Moncton in CFL spotlight
Published Saturday November 28th, 2009
League commissioner touts Hub City during news conference
Neil Hodge
CALGARY - Canadian Football League Commissioner Mark Cohon spoke about Moncton during his annual state of the league news conference.
Dean Bicknell/Calgary Herald
Mayor George LeBlanc, left, CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon and Ian Fowler, Moncton’s general manager for recreation, parks, tourism and culture, stand by the Grey Cup yesterday during the Commissioner’s State of our League address at the Fairmount Palliser Hotel in Calgary.
The Toronto Argonauts will be the home team when the first-ever CFL regular season game in Atlantic Canada takes place next September at the Stade Moncton 2010 Stadium. Their opponent and the date for this historic event isn't yet known.
"There's a few reasons,'' Cohon told a large media gathering yesterday in Calgary when asked why the league is willing for the first time to hold a regular season game in a neutral site market.
"There's the stability of the league. There's a fan base in Atlantic Canada that loves our game. There's a new stadium being built at the University of Moncton that can accommodate a CFL regular season game. Those things come into play and say this makes sense for us and it's a good opportunity for Atlantic Canada.''
The CFL will have nine teams when Ottawa's expansion franchise hits the field in 2013.
The perfect scenario would obviously be to some day add a 10th franchise in the Atlantic region.
This would give an even number of teams to make scheduling easier. It would also make for five teams in both the east and west and turn this into a coast-to-coast league.
Moncton is looking to host one regular season game per year for the next five seasons.
The stadium will have a capacity of 20,000 for next year's game, but it has the potential to be expanded to at least 25,000 which would make it big enough for a CFL franchise.
"We're taking baby steps,'' said Cohon. "We're going to walk before we run. There's a couple of things that need to take place (in Moncton). You have to find the right local owners who are dedicated to their community.
"Step 2 is to make sure you have a viable stadium. I think Moncton has made a step forward, but that stadium would have to be improved and enlarged for a CFL franchise.
Step 3 is you've got to make sure the fan base is there.
"The fourth point is that league distributions are split (among the teams). Right now, they're shared one-eighth. It will be one-ninth with Ottawa. If expanding our league (to 10 teams) allows the whole ocean to rise and all boats to rise, then we'll consider it at that time.''
The Montreal Alouettes and Saskatchewan Roughriders will meet in the Grey Cup tomorrow at McMahon Stadium in Calgary.
Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc and Ian Fowler, the city's general manager of recreation, parks, tourism and culture, will attend the game as guests of the CFL commissioner. LeBlanc spoke to national media yesterday.
"The possibility of a Moncton CFL franchise was brought up during the commissioner's presentation,'' he said. "He indicated there's a very good fan base in Atlantic Canada, but there's conditions that would need to be met. Obviously, the league has to be stable and it has to be good for the league overall (to expand).
"I'm not going to speculate on the possibility of a team in Moncton. There has to be strong business interest in the Moncton area. Having a regular season game in Moncton is the proper way to test the market.''
Cohon said that when he looks at the CFL right now the key word is stable. He pointed out that the league has weathered the recession because of the strength of its brand, the commitment of team owners and most of all the devotion of fans.
"When I look at our fan base, I truly believe that they are shareholders in this league,'' he said. "In tough times, I think your fans deserve your attention more than ever.
"We often say in our league it's affordable for families, it's accessible to our supporters and it's authentically and uniquely Canadian. This year, we told ourselves more than ever we have to walk that talk and I'm proud to say that we did that.''
Cohon looked at key benchmarks and provided a breakdown of how the CFL fared this season.
The league drew two million fans in the regular season for the eighth consecutive year.
This attendance figure for such a lengthy stretch is a feat the league accomplished just once before, from 1976-83.
Attendance dropped 1.5 per cent this season compared to 2008, but that's considered good given the challenging economy.
Another important gauge is television ratings and Cohon reported that the CFL is doing excellent on that front. More than three million Canadians watch the league's games on TSN and French sister station RDS each week.
"That's second to only the NHL in this country,'' said Cohon. "We have averaged 767,000 viewers per game since the introduction of the new rating system and 600,000 per game for the entire year.
"Remarkably, five CFL regular season games achieved over a million viewers on TSN. Our ratings on RDS increased as well, over 14 per cent, from 220,000 viewers per game in 2008 to 256,000 in 2009.''
Cohon reported that CFL merchandise sales increased by about four per cent this season from 2008. He also said the league's website had more hits than in 2008 and that more young fans are jumping onboard.
It's not all good news. The CFL had a decrease in national partnerships, but Cohon noted this is in line with drops that other leagues and other sports properties are experiencing across North America.
"I think it's the result of a few things,'' he said. "There's a number of renewals that came up at the same time, a weaker economy and the Olympics in Canada. I will say the prospects for 2010 look better and we are aggressively pursuing those new opportunities as corporate Canada opens up their wallets again.
"You may ask why I describe the league as stable instead of strong. The truth is while a few of our teams are making profits such as Calgary and Saskatchewan most of our teams work hard to break even or make a little money and clearly our teams in Southern Ontario (Toronto and Hamilton) are losing money at this time.''