It was only one sentence long, but it was enough to send shockwaves through the sports world when both the CFL and XFL released joint statements on March 10th.
“The Canadian Football League (CFL) and XFL have entered into formal talks to identify potential opportunities for the leagues to collaborate, innovate, and grow the game of football.”
A statement surprising enough to grab headlines (few in the sports world were even aware of a possible collaboration between the leagues), and just vague enough to let the imagination run wild. What do they mean to collaborate? Are they discussing a merger? If they merge whose rules will they keep?
Given the scarcity of details as to what the end goal for the two leagues ultimately is, the statement certainly generated a buzz both north and south of the border. And a buzz about CFL football in mid-March is something that will undoubtedly have Randy Ambrosie and company grinning from ear to ear.
To be clear, neither league has tipped their hand thus far as to what direction these “formal talks” are headed. But for both leagues to issue simultaneous press releases about the ongoing negotiations indicates that they’re further down the rabbit hole than just having a conversation over lunch.
CFL purists were quick to react with their usual rhetoric of threatening to boycott the league, abandoning Canadian traditions, and the other arguments you would expect out of a small but dedicated following afraid of losing the quirks that make the CFL different. This pushback was to be expected though, and one that CFL HQ would have unquestionably run through prior to even taking the meeting with XFL execs.
There are huge risks for both sides in any kind of a merger. In the case of the CFL and XFL however, the million dollar question appears to be who will be in the driver’s seat when it comes to establishing this new partnership? If the two leagues do indeed intend to merge and pool resources, then this is far different than the NL & AL coming together in the major leagues, or even the AFC & NFC merging to form the modern NFL. These leagues each play with unique rules. Rules which both leagues actually lean on to market their brand of football as being different to the general public.
So who blinks first? Will this new entity be adopting bigger fields, pre snap motions, and 3 down football that Canadians have become accustomed to? Or will it become more akin to the American version of 4 down pigskin that our neighbours down south view as the norm? You can see why the devout CFL fan has greeted this news with a lukewarm response at best. They feel that any concession the league makes to “Americanize” the game goes against the very fabric of the CFL.
Some will point towards the early 90’s when teams like the Baltimore Stallions, Memphis Mad Dogs, and Las Vegas Posse were briefly members of the CFL before ultimately fizzling out. The league is not unaware of this past failed experiment. The fact that they’ve already failed once at this concept, and are still willing to trudge onwards with XFL collaborations should tell you all you need to know about the state of the CFL and how the status quo may no longer be viable. When faced with either collaboration or folding up shop, who among us wouldn’t do the exact same thing?
It’s no secret that the CFL is a gate driven league. Their sustainability is premised on putting butts in seats and game day sales. Unlike the NFL who could probably run another 5 years without fans and not bat an eye because of their TV and streaming deals, the CFL desperately needs ticket sale revenue to offset costs.
When the Canadian government refused to bailout the league in 2020, the CFL elected to forgo the entire season rather than try to put together a bubble format or some sort of modified year like the NHL and CEBL did. That alone is a good indication that the league’s finances are far from rosy. In a sport whose player salaries are dwarfed by every other major sports league on the planet, owners still found it more appealing to scrap the season all together than try to cobble together an altered product to fulfill their sponsorship/TV deals.
For that reason, fans of the CFL should be looking at this collaboration like a lifeline more than a death sentence. All of the pushback assumes the worst case scenario for the league as well (i.e. full adoption of American rules, scrap the Grey Cup, lose the tradition of the league, and Canadian players get phased out by international prospects with no “homegrown minimums” required for teams). That’s a lot to extrapolate from a one sentence Tweet from the leagues.
At this point even those with connections to the CFL inner circle don’t have a concrete idea of the direction of these negotiations. The XFL doesn’t plan to relaunch until 2022, meaning that regardless of partnerships, the 2021 CFL season will be proceeding as usual. From there though, the collaborations could be anything. Perhaps the leagues modify their playing schedules so that players can compete in both (ex: 12 game season in the CFL, then they head south to play in a shortened season in the XFL) in order to maximize their earning potential. This would allow players to train and compete year round as football players rather than play a CFL schedule and then take on 9-5 day jobs in the offseason to pay the bills.
Another idea making the rounds on social media is having the CFL and XFL play their regular seasons, with the winner squaring off for some sort of “North American Championship” (which brings us back to the question of whose rules you would play by in the championship, but that’s something that could be hammered out in the boardroom). You then keep the CFL tradition, rules, Grey Cup and all the other things purists love about the game, while adding an extra event and marketing arm from the XFL. Any time you can get more eyeballs on the league (even if it’s just passing coverage on a sports show updating the XFL fans on who their team might play against if they make the championship game) it’s a good thing.
Whatever the case ends up being, we’ve learned a few things from that cryptic statement from the leagues. Number one, the CFL is clearly not as financially stable as some die-hard fans may like to believe, otherwise they wouldn’t be exploring collaboration with a league which has already folded twice in its infancy. And two, any press is good press for both parties involved.
The CFL was founded in 1958 (though the Grey Cup had been awarded annually since 1909), and at least in my lifetime I can’t think of a time when the league had EVER generated this much discussion before the snow had melted. Which is what leads me to believe this statement was designed to do one thing and one thing only. Grab headlines. It’s a page straight out of the WWE playbook, where you’re looking to generate interest in something without really committing to anything. No surprise given it’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his ownership group now at the helm of the XFL relaunch.
If for no other reason than to align itself with the Rock’s brand and see where it takes you, this is a win for the CFL. If you add up every follower for every CFL team PLUS the CFL account itself you get a total of 1.6M followers. The Rock alone has 15.1M followers (it gets even uglier on Instagram, where Dwayne has 223M followers…). When you add that kind of reach and marketing power (every movie he releases seems to be a license to print money, his followers will consume every bit of content he touches) to a league that’s on life support at the moment, good things will happen.
So for now, let’s not lose our minds with “what if” scenarios. In all likelihood, both leagues are orchestrating a carefully constructed media plan right now. Release a tidbit, watch everyone go crazy for a bit, then when the news cycle slows down release another bread crumb and watch it start all over again. As of 2021, it’s business as usual for the CFL. 3 downs, bigger field, Rouges, waggles and more are all back in action. As for beyond this year, well we’ll just have to wait and see. One way or another though, it’s certainly an interesting time to be a fan of CFL football.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @dynessports