Canadian Football League
Encyclopedia
The Canadian Football League or CFL ( [LCF] in French) is a professional sports league
located in Canada
. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football
, a form of gridiron football
closely related to American football
.
Its eight teams, which are located in eight cities, are divided into two divisions of four teams each—the East Division
and the West Division
. The league's 19-week regular season runs from late June to early November; each team plays 18 games with one bye week
. Following the regular season, the three teams with the best records in their division (except if the fourth place team in one division has a better record than the third place team in the other division, the team with the better record makes the playoffs and "crosses over" to the other division's playoff) will compete in the league's three-week divisional playoff
s, which culminate in the late-November Grey Cup
championship, the country's largest annual sports and television event.
The CFL was officially founded in 1958. It is the highest level of play in Canadian football, the most popular football league in Canada, and the second-most popular major sports league in Canada, after the National Hockey League
. Although ice hockey
is Canada's most popular sport, the CFL has increased the popularity of Canadian football
in Quebec
and Western Canada. Canadian football is also played at amateur levels (i.e. youth, high school, CJFL
, QJFL
, CIS
and senior leagues such as the Alberta Football League
).
The 2010s will be a significant decade for the CFL in terms of growth, as teams have renovated, expanded stadiums, or plan to build entirely new stadiums. The Montreal Alouettes
accomplished this first, adding 5,000 seats to Percival Molson Memorial Stadium in time for the 2010 CFL season
. The Edmonton Eskimos
and Calgary Stampeders
also renovated their respective stadia and facilities for the 2010 season. During the following season
the BC Lions
will play under a new, retractable roof in BC Place after spending one year at Empire Field
. Then, the following year, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers
will play in an entirely new stadium
at the University of Manitoba
, scheduled to open in time for the 2012 CFL season. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats
, Saskatchewan Roughriders
and the new Ottawa franchise will also be looking at new or extensively-renovated stadiums in the following years.
Rugby football
began to be played in Canada in the 1860s, and many of the first Canadian football teams played under the auspices of the Canadian Rugby Football Union
(CRFU), founded in 1884. The CRFU was reorganized as the Canadian Rugby Union (CRU) in 1892, and served as an umbrella organization
that several leagues were part of. The Grey Cup
was donated by Governor General
Earl Grey in 1909 to the team winning the Senior Amateur Football Championship of Canada. By that time, the sport as played in Canada had diverged markedly from its rugby origins. From the 1930s to the 1950s, the two senior leagues of the CRU, the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU) gradually evolved from amateur
to professional leagues, and amateur teams such as those in the Ontario Rugby Football Union
(ORFU) were no longer competitive in their Cup challenges. The ORFU withdrew from Grey Cup competition in 1954, heralding the start of the modern era of professional Canadian football, in which the Grey Cup has been exclusively contested by professional teams (Since 1965, Canada's top amateur teams, competing in Canadian Interuniversity Sport
(CIS), have competed for the Vanier Cup
).
In 1956, the IRFU and WIFU formed a new umbrella organization, the Canadian Football Council (CFC), and in 1958
, the CFC left the CRU, becoming the Canadian Football League (The CRU remained the governing body for amateur play in Canada, eventually adopting the name Football Canada
). Initially, there was no inter-divisional play between eastern (IRFU) and western (WIFU) teams except at the Grey Cup
final. Limited interlocking play was introduced in 1961
and by 1981
there was a full interlocking schedule of 16 games per season. The separate histories of the IRFU and the WIFU accounted for the fact that two teams had basically the same name: the IRFU's Ottawa Rough Riders
were often called the "Eastern Riders", while the WIFU's Saskatchewan Roughriders
were called the "Western Riders" or "Green Riders". Other team names had unusual yet traditional origins: with rowing
a national craze in the late 19th century, the Argonaut Rowing Club of Toronto formed a rugby team for its members' off-season participation; the club name Toronto Argonauts
remains to this day, and after World War II, the two teams in Hamilton
—the Tigers and the Flying Wildcats—merged both their organizations and their names, forming the Hamilton Tiger-Cats
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After the admission of the expansion BC Lions
in Vancouver in 1954, the league remained stable with nine franchises: (BC Lions
, Calgary Stampeders
, Edmonton Eskimos
, Saskatchewan Roughriders
, Winnipeg Blue Bombers
, Hamilton Tiger-Cats
, Toronto Argonauts
, Ottawa Rough Riders
, Montreal Alouettes
) from its 1958 inception until 1982
, when the Alouettes folded and were replaced the same year by a new franchise named the Concordes
.
In 1986
the Concordes were renamed the Alouettes to attract more fan support, but the team folded the next year. The demise of the Alouettes, leaving only three teams in the East Division compared to five teams in the West Division, forced the League to alter its playoff structure by moving the easternmost Western team, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers
, into the East Division, upsetting the long-standing tradition of "East vs. West", as Winnipeg is not considered part of eastern Canada.
, the league admitted its first United States-based franchise, the Sacramento Gold Miners
. After modest success, the league then expanded further in the U.S. in 1994
with the Las Vegas Posse
, Baltimore Stallions
, and Shreveport Pirates
. The Las Vegas franchise was unsuccessful and turned into a road team by the end of the season. Baltimore, however, advanced all the way to the 82nd Grey Cup
and was a financial success as well.
For the 1995
campaign, the American teams were split off into their own South Division. Las Vegas was folded, while two new teams, the Birmingham Barracudas
and Memphis Mad Dogs
, were added. The Sacramento team moved to become the San Antonio Texans
A San Antonio team was to have been admitted into the CFL along with the Gold Miners for 1993 but folded before taking a single snap
. 1995 saw the Stallions become the first non-Canadian team to win the Grey Cup
.
