# Canadian Football (I'm assuming only played in Canada)



## Calvin W (Nov 5, 2005)

Lord David said:


> With the AFL, it wasn't too much of an issue. It was simply the somewhat needless expanding to interstate cities for the sake of having home town rivalry. Do note that the AFL (Aussie Rules) and NRL (Rugby) had their beginnings in Melbourne and Sydney respectively and that's why those cities' suburbs are highly represented. Any new teams formed would be the relocation of suburban teams.
> 
> The CFL does not necessarily have this issue. I put Moncton, because they have a stadium already, it just needs expanding. There's no cross town rivalry in your football, so perhaps now is not the time for 2 teams in one city.
> 
> Perhaps a potential Canadian World Cup (Soccer or Rugby) could spearhead such things?


The AFL has to continue to remove the Melbourne bias that is still strong today. As for your "somewhat needless" expansion, I guess they could have moved more of the Melbourne based teams to create home town rivalries.....


----------



## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

To steer this back on topic, stadia and market size are the key to developing a sport whether at the professional level, schools, or even recreationally. Saskatchewan has proven that a sport can thrive in a small market if interest is sky high. Regina only has 240,000 in its entire metropolitan area yet in 2017 they will have one of the best football stadiums in Canada. 

*New home of the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL*








Courtesy of the Regina Leader-Post

The first test event was held in October 2016. Only lower bowl tickets were made available. The University of Saskatchewan Huskies met the University of Regina Rams. The home side Rams won 37-29.









Courtesy of ckom









Courtesy of the Leader Post









Courtesy of the Leader Post


----------



## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

A random high school football facility in rural Quebec.


















Courtesy of Jasonzed


----------



## Lord David (May 23, 2009)

Calvin W said:


> The AFL has to continue to remove the Melbourne bias that is still strong today. As for your "somewhat needless" expansion, I guess they could have moved more of the Melbourne based teams to create home town rivalries.....


It has nothing to do with Melbourne bias. It's just that the AFL evolved from the VFL (there is still the minor Victorian Football League). There will probably never be some sort of 2nd tier league for AFL because people probably won't be too keen on such a setup.

They would have never have moved Melbourne based teams, since most do financially well and have strong support. It's just that there were other markets that could have done with a new team (like the cities of Hobart or Canberra) to form a more rounded league. The heavy Melbourne component will always remain, as with the NRL is to Sydney based teams.

But for the CFL, you have no issue with this, so expand the league and make it more interesting.


----------



## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

Lord David said:


> But for the CFL, you have no issue with this, so expand the league and make it more interesting.


It's a long term goal but I'm satisfied with small incremental growth each year. The league has gone through a massive investment in stadia over the last 5 years. Calgary is the only market that hasn't seen any. With better infrastructure the teams can now concentrate on growing their fan bases rather than worrying about decrepit infrastructure. 

If the CFL adds 1 team in the east (Halifax or Quebec City) by 2025 I'd be happy with that. 10 teams can be a little repetitive in terms of matchups but I'd rather have 10 stable franchises than 16 with half of them on shaky ground.


----------



## Double Duty (Aug 20, 2012)

TD Place Stadium, Ottawa









Mosaic Stadium, Regina


----------



## Double Duty (Aug 20, 2012)

Stade du CEPSUM, Montréal









Stade de l'Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke


----------



## Double Duty (Aug 20, 2012)

Richardson Memorial Stadium, Kingston









University of Windsor Stadium, Windsor


----------



## Chevy114 (Jul 21, 2011)

Since some of the field get cut off in the corner of the endzones and others don't, does it make hard on teams?


----------



## Calvin W (Nov 5, 2005)

Chevy114 said:


> Since some of the field get cut off in the corner of the endzones and others don't, does it make hard on teams?


No more than in Baseball stadiums which have non uniform fields. You adapt....


----------



## Chevy114 (Jul 21, 2011)

Ok just checking, I bet NFL players would freak out if you changed the size of the endzone from stadium to stadium.


