-related suspension from the NFL created a degree of controversy. To avoid such controversy in the future, and to maintain good relations with the NFL, the CFL will not allow players suspended by the NFL to play in the league, effective for the 2007 season.[26] See also
Canadian Football League
East Division: Hamilton • Montreal • Toronto • Winnipeg
Stadiums: BC Place • Canad Inns • Commonwealth • Ivor Wynne • McMahon • Molson • Mosaic • Olympic • Rogers Centre
Defunct, Renamed and Relocated Teams: Atlantic Schooners • Baltimore • Birmingham • Las Vegas • Memphis • Montreal Concordes • Ottawa Rough Riders • Sacramento • San Antonio • Shreveport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
