The TV ratings for those games should be interesting, the west final was one of the most riveting playoff games I've ever seen. It brought back memories of the 1994 west final between BC and Calgary which stands out in my mind as one of the all time top barnburners. That one was more of an offensive shootout, but the hyper dramatic ending was similar to what we saw in Regina yesterday.

Was that when BC caught a touchdown in the snow in Calgary to win?

Yeah, that was a crazy see saw battle where Darren Flutie made a spectacular catch to get within striking distance and then caught one right after that in the endzone for the win.

The Lions had a wild playoff run that year...a week later it was Passaglia kicking a field goal at home to win it all.

Yes! Aand that was one of the years the Canucks made it to game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

In the heart of the American experiment.

TV ratings: Bombers, Riders yields largest CFL Finals number in recent years
Justin Dunk 3downnation November 18, 2019

The Farmers’ Almanac was right: Winnipeg and Saskatchewan produced a high yield.

It was the first West Final between the prairie rivals since 1972 and the Bombers scored a 20-13 win against the Riders in a game which came down to the final play — drama helps boost audiences. Forget sports it was the highest rated English language program on television Sunday, November 17.

Division Finals Sunday TV ratings 2019:

Edmonton at Hamilton — 898,400 (not including RDS)
Winnipeg at Saskatchewan — 1,631,900 (not including RDS)
Average: 1,265,150

2018
Hamilton at Ottawa — 729,000
Winnipeg at Calgary — 1,222,030
Average: 974,650

2017
Saskatchewan at Toronto — 1,406,000
Edmonton at Calgary — 1,337,000
Average: 1,371,500

2016
Edmonton at Ottawa — 1,178,100
B.C. at Calgary– 1,049,000
Average: 1,113,550

Very good ratings especially in the age of cable cord cutting just wish the CFL would post their streaming numbers as I know more and more fans watch that way in increasing numbers every year.

drone footage
 

Some pretty cool drone footage and camera work was happening at the CFL West Final in Regina last Sunday. Here a news item from CTV showing the operations:

https://regina.ctvnews.ca/video?binId=1.1165847



https://i.imgur.com/guOP5nf.jpg?1

(above post)

https://regina.ctvnews.ca/regina-pro...hots-1.4691479

I posted a video from that company quite a while ago, they do really good work. The league has to use resources like this to stay competitive. TSN productions have gotten stale and for no good reason, they desperately need this type of thing, and it pays dividends. People will watch a well made professional production and these technologies greatly add to that.

The first video that was mistakenly posted really shows why the Riders are so popular.

I would guess that RDS probably wouldn't add any more than 50-100,000 to those totals at the most.

Also wouldn't be surprised if the Vanier Cup on Saturday gets higher ratings in Quebec than the Grey Cup does on Sunday.

In other news, RDS tweeted today that their Alouettes TV ratings were up a whopping (at least I think it's "whopping") 20% this season compared to the last.

Montreal had a compelling team this year, they were fun to watch, the ratings increase doesn't surprise me at all. I think the upcoming years will be kind to the Als after so many bad news years.

That would get RDS numbers back up to what they were around 2015. 29% decline in 2016 in addition to a 5% increase in 2018.

Vanier Cup, Grey Cup pairing in the works; must happen for future growth
Justin Dunk 3downnation November 21, 2019

The Vanier Cup and Grey Cup need to be paired again for the betterment of football across Canada at the university and professional levels.

Fortunately, Canadian Football League commissioner Randy Ambrosie feels the same way. After Ambrosie was installed as commish in July 2017, discussions surrounding the unification of football country-wide accelerated. A major focus has been bringing the USports national championship and the CFL title game back together on the same weekend.

The league wants to align the dates of its schedule with the Vanier Cup and plans are being made for the Grey Cup to move up one week in 2020. That means USports and its conferences would have to move accordingly to match with the CFL.

