By Greg Urbanoski

Riderville

Clarity not Yet on the Horizon for the 2021 CFL Season

Jun 7, 2021 | 10:55 AM

We are about a week away from finding out how the CFL schedule will look this year.

The CFL will apparently send over the schedule to the CFL Players Association and the wait for that is predicated on how the rate of vaccinations are proceeding through the Canadian provinces. Right now the CFL is looking at a 14 game schedule which seems more and more likely, but what is interesting is how the schedule will unfold.

If Ontario is still holding out outdoor gatherings until Labor Day, then the prospect of the western teams hosting for the first seven games (assuming an August 5 start) is pretty high. Another potential prospect is eastern teams teaming up with western teams to host games, so in theory, you could see Hamilton play Montreal at Mosaic Stadium, but I suspect if the league decides to have western teams front load their home appearances, then the league would switch over to the eastern teams hosting games for the second half of the season.

Here in Saskatchewan there are some questions about who will be able to attend home games. It appears that season ticket holders will get first priority with walk ups being an interesting option. I kind of doubt there will be proof of vaccination required, partly due to privacy concerns, partly due to not knowing how such a vaccination certificate would look and operate.

Whether or not fans would be required to wear masks is yet to be determined, although it appears if fans want to wear masks they can, or if they don’t, that works too. However, there will be some differences due to the Riders having to lay off a large number of staff.

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Some staff won’t be coming back and by some counts, the Riders have lost people with over 50 years of experience. That means staff may be in place not as familiar with how the club operates and that may mean longer time trying to get through the Rider store or even concessions.

The federal government just provided an exemption for NHL teams in the next round of the playoffs with American teams being able to travel here and vice versa. I would expect if players can show their vaccination cards, they will be able to cross the boarder and do their two- week quarantine before beginning camp.

This will be perhaps a larger camp than expected with draft picks from 2020 and 2021 competing along with a long line of American hopefuls. This could lead to an expansion of the CFL practice roster to make it easier for teams to fill vacancies created by injury.

So Rider fans could be done with home games excluding playoffs by mid-September which means the first half of the season will be extremely hectic. For the Riders, looking at somewhere around a $7 million loss for last season although the annual report has yet to be released, that shortfall may take years to overcome but there is a silver lining.

The single game betting bill that should be clearing the Senate soon may provide teams with the lifeline they need to survive a lack of people in seats. Currently if you want to bet on sports games, you have to go on Sports Select and select more than one game.

This bill gives people the opportunity to bet on single games and things inside of games instead of being forced to bet on games in groups.

The income from single game better may be the most important factor in turning the league around, although there are some that feel the teams need revenue sharing to be truly stable. The problem with that is the optics of community owned teams sending money to Toronto which is owned by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, a $1.5 billion company, because they can ‘t, or won’t, properly market the Argonauts.

Add to that the perception that MLSE is looking to bring an NFL team to Toronto sometime in the future and the question can be asked is why would CFL fans be asked to help contribute to an organization that can not only pay any shortfalls at the moment, let alone to an organization that wants to bring an NFL team to Toronto.

So The Riders in the meantime are signing their draft picks, including Nelson Lokombo, in preparation for training camp, which may be held in Regina with players living at at the University of Regina which practicing at Mosaic Stadium. The Riders have some questions like….

1) Will Cody Fajardo be as good this year as he was in 2019? Fajardo came off the bench when then-Rider starter Zach Collaros went down with a concussion against Hamilton. Fortunately, Fajardo rose to the occasion, but with film now available on him, how teams focus on him and how he responds will go a long way to determining where the teams ends up.

2) How will the Riders defense responds to losing Solomon Elimimian, Cam Judge and Charlton Hughes? Elimimian and Judge anchored the Riders linebacking corps while Hughes is attempting to continue his domination with Toronto. The Riders signed Larry Dean for experience, but who else lines up with him depends on who emerges from training camp and whether any of the Canadian free agent signings are ready to step in and compete. The Rider defensive line did welcome Micah Johnson back, but lost Hughes which may or may not be significant. The Riders do have AC Leonard back to go with Johnson, but the Riders will need another rush end to step forward and for one or two Canadian defensive tackles to emerge to help stabilize the defense. The Riders defensive backfield does seem set at this stage.

3) Which Canadian receivers emerge to help contribute to the offense? The Riders have a stable of Canadian receivers and now has to see which ones are prepared to step forward and make a difference. One guy on the bubble is Mitch Picton who had a pretty good career with the University of Regina Rams, but has languished on the Rider practice roster for the last couple of years. Picton is a good receiver but there were concerns he needed to put on more muscle to help hang onto balls when going over the middle.

4) How Jason Maas will influence this offense will be fascinating to figure out. Maas as an offensive coordinator is viewed much more favorably than his work as a head coach. Where Maas has been an offensive coordinator has resulted in increased offensive production, so if anyone is positioned to help Fajardo overcome a sophomore slump as Rider starter, it is Maas. The question is will this be an offense that takes a lot of downfield shot or whether the team will look at a balanced attack of downfield passing and running.

5) The impact of a lost year on players will be interesting to see. The advantage will be with veterans who understand the importance of being in shape and knowing the playbook. Where things will be interesting will be for Canadian rookies who will come to understand the importance of not just being in shape, but also knowing the playbook. For older players and those coming off of injury, the extra year may have helped conserve their legs and prolong their careers, but in some cases, maybe the year off will have accelerated the progress towards retirement.

There will be other questions, but those spring up as perhaps the most relevant at this time. There are other questions like will there be a merger between the CFL and XFL and if so, what form will this merger take?

The answer to that is probably not likely we will hear anything until after the end of this season. The CFL and XFL have non-disclosure agreements about their discussions, but one thing to keep in mind is the investment group behind if XFL also owns some of the soccer teams involved in the aborted Super League concept.

Redbird Capital is involved with Dwayne Johnson, but Redbird was also involved with the scheme to create the super soccer league which was torpedoed by fans protesting the decision to break tradition. The fans saw the move as inspired by Americans with no understanding of soccer, and if Redbird does the same thing with the CFL, there will likely be fan backlash much like what happened in Europe when soccer fans protested the tone deaf moves by Redbird.

One gets the feeling the Riders they may be looking at an all-in this year with a team that has some aging parts but perhaps enough talent to overcome that factor. The Riders are one deck to host the 2022 Grey Cup, in exchange for losing the 2020 Grey Cup to Covid-19.

The Rider offensive line will be interesting to watch after the investment in draft picks and local talent. The Riders added free agent Evan Johnson and also Brent Boyko and have a number of draft picks and free agent signings. The Riders want to be more physical on their offensive line with the interior being made up of Canadians and the outside of Americans unless some Canadians can emerge that can handle the increased physical demands of protecting quarterbacks from edge rushers.

So much of this hinges on the willingness of Canadians to be vaccinated. Hopefully in Saskatchewan, most people being Riders fans will likely go for vaccinations if that is the best way to get out of the house and see games. It’s not exactly a season yet, but it is looking more and more that there will be one and then the fun starts.