----------



## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

Chevy114 said:


> Ok just checking, I bet NFL players would freak out if you changed the size of the endzone from stadium to stadium.


I imagine the league would freak out more than the players. End zones cut off by athletics tracks used to exist in the CFL up until recently. Both the Edmonton Eskimos and Montreal Alouettes played in stadia like that. A few years back they 'completed' the corners of the end zones as the athletics tracks were rarely used.

These days cut off corners are only to be found at university stadia. I understand why schools like the University of Toronto do it as land is scarce. Their sports infrastructure has to do double duty for multiple sports. At schools with tons of land (Laval, Western, Acadia, Sherbrooke, Saskatchewan) its a bit puzzling. The need to combine football and track isn't there.


----------



## Chevy114 (Jul 21, 2011)

Thanks makes sense!


----------



## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

Mosaic Stadium, Canada's newest, opened this summer in the football heartland. Regina, Saskatchewan is the smallest market in the Canadian Football 
League with just 230,000 in the entire metropolitan area. Football is religion in Saskatchewan. This stadium will likely be sold out all year even if the 
Saskatchewan Roughriders lose every game.


















Both courtesy of carnifex2005


----------



## dimes (Mar 5, 2007)

It's like half of the town has to go there in order to fill that stadium

It looks beautiful, though


----------



## Calvin W (Nov 5, 2005)

dimes said:


> It's like half of the town has to go there in order to fill that stadium
> 
> It looks beautiful, though


The team and stadium draws from the WHOLE province. I drive 3-1/2 hours one way to attend games, nine times a year. Hundreds and thousands of similar fans do it week in, week out.


----------



## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

It's definitely a provincial team but it's also true that about 80% of the tickets sold are to people in the Regina area.


----------



## abesKIA (Apr 23, 2016)

isaidso said:


> I imagine the league would freak out more than the players. End zones cut off by athletics tracks used to exist in the CFL up until recently. Both the Edmonton Eskimos and Montreal Alouettes played in stadia like that. A few years back they 'completed' the corners of the end zones as the athletics tracks were rarely used.
> 
> These days cut off corners are only to be found at university stadia. I understand why schools like the University of Toronto do it as land is scarce. Their sports infrastructure has to do double duty for multiple sports. At schools with tons of land (Laval, Western, Acadia, Sherbrooke, Saskatchewan) its a bit puzzling. The need to combine football and track isn't there.


It's not really the scarcity of land, it's making a stadium multipurpose for cost savings. 


The problem with football Stadia with a full size 400m running track is the seats are set back from the field significantly and it diminishes the fan experience.


Edmonton's stadium was built for the Commonwealth Games in 1976, so it had to be a large enough field to accommodate the track. New fields like Regina, Hamilton, Winnipeg are purpose built CFL fields with the seating optimized.

BMO Field in Toronto was a soccer stadium first, and the problem there is the extensions from the pitch to accommodate the CFL endzones are artificial turf, and players think the transition from grass to turf is a player safety issue.

http://www.calgarysun.com/2017/08/02/mitchell-bmo-field-endzones-unsafe-for-players

The endzones at BMO don't have cut corners, but it is 2 yards shorter than regulation (18yd v 20)


----------



## abesKIA (Apr 23, 2016)

1995 Memphis Maddogs played in the Liberty Bowl, and the endzones were curved and averaged only 9 yards in depth.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqUP28v0LAY


edges of the field transitioned from grass to astroturf, and the stands were ridiculously close to the field in spots. I have read also that the yards were only 30 inches, but I haven't found a source for that.


----------



## eurocup2016 (Aug 30, 2015)

abesKIA said:


> It's not really the scarcity of land, it's making a stadium multipurpose for cost savings.
> 
> 
> The problem with football Stadia with a full size 400m running track is the seats are set back from the field significantly and it diminishes the fan experience.
> ...



Commonwealth stadium went through a big renovation a few years back. I don't understand why they didn't fix the seating to be closer to the field by eliminating the athletic track and reducing capacity.


----------

