Looking Forward to 2018
As we turned the lights out on 2017 there has been enough going on in the CFL post-season to keep things interesting and heighten interest in 2018.
The hiring of Randy Ambrosie is starting to look like one of the more inspired choices by the CFL and represents a change in attitude from a league that tends to operate like nine separate fiefdoms and not as an organization looking to grow or maintain interest. Besides reducing the number of challenges, Ambrosie deciding to open the off-season meetings to the media is a welcome step forward. The NFL has managed to create interest in things like the upcoming Black Monday following the regular season when coaches and GM’s get fired, to the players combine, to free agency to the draft that keep fans interested in the offseason.
Major League Baseball has their awards in the offseason, then the Winter meetings, free agency and then spring training. The idea is to keep your product in the sports discussion and hopefully build interest towards when the season starts.
The CFL started a bit last year with their CFL week and combining it with the players combine in Regina. It was great meeting CFL stars of the present and past and watching the combine testing of players and seeing how things operate.