CFL Can't Afford To Ignore Unemployment

It's early in the new CFL season and the CFL is alive and well and doing good business in Saskatchewan, BC, Moncton, and Montreal.

But elsewhere, attendance at this year's games is less than impressive.

In fairness, early season games don't attract big crowds because the season is new, the games aren't considered that important, and the CFL has to compete with other summer activities.

But a Toronto newspaper was critical of the Toronto-at-Winnipeg game, which was not a sell-out.

Hamilton did not sell out its home opener, and its second game drew fewer fans. In Canada's largest city, Toronto, the home opener drew just over 20,000 fans.

Calgary and Edmonton have had decent crowds at their games, but no sell-outs.

Part of the problem for Hamilton and Toronto is that the CFL has never completely recovered from the success of the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1990s, which prompted many fans to desert the CFL for snobbish reasons, longing for an NFL franchise.

Some of the problem might be blamed on the need for better marketing.

But there may be a simpler explanation; people can't afford to go to the games.

Since 1989, there have been two major recessions, numerous financial scandals that ruined millions, and a steady rise in taxes and fees that have only benefited a narrow political bureaucracy.

In Ontario, the latest grab is the new HST tax, a hidden "eco cost", and a 20 percent increase in hydro.

The effect has split Canada in two.

In Canadian literature, there is a term used, "two solitudes", which was meant to describe French and English Canadians following separate paths which will never cross.

But today, "two solitudes", can be better used to describe the economic split in Canada.

In the Greater Toronto Area, over one million people (one fifth of the population), uses food banks.

They won't be buying CFL tickets or merchandise.

I've been in a unique position in Canada because I've been able to see first hand through my employment situation (security guard, newspaper carrier), both sides of the split in Canada.

As a newspaper carrier in one of Toronto's less wealthy areas, it was quite common to see people going through garbage cans and recycling bins at night, desperately searching for anything of value, or regularly pushing everything they owned in a stolen shopping cart.

I've been in houses which smelled completely of marijuana or urine, where raccoons were kept as pets, and where excrement was all over the floors and hallways.

At the same time, as a security guard in several wealthy condominiums, I've seen innocent people lose their jobs as cleaners and other low-status positions—not because they did a poor job, but because they didn't bow low enough to a wealthy resident. As you can tell by my tone of writing, I have a less than complimentary opinion of Canada's ruling class.

Canada is no stranger to cliques, which have a history dating back into the New France period, and which provoked two rebellions in 1837.

I've worked in a department in the Ontario Provincial Government, where a clique took over, promoted their members, and marginalized and forced out everybody else. There would be rules for them, and separate rules for everybody else.

Unemployment and its sister, underemployment, are dirty words in Canada, that don't get mentioned by the politicians and bureaucrats.

In the last Ontario Provincial election, the issue, carefully steered by the elitist media, was something called "faith-based schools", an issue that suddenly popped up out of nowhere, and then quickly disappeared as soon the election was over.

Unemployment, underemployment, and the one million food bank users were not mentioned.

Policies like the HST, the eco fees, and the hydro increase, are going to push more people over the edge.

In Toronto, the mayor ordered the police to sweep the "sleeping bag people" out of the city hall square, like dirt under the carpet. You can bet they won't be mentioned in the upcoming municipal elections.

As I mentioned in a previous article, cliques and elitism are not helping the CFL. If the snobbish clique doesn't find the CFL trendy, they are not going to attend games, buy merchandise, build facilities or start new franchises.

In Canada, the rage is to get more NHL teams in costly new arenas, not invest in the CFL.

At the same time, each person who becomes unemployed or underemployed, cannot attend CFL games. They won't consider it—all they are thinking about is survival.

These people are forced to drop out of society, a loss to the CFL's potential market.

Driving through several of Toronto's neighbourhoods this year, I've seen lots of "for sale" signs on properties. I wonder if the residents are leaving voluntarily, or being forced out.

Sports leagues like to think they are apart from the rest of society, with the fame, the unreal salaries and the exalted status.

The only time the "real world" invades are incidents usually involving illegal drugs or sexual misconduct.

But unemployment is reaching up more and more into their fantasy world. Even the mighty NFL is not immune.

There is nine percent unemployment in Buffalo. That prompted Bills' owner Ralph Wilson to start playing games in Toronto.

A more vulnerable league like the CFL can't close its eyes to what is going on.

The CFL is involved with many charities including the War Amps and a promotion to stock food banks. 

It's not enough.

Stocking food banks puts a little bandage on the wound. It doesn't cure it.

It would better if the CFL did something to address the cause of the food banks, unemployment and underemployment.

These are good times for the CFL.

BC built a cheap, temporary stadium; Montreal expanded their facility; Winnipeg is getting a larger, new stadium; Ottawa will return with a new stadium; there is the sold out Moncton game in the first Maritime stadium of any decent size; and there is talk that Hamilton and Saskatchewan will get new, larger stadiums.

But it will all mean nothing if a snobbish, narrow ruling clique won't support the CFL, and if the CFL's potential market shrinks because of unemployment and underemployment.

It would be ironic if, when these new facilities open their doors, they get less than a capacity house, because people can't afford to attend them.