If the proposed partnership (which is currently in progress) moves forward and is finalized, the Vanier Cup would be played in Saskatoon the Saturday of Grey Cup weekend (November 21, 2020). Discussions between the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Roughriders are serious with multiple meetings having already taken place to go over the details.

Griffiths Stadium was the venue for the last Vanier Cup on the prairies in which Laval University defeated Saskatchewan by a score of 13-8 to win the 2006 national title. The Grey Cup took place at old Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg that year with the events planned by the CIS and CFL, respectively.

The difference in the new incarnation would see the Riders take the lead on planning how the Vanier Cup integrates with their vision of Grey Cup week across Saskatchewan. The long-term success of the Vanier Cup hinges on guaranteeing a built-in football audience: the same people who attend Grey Cup every year.

The exclusive CFL broadcast rights holder — TSN — are an integral component of the partnership between USports and the pro three-down league. When TSN last produced Vanier Cup broadcasts the ratings increased exponentially.

An average national English audience of 660,000 watched the 2011 game at B.C. Place Stadium with close to three million tuning in to watch at least part of McMaster’s double overtime victory over Laval. In 2012, there were 502,000 viewers with the French average audience checking in at 408,000, a combined total of 910,000.

Based on the pure numbers, TSN has proven the network can grow interest in USports football. If the deal comes to fruition, the Vanier Cup would return to TSN along with Bowl games while conference championships and select events could be brought to TSN’s digital platform.

It’s a very comprehensive partnership from all sides, even getting down to the field level with USports schools using the CFL stats platform. TSN and the CFL recently agreed to a six-year contract extension on their rights deal that runs through 2027. So it’s only common sense to pull the two entities together on the football hungry network.

Conversations are ongoing in Quebec City and Calgary as the partnership works towards becoming finalized. For football to continue growing in Canada, it’s beneficial to be tied together at all levels.

Media are reporting sluggish ticket sales for the Vanier Cup in Quebec City this year.

Not shocking with Laval out

I noticed this bit in the article:

That's news to me.

The extension is longer than the original deal of five years (which was extended by an additional two years a couple years later). These extensions sound like TV revenue stability but also TV revenue stagnation.

I thought the CFL and TSN announced an extension of their deal a few months ago? Guess it was a Mandela effect.

The fact they aren't releasing the financial details does suggest stagnation, which is bad for the league. With attendance dropping TV revenues need to grow, and small international deals probably aren't going to cut it.

Deal is for $300 million it was announced earlier this year but I think they did the more formal announcement this week during grey cup for more media buzz. The clubs will get $1.5 million more annually per year out of the new agreement.

We had Randy Ambrosie speak at a company function last month. Really cool guy, lots of good football stories. Liked when he said "I got up in the morning and I wanted to hit someone". Boss didn't like when I said out loud "I hear ya" lol.

Sounds like National Media is trying to build off of Saskatchewan, Canada's football Hotbed, by make the most of Grey Cup in Regina next year and having Vanier Cup to integrate with by planning the USports Football Championship in Saskatoon next year as well.

The strong football culture in the Province in the last couple of weeks include:

University of Saskatchewan's Huskies playing in Hardy Cup last weekend...

...plus the Saskatoon Hilltops continued their Dynasty of Championships by winning their sixth consecutive Canadian Bowl (& their 9th Championship win in the last ten years) by beating the London Ontario Beefeaters 51 to 1 as well as winning the Championship game against the Langley Rams in the 112th Canadian Bowl last weekend.:tup:

https://i.imgur.com/bvErVct.png

https://www.ckom.com/2019/11/16/hill...canadian-bowl/

Having the Vanier Cup in Saskatoon defeats the purpose of including it as part of Grey Cup Week, IMO. If these events share the same audience, either that audience will remain in Regina for the Grey Cup Festival (which the league places a huge emphasis on now) or they'll leave what is usually the biggest night of the Festival to drive three hours to Saskatoon.

