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I don't think it's necessarily a hatred but part of it is media attention (or lack thereof). At least here in Southwestern Ontario the NFL is so much more popular partly because of the proximity to Detroit.
I am a Canadian who is a fan of the Toronto Argonauts as well as the Green Bay Packers, and have attended home games for both franchises.
There is no comparison between the two.
The wife and I usually attend at least one home game in Toronto per season. Attendance is abysmal with an average of 15,000 fans in attendance depending on the opponent. The tickets are overpriced, the concessions are overpriced and team apparel and merchandise is a rip-off as well. Games are played on random nights through the week which makes it harder to follow, and the lack of a home crowd affects the overall mood and energy of the live games. While the CFL does boast some very good players, the vast majority of them wouldn't be warming the bench on an NFL team and play suffers as a result. The CFL also has some strange rules that even rabid fans of the game can't figure out. I personally attended one such game vs the Alouettes where the final play of the game resulted in players of both teams kicking the ball back across the goal line like they were playing soccer, with Montreal winning after somehow scoring points that were not related to a touchdown, touchback or field goal. Nobody in attendance seemed to understand how that play worked or how Montreal managed to win the game as a result.
The NFL is a completely different beast. Lambeau Field in Green Bay, WI (pop. 104,779) is sold out on a season-ticket basis for the next 40 years. Yes, that means that if you want season tickets and signed up on the waiting list today, you would have to wait 40 years for tickets to become available. The stadium holds in excess of 80,000 rabid fans per game, and concessions and team-branded merchandise is reasonably priced. A team pennant costs $2 at Lambeau, not $20 like it does at the Rogers Center (Skydome). Attendance is sold out at every home game, and in addition to the 80,978 fans inside the stadium, hundreds more attend the tailgate parties in Lambeau Field's parking lot and at bars to watch the game in the stadium's immediate vicinity. As for the quality of play, four down ball is a lot less predictable than three down ball, the players are of a much higher calibre and the salary cap ensures there is parity throughout the league. This results in a much more exciting product on the field, where on 'any given Sunday' the very worst team could come out on top. As the overwhelming majority of games are played on Sunday, it is very easy to follow your team throughout the season. Besides Lambeau, I have attended games in Detroit and Buffalo and while the prices may vary slightly, the overall experience is far more comparable to Green Bay than you could ever hope to expect in Toronto.
In my opinion, the best way to immediately improve the Argonauts (and by extension, the CFL) is to start selling 200 Level GA tickets at $10 a head for all Argonaut home games. Additionally, stop gouging the fans that do attend with the rip-off "event pricing" by dropping prices for food, refreshments, beer and merchandise to much more reasonable levels. If they made it affordable for a family of four to attend the games by charging $10 for GA 200 Level tickets and dropped the price of food and beer by half, they would get a lot more fans attending the games, sell more merchandise and inspire a new generation of fans to come out for the games. Unfortunately, Canadian markets have never seemed to grasp the concept that you make far more money overall selling three $2 items at $5 than you would selling two $2 items at $6.
That's an Argonaut perspective only. I'd say if you could see a game in Saskatchewan or Edmonton the atmosphere would be night and day. Or Hamilton for that matter.
I'm an NCAA fan and can watch almost any game. but of course I get excited for the big games.
I've lost interest in the NFL for the most part, I'm not sure why.
Like some people I view the CFL as a vastly inferior league to the NFL.
Canadian football sucks. Players get benched for celebrating after rushing for a 69 yard touchdown in college and high school. Half the players are required to be Canadian. In the cfl Which completely waters down the product. 90% of players would be American if it wasn't for that rule. Canadian football has weird rules just to say it is different from American football.
I'll watch CFL. Bit I'd rather watch the blue Jays and spend money on them. Then on the CFL. If toronto had an nfl team I would support.
The attitude towards the CFL is a prime example of the classic Canadian mindset that everything from the US is better.
The OP is right that in other countries there is not nearly as much focus on whether the domestic league is better than another country's league.
If everyone did this, why would every country bother with a national soccer league? We should just stay at home watch the English Premier League or something on TV...
Note also that Americans don't snub NCAA football at all, even though the calibre of the players is below that of the NFL.
The CFL is not perfect but there is no real reason for so many Canadians to ignore it and trash. The problem is mostly in the minds of Canadians, that's all.
In any other country, people would be able to follow both their domestic league (CFL) and the other country's league (NFL) without self-aggrandizing themselves by ignoring their own country's stuff and only having eyes for the other country's product.
à . Canadian football has weird rules just to say it is different from American football.
Ha! That's so funny because Canadian football arguably predates American football. If you look at the history it appears that it was the Americans who changed the rules to suit them. So to suggest that Canadians changed the rules of football to make themselves feel special and different from Americans is totally ridiculous.
Ha! That's so funny because Canadian football arguably predates American football. If you look at the history it appears that it was the Americans who changed the rules to suit them. So to suggest that Canadians changed the rules of football to make themselves feel special and different from Americans is totally ridiculous.
