Raise the Hammer

All valid points and perhaps you are bang on but so we don't build a stadium, Cats fold up or move, and Hamilton starts the demise of at least CFL football in southern Ontario.

Canadian football is a better game. That is the truth. Rogers and Bell and Mayor Ford all want their flashy American NFL, but I bet there are more than a few CFL faithful that will fight that. Will they win? I don't know but it's the last thing sports wise that is still truly Canadian.

A new home for the Cats, hopefully one for the Argos at some point, Ottawa is coming back into the league, Quebec wants a team and Moncton has been getting a good up close and personal taste of what the CFL is about.

We 'welcome' the NFL and force football out of Hamilton, families who enjoy a summer afternoon at a stadium, will be lucky if they can afford the trek out to TO once a season to sit through TV time outs.

The game changes however for me, if Mayor Ford sets up the Argos in a new home and starts supporting and selling this great Canadian game as well so that perhaps - perhaps, both leagues could survive simultaneously.

I am not all that shy perhaps unfortunately when I discuss my despise towards what the NHL has become on so many levels from dollars to too many concussions sense. It's hard as a life long Bruins fan. I still love hockey and I follow it and I drove 8 hours to Boston to see the Legends Bruins play at Fenway Park and blew 1K on a weekend venture to New Jersey/New York to see Ray Bourque play in the Stanley Cup and had I the money, I would have paid to see the Bruins play in the finals last fall.

For me though, I love the AHL and I think - I truly think, if we could brand the AHL as more of a CFL-type league where it's no longer a farm system but a completely different league where star players aren't going to get called up during a playoff run, than that league will be a favorite amongst smaller cities. These places like Hamilton that are almost big enough or near the right market to make a go of it, will stop their flashy 'big-league' dreams and appreciate the great product they already have.

If NHL teams had to chose the guys they wanted and let go of the rest, then if they wanted a guy they had drafted but let go to the AHL becaese he wasn't ready, then they'll have to wait until the following season to add them permanently to the roster. No more going up and down and being a farm league. They do that and the CFL continues to be the same league it is, then the AHL get's stronger and the CFL expands south. So we are supporting the 'American' hockey league and 'they' are supporting the 'Canadian' football league. The bottom line is that they would both be leagues of their own.

Would the players in both leagues still dream of larger scale, higher paying big leagues like the NHL and NFL? Sure they most likely would and perhaps the AHL would continue to grow talent bound for the NHL like the Carey Price's of the world. It would be great to see more CFL'ers realize their NFL dreams as well.

I talk smack about the NFL and the NHL but I will say that we need these high-priced leagues. Corporate boxes and high salaries and high tech, etc. I am sure we really do - especially in large metropolises like Toronto and New York and the likes. However, we also need the Hamilton's and St Johns and Hershey's of the world. Affordable family entertainment but in order for the AHL to take it to the next level, they need to be a real league and in order for the CFL to survive in Ontario alongside the NFL, it could perhaps use for the AHL and NHL to agree to this step so that the CFL isn't compared any longer to a farm league. If the AHL can be cool for cities long dreaming big dreams like Hamilton, than the CFL will be even cooler and perhaps expansion south of the border might then work as it didn't before.

There are a lot of guys that want to play professional hockey and football and even baseball as I wouldn't mind the Thunderbirds being more of a big deal - their stadium is in a great spot. These 'minor' leagues already exist but they could be so much more, if the NHL/AHL NFL/CFL MLB/MiLB, could live in harmony. I attended game 7 of the Calder Cup finals against the Aeros a few years back. I don't know about the next person but that was some great hockey and the atmosphere was electric. Why can't we sell out that arena all year for the Dogs. What will it take for the AHL to be a cool league - perhaps when the biggest difference is $100 for the cheapest ticket in Toronto and $15 in Hamilton but other than that, most everything else about the two leagues is the same. One is just a more grass-roots hockey experience, and one is built for the rich and maybe that is not a bad thing - just help us little guys enjoy what we love about the game again and help us afford to be true fans and go to 20 games a year because it's affordable and the place is packed and it's a fun environment.

Would this not work because big tv stations/cable companies, big newspapers, etc., are all over these big leagues with next to no coverage of these 'farm' leagues? If hockey on a Saturday afternoon/night was just as hyped up as the NHL, if we cared about the score of the Portland Pirates as much as we cared about whether or not the Florida Panthers won or lost where division standings go, how does that change these games? Same with football on Sundays. If the CFL had the same type of hype and respect, how would those dynamics change every ones outlook?

So long story longer, maybe you are right, but I'd rather us fight to save something rather than step aside as corporate America moves in and strong-arms us.

Maybe that's just me.

How many people go to NFL or NHL or MLB games for the joy of talking about these events long afterwards. Cool water cooler talk. Well the CFL and AHL and MiLB have every potential to be cool water cooler talk. The big guys aren't going to dial down their leagues and the smaller leagues can't afford to and shouldn't, dial up their leagues so it's up to some creative marketing and a few hey listen's with the big dudes.

Comment edited by lawrence on 2011-12-09 10:10:26