Pro football was a bit like the seniors' tour in golf, or maybe "professional poker". Football was overwhelmingly associated with colleges and college-age kids. Older men playing it professionally didn't really fit with the mental image that people had of the sport. That's still true today to some extent in many parts of the U.S.

Yes, football was developed at our universities (University of Toronto, McGill University, etc.) and was decidedly a vocation for youth. That the oldest football trophy on the continent is Ontario universities' Yates Cup speaks to the sport's youth focus. Even the early non-university teams like Parkdale and the Argonauts were offshoots of rowing clubs.

I believe it was 1950 when the University of Toronto had higher average attendance (was over 25,000) than the NFL. What's surprising is how university football got completed supplanted by professional football. I doubt the Varsity Blues pull more than 2,000/game these days.

Perhaps I'm not familiar with the football culture in the United States but are there really places down there that still associated football with school aged males? On 2nd thought, growing up in Halifax I associated football with guys 23 and under as high school/university football is all that exists there. I grew up following that first, the CFL second. In basketball, that association is even more pronounced for me. I followed/attended university ball. It wasn't until perhaps 10 years later that I took a look at the NBA. I still prefer the former but now watch both. The fans at pro sports are very 'different' to what I'm accustomed to.

Not Canadian football... two of them are Rugby Football ;)

That was kinda the point thought, almost all of our Championships are cups, and I like that. Even though I know football games are often bowls, I like having the national title be a Cup, and am fine with the bowls leading up to it. Perhaps if the College Bowl had never been changed I'd be arguing to keep it, but now we have the Vanier Cup and its been around since (now looking it up) 1965! And it always was the Vanier Cup awarded during the College Bowl, so even less reason to change back in my opinion.

Well there's never going to be 100% consensus on anything. I suppose I'll have to design my own College Bowl paraphernalia. :)

That's the assumption. Partnering with the GC means that the VC plays second fiddle. It's possible USports wanted to get away from a week/weekend where tickets for their event are considered less valuable than an event they're sharing time and space with.

The bigger picture, IMO, is that partnering with the GC means that the VC can't be played in areas with more historic or reliable crowds for the VC. VC can't be played in Quebec City if it's partnering with the GC, as one example.

The media push and the attendance for the Vanier cup was very good when it was paired with the Grey Cup and it felt like the event was gaining momentum. Since that time it has really fallen off a cliff and I don't even know who airs the Vanier cup on tv anymore? I hope going back to what worked can help bring some much needed life back into the event and Usports football in General. It is not healthy with a handful of programs now so dominant and the the rest of Usports football programs looking like junior high football squads.

I believe all U-Sports are currently in a deal with Sportsnet, but the Vanier might be aired on Sportsnet360. Not sure though. I think the lack of promotion is because Sportsnet does an inferior job to TSN hyping up their products. They made the world jrs. a huge thing, and I remember seeing more Canadian University sports on TV when TSN had the broadcast rights. Maybe because they have a larger marketing budget, or maybe the association with CTV helps. It's too bad for U-Sports.

Not necessarily. I would think that if Montreal was to host the Grey Cup Laval could host the Vanier. It would make the celebrations sorta province wide! Obviously the university of Montreal may have something to say about it though.

Montreal won't be hosting the GC until 2023/2024 at the very earliest. When VC was open for bids I think Laval was the only team bidding in some years.

The point i'm making is that the VC will be moving from going to Quebec City every year/every other year to once a decade at best if paired with GC longterm.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the GC is looking to be moved slightly earlier on the calendar - how would this affect VC and USports football as a whole moving forward?

I don't think the Vanier Cup has to be played in lockstep with the Grey Cup every year as that would basically lock out an entire conference and a good chunk of another from ever hosting again, but history shows us that there are clear benefits when the Vanier piggybacks on the Grey Cup. The 2007 and 2011 Vanier Cups were memorable events with big (for U Sports) crowds.

U Sports and its member schools do not seem terribly motivated to draw any attention to what they're doing, though. They signed a broadcasting deal with Rogers who promptly buried them, and individual schools appear indifferent to whether or not anyone pays attention their teams. That's fine, that's totally their prerogative.

DAZN offered a free stream of Andreescu's final at Indian Wells on its Twitter on Sunday. As mentioned by SBC, over 480,000 unique visitors watched at least part of the stream.

AFAIK, the stream was geolocked to Canadian users.

@sportsbizcanada
480,000+ viewers watched Bianca Andreescu's on Twitter. @cam_gordon @chrisdoyle @TwitterSportsCASports
8:57 AM - 18 Mar 2019

As of right now the full match is available on their Twitter and it's nearing 500K views.

https://twitter.com/DAZN_CA/status/1107385637483761666

I'd like to see the VC paired with the GC even if it's not held in the same city. Having the VC piggy back on GC weekend marketing is important at this stage in its development. Most football fans in Canada don't pay attention to U Sports whatsoever. Exposing them to it is the first step. Once the VC can stand on its own they could then look into separating them.

It is incredible that in this day and age, with sports channels coming out the wazoo and CBC almost exclusively focused on amateur sports, that U-Sports still can't get a weekly football game on national television. The only U-Sports football I ever see on TV is in French, on Radio Canada.

Until they figure that out the Vanier Cup will continue to flounder as an event. You can't really get people to reliably care about a single game.

Blue Jays offering lower prices for concessions:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D2BfKGtXcAMQF3j.png
via @BlueJays on Twitter

Only at one concession stand per level is what I heard. Blue Jays fans already aren't known for being the most... docile.

Can't wait to see what goes down in the 100+ person line for $5 beer.

Cam Gordon @cam_gordon
These four under-20 [Canadian] athletes have all enjoyed triple-digit follower growth on Twitter in the past 12 months
@Bandreescu_ +977%
@AlphonsoDavies +679%
@RjBarrett6 +352%
@felixtennis +181%

Currently:
Andreescu 28.9K
Davies 27.0K
RJ Barrett 67.5K
Auger-Aliassime 21.9K

The Blue Jays were in Montreal to play the Milwaukee Brewers last night as part of what has become a spring tradition, shortly before the official start of the season.

Attendance was about 25,000 which is a good crowd but short of the 50,000 per game (for each of two nights) we've seen in recent years. So the shine for this specific baseball offering is wearing off a bit - and I think that was to be expected.

But the talk of the eventual return of the Expos is getting hotter than ever.

https://montrealgazette.com/sports/b...oser-than-ever

Bronfman needs to wait on Oakland and Tampa first.

• Then either buy those teams and relocate them or be granted an expansion ($$$).
  
• Then $50M for Griffintown land.
  
• Then $$$ for a new stadium.

At least he's committed to not building a stadium until he has ownership/direction of a team. Either way, two points:

• I think the NBA is a more enticing fit for Montreal and it doesn't require a new multi-million dollar facility to operate. Basketball's potential seems higher than baseball's on the whole.
  
• What's the point of putting $200M into Olympic Stadium's roof if there's going to be no permanent tenant? Would it not make more sense for that funding to partly be funneled to a potential MLB stadium?

Last year people were really there for one thing, to see Vlad Jr.

I think people in both cities like a good show. Give them star power and a winning product and you can draw good crowds as we saw with the Jays in 2015/16.

^ You can't sustain enthusiasm for fairly meaningless preseason games forever. I mean, most people only get tickets for those games because their ticket packages include them. Montreal has made its point, IMO.

That said, I wonder if there is a bit of an indefinite hiatus on team relocations to Canada with the dollar being the way it is these days?