Well said, AJ, though I take issue with your claim that "The attitude towards the CFL is a prime example of the classic Canadian mindset that everything from the US is better."
When I was a child, CFL was the league to watch. American football was for wimps--they had to have another down to make ten. Canadians could do it in three, and on a longer field. There was (and still is) no such thing as a fair catch, in CFL rules. Letting the guy catch the ball and not hitting him? That was a cop-out. A missed field goal? Yeah, you better believe it's gonna be returned.
Then, the NFL got smart. All games were to be on Sundays, increasing the hype through the week. You are not going to see a pro football game unless you watch on Sundays. Some time later, the ABC network persuaded the NFL to have a Monday night game, which it turned into a prime-time spectacular. Then, the NFL realized that more revenue was to be obtained from TV than from ticket sales.
Meanwhile, the CFL was stuck in the 1950s. Ticket sales meant all. Beyond that, the CFL insisted on holding games on Tuesdays, Thursdays, whenever. TV blackout rules meant that (for example) Argos fans could not watch their team for home games. No wonder a couple of generations of Canadian kids grew up thinking that the only real football--the kind they could see on TV--was NFL, on "any given Sunday." Hell, a whole generation of Toronto kids did not grow up to be Argos fans--because they never got to watch the Argos on TV!
In contrast, when I lived in Toronto, I could watch on TV any Blue Jays game played at home, and any Maple Leafs game played at home. Why could I not watch any Argos game played at home?
In short, marketing and TV was what made the NFL pre-eminent. The NFL is not a better game--but it is sold as a better game than CFL. And a lot of Canadians buy into that.
Last edited by ChevySpoons; 08-09-2015 at 12:31 AM..
Well said, AJ, though I take issue with your claim that "The attitude towards the CFL is a prime example of the classic Canadian mindset that everything from the US is better."
When I was a child, CFL was the league to watch. American football was for wimps--they had to have another down to make ten. Canadians could do it in three, and on a longer field. There was (and still is) no such thing as a fair catch, in CFL rules. Letting the guy catch the ball and not hitting him? That was a cop-out. A missed field goal? Yeah, you better believe it's gonna be returned.
Then, the NFL got smart. All games were to be on Sundays, increasing the hype through the week. You are not going to see a pro football game unless you watch on Sundays. Some time later, the ABC network persuaded the NFL to have a Monday night game, which it turned into a prime-time spectacular. Then, the NFL realized that more revenue was to be obtained from TV than from ticket sales.
Meanwhile, the CFL was stuck in the 1950s. Ticket sales meant all. Beyond that, the CFL insisted on holding games on Tuesdays, Thursdays, whenever. TV blackout rules meant that (for example) Argos fans could not watch their team for home games. No wonder a couple of generations of Canadian kids grew up thinking that the only real football--the kind they could see on TV--was NFL, on "any given Sunday." Hell, a whole generation of Toronto kids did not grow up to be Argos fans--because they never got to watch the Argos on TV!
In contrast, when I lived in Toronto, I could watch on TV any Blue Jays game played at home, and any Maple Leafs game played at home. Why could I not watch any Argos game played at home?
In short, marketing and TV was what made the NFL pre-eminent. The NFL is not a better game--but it is sold as a better game than CFL. And a lot of Canadians buy into that.
Almost all true. Pardon the pun, but the CFL really dropped the ball.
But it is also true that many Canadians are quick to jettison their own stuff and adopt American stuff for perceived reasons of ''quality''. You see this in other areas too: feature films, fictional TV programming, etc.
They don't even give it a chance, and in many cases it's no longer even about quality. It's about conditioning.
Almost all true. Pardon the pun, but the CFL really dropped the ball.
But it is also true that many Canadians are quick to jettison their own stuff and adopt American stuff for perceived reasons of ''quality''. You see this in other areas too: feature films, fictional TV programming, etc.
They don't even give it a chance, and in many cases it's no longer even about quality. It's about conditioning.
A/J; why the overriding desire to pile it on?
If you aren't on here shouting how Canadians do everything in frenzied paroxysms to distinguish themselves from Americans; you're doing a complete 180 and accusing Canadians of emulating all things American.
Make up your mind for heaven's sake; which is it?
A popular tale of the beginnings:
"Football was introduced to North America in Canada by the British Army garrison in Montreal, which played a series of games with McGill University.[1] In 1874, USA's Harvard University hosted Canada's McGill University to play the new game derived from rugby football in a home-and-home series. When the Canadians arrived several days early, to take advantage of the trip to see Boston and the surrounding areas, they held daily practices. During this time, the Americans were surprised to see the Canadians kick, chase, and then run with the ball. Picking up and running with the ball violated a basic rule of the American game of the day; when the US captain (Henry Grant) pointed this out to the captain of the Canadian team (David Roger), the reply was simple: Running with the ball is a core part of the Canadian game. When the American asked which game the Canadians played, David replied "rugby". After some negotiation, it was decided to play a game with half and half Canadian/US rules."
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