Shadow of CFL Commissioners' Fates Hangs Over the League

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of interviewing CFL Commissioner, Mark Cohon, on the issue of CFL expansion, exclusively for Bleacher Report.

All Bleacher Report readers were grateful to the commissioner and his office for taking the time to answer questions for them, but the prevailing response was disappointment with his answers.

The term "by the book" was the common response.

My questions were very specific and the Commissioner gave mostly vague, general answers.

What I and most readers wanted to get was some grand vision of the CFL in the future, specific cities of possible expansion, specific next steps after Touchdown Atlantic, and the return of Ottawa.

The image given is that of a league abiding by the maxim "let's see what comes up," instead of some ambitious plan for the future.

Before criticizing Commissioner Cohon, it is important to remember the fates of his two predecessors, Larry Smith and Tom Wright, who provided the type of "visionary leadership" that was not evident in the present commissioner's answers.

Upon taking office, Smith proposed the most daring vision in the CFL's history, an ambitious expansion of the league to the United States.

This duly took place and was a 10 percent success and a 90 percent failure. The project blew up and the American teams folded.

The two positive things that happened, were that the experiment led to the permanent and successful return of Montreal to the CFL with Smith as president and the success the league had in Baltimore.

Baltimore might still have a CFL team if the NFL had not decided to snuff out the CFL threat by allowing the Cleveland Browns to move there.

When he took office, Tom Wright had much more modest plans. He wanted to see the CFL with ten Canadian franchises by 2010. He carefully refrained from naming a specific city, but most fans speculated that it was going to be Halifax.

Instead, the opposite happened. Despite saving Toronto and Hamilton with new owners and expanding corporate support, Wright was fairly or unfairly blamed when Ottawa contracted for a second time.

Wright gave up the idea of getting a second term and the CFL regressed to an eight team league.

So nobody can blame Commissioner Cohon for giving vague, general answers. In his tenure, the CFL makes progress by taking small, baby steps.

The real question to be answered is why daring, bold, visionary leadership failed with the CFL.

Is there something inheritably wrong in the CFL's situation that dooms visionary leadership to failure?

Commissioner Cohon has seen it happen during his period of office.

Ottawa was scheduled to rejoin the CFL this year, but is still waiting final city council approval for the Lansdowne Live project (supposedly June 28). The earliest Ottawa can now rejoin the CFL is 2013.

The first question to ask is whether the two fiascoes were caused by specific problems or whether there are continuous problems that every CFL commissioner inherits when he assumes office.

Certainly both debacles had their specific causes.

American expansion may have been too ambitious, the cities chosen too far away, and had no previous contact with Canada. The CFL also suffers from being compared to the NFL and many potential American fans would look at the league as a come-down.

In Ottawa's case, not assembling a competitive team quickly, an unpopular stadium, and the acceptance of owners who had failed in Ottawa before and were clearly distrusted by the fans, were specific causes for folding the franchise.

But are there any "permanent" factors that hamper visionary leadership and hinder long term growth of the CFL?  Here are some possibilities.

1.  Population

Canada's population is only 10 percent of the United States, and there are only nine major cities. It is further compounded by the uncertainty of success in French speaking Quebec.

Still, both London and Kitchener are approaching 500,000, and football is a success in Quebec City at the university level, where the city successfully staged the Vanier Cup last year.

It should also be remembered that CFL football is booming in small Regina, and even smaller Moncton quickly sold out this year's Touchdown Atlantic game.

All the existing CFL teams have been around when their cities had much smaller populations.

Quality, not quantity, seems to be the key factor as far as fan base is concerned.

2.  Comparisons To The NFL

This has hurt the league, specifically in southern Ontario, where the growth in popularity and glamor of the NFL since the 1960's has dimmed enthusiasm for the CFL.

The ability of southern Ontario fans to attend Buffalo Bills games (a size-able number of the Bills season ticket holders are Canadian) has also hurt the CFL.

Still, CFL TV ratings continue to improve, corporate support grows, though attendance at games suffers. Perhaps new marketing techniques can improve the CFL's image.

3.  Economic Recessions And Elitism

All North American sports are suffering from the two major recessions since 1990.

The population may increase, but if the majority of the CFL's fans can't afford to attend football games, it is of no value to the league.

In the GTA alone, more than one million people use food banks.

A second problem is the uneven distribution of wealth in Canada. The Maritimes remain the poorest region of the country which has hurt CFL expansion, particularly to Halifax.

Moncton is trying to project itself as the region's up and coming city, but it is still small compared to most of Canada's larger cities.

While the majority of the population gets pushed downward, a small minority gets pushed upward. They can afford to go to games, but if they decide the CFL is not to their fancy, then the CFL suffers.

As with all elites, there is a snobbish factor. When the Blue Jays won the World Series, it became fashionable to belittle the CFL and yearn for an NFL team.

Except for the Grey Cup game, how much of the new ruling class of Canada want to be seen at a CFL game? 

In Toronto, for example, there is always huge attendance for the film festival in September, where the locals get a chance to be seen with Hollywood's elite.

There are suitors aplenty to bring more glamorous NHL teams to Canada, but the CFL is not viewed as "the place to be."

4.  Small City Thinking

Just as the CFL is now taking baby steps, so do most of the smaller Canadian cities, the CFL's potential expansion sites.

Small city thinking has hurt Canadian professional sports in the past.  The refusal to build NHL size arenas while they had franchises cost Quebec and Winnipeg the Nordiques and the Jets.

Except for Moncton, no non-CFL Canadian city is willing to spend money on stadiums unless they are tied in with international events.

Hamilton's potential new stadium is tied up with Toronto's 2015 Pan Am games.

Quebec is obsessed with getting back the Nordiques and fronting a bid for the Winter Olympics. It is focused on building a new arena and ignores building a CFL size stadium, despite the success of Laval University football and the Vanier Cup.

When Victoria staged the Commonwealth Games in 1994, an opportunity was missed to build a CFL size stadium like Edmonton did in 1978.

So while the majority of fans want to see more teams in the CFL, and a more ambitious strategy by the league, conditions seem to favor small steps instead of some grand vision.

In these circumstances, I would make a poor CFL commissioner.  Not only have I written articles in which I've envisioned the CFL as a 12 team league in the short run, and a 16 team league in the long run, I've even named the cities I would expand to, something poor Tom Wright never dared do.

Most likely I'd end up like Canada's first prime minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, whose bold, visionary National Policy failed during his lifetime, but succeeded when the Liberals took office, five years after his death in 1891.