I'm all for the Riders branding next year's Grey Cup as a "Saskatchewan" event, but the logistics don't work out for this. If it's part of Grey Cup Weekend, it should be in Regina aling with the Festival.

Totally agree. Congregate all football fans of Canada in one city for one weekend. Put the Vanier Cup in Regina on the Saturday night before Grey Cup, as they did very successfully in Vancouver a few years back. Saskatoon does not have a suitable stadium for a championship game. Mosaic Stadium in Regina can showcase university football in a bigtime stadium and easily attract a crowd of 20-25,000, followed by 35,000 for the Grey Cup.

Watching the Vanier Cup on CBC Gem's streaming service. Decent game so far with UofC Dinos leading the UofM Carabins 13-7 at half time.

With streaming, there should be a natural fit with USports and CBC. The universities could use their own A/V folks to produce the games and run the PBP during the regular season and then get the professionals in there for the championships. The reason why there is no real following of USports is because there is no exposure of the games during the regular season and therefore we have no idea who these players are.
And the CBC doesn't have to concentrate only on football, they could show all the sports that USports produces. This would also fit into the CBC mandate.

Keith Urban looking forward to Grey Cup, wants to put on high energy halftime show
tsn.ca November 24 2019

Before he takes the stage at halftime of the 107th Grey Cup, country music superstar Keith Urban spoke to the media about his excitement for Sunday, what the fans can expect from his show, what he's learned about the CFL and more.

Urban seems like a good guy, should be a good show
Calgary at present: 6 degrees, wind 14k, 30% chance of showers

I heard attendance for the Vanier Cup was around 8700. Pretty disappointing.

Not really a good idea to hold it two years in a row in the same city.

And this was with Montreal playing with their campus just 220 km away.

Imagine if it had been Calgary vs Acadia.

that might dampen the idea of Quebec city being a viable CFL market in the future.

I wouldn't think so. (Not that I think a team is coming there anyway.)

I get the feeling this could be a popular GC. My TSN streams keep going down and that usually doesn't happen, I'd say they are busy. Turning down my resolution to stay connected, I'm likin' the pregame band (especially the funky drummer) :).

The only time a CFL city hosts a game with the home team not participating it's the Grey Cup. QC can support CFL and would imo.

Lowest jobless rate in the country

Highest CHL attendance

Highest U Sport attendance

Nordiques when they were there sold out almost every single game even in their worst years

The only thing that is missing is a 25,000-seat stadium. (Which I think is unlikely to get built BTW.)

Tim Hortons Field only had 7100 in 2016 and just over 10,000 the next year and no one suggests Hamilton should lose it's CFL team. Laval fans are rightfully spoiled by their team and maybe after so many times hosting it recently (6 out of 11 games), they aren't as interested in attending a game without their team involved. I don't think that reflects in any way whether QC could and would support a CFL team. I think they would be a better choice than Halifax honestly.

THF opened in 2014. The Labour Day game was the first event at the stadium that year, and some of the seating was not yet open to fans; just over 18k were watching. At season's end the full capacity was available (Wikipedia page shows the progression of game attendance; so does CFLdb)

Between 2015 and 2019 paid attendance has ranged between 23,000 and 24,000+
https://stats.cfldb.ca/team/hamilton...ts/attendance/

I know but I think he was talking about the Vanier Cup.

Vanier Cups in Quebec are basically a gamble that Laval will make it. I am not the least bit surprised that fans there wouldn't be interested in some other matchup.

Let's face it, the only way the Vanier draws well is when the host city is in it, or more to the point, when it's in the same place as the Grey Cup and tickets for both events are bundled together.

I think this is why Winnipeg has never hosted the Vanier... it would going all in on the Bisons making it, because otherwise there would probably only be 5,000 fans in the stands. Maybe a few more if one of the Sask teams made it, since that's a driveable distance.

At least in a place like Toronto or Hamilton it's close to a bunch of U Sports schools.

I was talking Vanier attendance since the point trying to be made was that QC might be able to host a CFL team because the Vanier attendance was down. Just trying to point out that one doesn't involve the other. It isn't a case of "if you don't draw well to every football game in your city, then you must not be a football city, therefore the highest level of football available to you wouldn't work there". Halifax is getting a team based basically on zero evidence.

The evidence is population and relative wealth... I mean, Vegas really only ever dabbled in minor league hockey before getting the Golden Knights, and look how it worked out.

If the Bisons were a consistently competitive team, they would no doubt host the game. It's been 12 years since they last appeared in a Vanier, and then 6 years before that. If Western had a suitable stadium, we would host it quite often based on the competitiveness of the team. Laval is a powerhouse and has a stadium. McMaster and Western are basically Ontario's Vanier teams, and THF is obviously the best facility in Ontario for these 2 teams to unofficially "host" at, since Rogers Centre is no longer a football stadium. It's been great the see the Vanier committee break the Toronto thing the last 15 years or so and taking the game to other areas of the country.

Then why Halifax over Quebec City? They picked Halifax based on the success of 3 games played in Moncton over 5 years ago, when Moncton thought they were in the running for a team.

Agree, if the only evidence for TFC was the Toronto Lynx then they wouldn't have an MLS team now

A couple of clear factors... there is already a team a fairly short distance away from Quebec so I'm sure there's some reluctance on that basis, and the other is that for some time Quebec has been focused on landing a NHL team. They just built an arena on spec, I'd be pretty surprised if they could find the money to build another large sports venue right away.

Yes, while municipal (and provincial?) support for a new CFL stadium in Halifax is not really a slam dunk, it's still a heck of a lot further along than I suspect Quebec City would get any time in the foreseeable future.

The reason Halifax is being considered by the CFL is because there are people there interested and talking to the CFL about a team and a stadium. Nobody is doing that in Quebec City.

^ I suspect Quebec must be extra motivated with the NHL thing given that they have a big, pricy new rink to fill. Let's face it, with the low dollar I think the odds are long but they're so invested they have to keep pushing.

If the arena hadn't been built I could imagine the idea of a CFL team in Quebec potentially having some traction.

Sorry, brain cramp on my part...

I agree with your point though.

Is there any truth to the idea that those who support Laval football don't want the CFL in town? I seem to recall that being mentioned in the past.

Interesting that Calgary didn't sell out.
They last hosted in 2009, so the "hosted too often, too soon" reason doesn't apply here.

They drew 46k in 2009, but only 35k yesterday.

The Grey Cup seems to be getting smaller and smaller.

The end zone area that used to be temporary cheap-seat bleacher seating in Grey Cups past was used instead for a double decker private box setup. So even though capacity for that area was much lower, the total take for that zone was probably a hell of a lot higher.

It's in keeping with the overall pro sports trend of catering to bigger spenders and increasing profitability vs. maximizing the number of people through the doors. So to call the Grey Cup smaller and smaller is simply wrong.

REVIEW: Keith Urban keeps things moving during the Grey Cup halftime show
Jane Stevenson Toronto Sun November 24, 2019

Keith Urban/Grey Cup Halftime
Sunday night
McMahon Stadium in Calgary
RATING: ***1/2 (3.5 out of four)

I have actually only ever heard that here on SSP. Never from anyone in Quebec and I include the Quebec media in that.

That said, it's certainly believable that a small group of powerful people who back U Laval football wouldn't want the CFL in town as competitors. But even so if there was a serious push from the city and other parties to try and get a team I doubt Laval and Friends would be strong enough to stop it.

They used to set up huge temporary bleachers at many Grey Cups (and they will at Hamilton). Calgary put up "premium suites" at the one end instead of a grandstand. I haven't seen any numbers of what a sellout would have been, how far short did they come?

The stadium definitely looked full on TV.