The success of the CFL's U.S. expansion was mixed. Baltimore and San Antonio had sustainable operations and were expected to return in 1996. Memphis and Birmingham had reasonable success in 1995 but ran into severe attendance problems during college football
season; Shreveport, although it had solid attendance, did not fare well on the field and suffered from poor management. By the end of the 1995 season, Shreveport and Birmingham moved out of their cities and ultimately folded, and Memphis followed suit. When Art Modell
, owner of the NFL's Cleveland Browns
, announced he would be moving his team
to Baltimore to become the Baltimore Ravens
, the Stallions moved to Montreal, becoming the revived Montreal Alouettes
. San Antonio decided not to continue operations as the only American team and folded shortly thereafter. By the 1996 season
, the Canadian Football League was once again based entirely in Canada.
with nine teams; however, the Ottawa Rough Riders
, in existence since 1876, folded after the 1996 season, due to poor ownership and fan support, in addition to an aging facility which no longer was suitable for providing a profitable location for professional football. In 2002
, the league expanded back to nine teams with the creation of the Ottawa Renegades
. After four seasons of financial losses, the Renegades were suspended indefinitely before the 2006 season
; their players were absorbed by the remaining teams in a dispersal draft
.
In 1997, the NFL provided a $3-million USD interest-free loan to the financially struggling CFL, as CFL teams were losing money after the failed US expansion. In return, the NFL was granted access to CFL players entering a defined two-month window in the option year of their contract. This was later written into the CFL's collective bargaining agreement with its players. The CFL's finances have since stabilized and they eventually repaid the loan. The CFL–NFL agreement expired in 2006. Both leagues have been attempting to reach a new agreement, however the CFL broke off negotiations after Canadian telecommunications firm Rogers Communications
paid $78 million to host eight games
of the NFL's Buffalo Bills
in Toronto
over five seasons.
The league had struck a committee in 2003 to examine the feasibility of adding a tenth team (which has been a long-standing CFL ambition), the leading candidate cities were Quebec City
and Halifax. Exhibition games were held in Quebec City in 2003 and in Halifax in 2005. The Halifax event, dubbed Touchdown Atlantic
, was scheduled to repeat in 2006 but was cancelled after the suspension of the Ottawa Renegades franchise. Commissioner Tom Wright at that time had indicated that Halifax was the leading candidate for expansion. Moncton is also pursuing a CFL team and has now replaced Halifax as the leading expansion candidate. A newly constructed stadium for the World Junior Track and Field Championships, which opened in 2010, would need the seating and field itself expanded for a CFL team. The mayor of Moncton, premier of New Brunswick, and league commissioner Mark Cohon met in February 2009 to negotiate a deal that would see the city host a regular season game annually over five years, beginning in the 2010 CFL season
.
In 2005
, the league set an all-time attendance record
with a total attendance of more than 2.3 million. With the absence of Ottawa in 2006, the league recorded total regular season attendance of 2,112,696, increasing the average per-game attendance to 29,343. This is the third highest per-game attendance of any North American sports league and the seventh highest per-game attendance of any sports league worldwide. A recent survey conducted at the University of Lethbridge
confirmed that the CFL is the second most popular sports league in Canada, with the following of 19% of the total adult Canadian population compared to 30% for the NHL
. The NFL
had 13% following, with a total of 34% following at least one of the pro football leagues. This could be interpreted to mean that approximately 80% of Canadian football fans follow the CFL and about 55% follow the NFL. The 2007 CFL season
marked the sixth straight season of over two million attendance in regular season. Though slightly less than 2006, the 2,100,016 total attendance figure showed greater over-all strength as the average game attendance rose to 29,167, the highest since the 1983 season
. Leading the growth were the Roughriders with six consecutive sellouts, the Blue Bombers with five consecutive sellouts, and the Argonauts, whose average attendance of 30,931 was their highest since 1992. The 2007 Grey Cup
champion Roughriders were named Canada's team of the year by Canadian Press
and credited with rekindling interest in football in the West
.
In 2008
, the CFL re-awarded the former Renegades franchise to Ottawa 67's
owner Jeff Hunt, who was supposed to launch a new Ottawa franchise
in 2010; issues with Frank Clair Stadium
and numerous legal delays in the reconstruction of the stadium have left the team on hold until at least 2014.
As of 2011
, the CFL season includes:
weekend and finishing by early November. The CFL's eight teams are divided into two divisions: the East Division
and West Division
, with four teams in each division. Each team plays two games against each team in the opposite division, three games against two teams in its own division, and four games against one other team in its own division on a rotating basis. Alternating divisional bye weeks take place in weeks nine and ten, putting the focus on games within the division not resting that week. The most popular featured week in the CFL season is the Labour Day Classic
, played over the course of the Labour Day weekend, where the matchups feature the first half of home-and-home series between the traditional geographic rivalries of Toronto–Hamilton (a rivalry which began in 1873), Edmonton–Calgary (see Battle of Alberta), and Winnipeg–Saskatchewan. BC—Montreal, while not considered a "traditional" rivalry, rounds out the week's games. The following week's rematch of these games is a popular event as well, especially in recent years, where the rematch of the Saskatchewan–Winnipeg game has been dubbed the Banjo Bowl. Other features of the regular season schedule are the Hall of Fame
Game in Hamilton
and the Thanksgiving Day Classic
, the doubleheader held on Thanksgiving
where the match ups usually do not feature traditional rivalries. Starting in 2010, a neutral site regular season game will be played in Moncton under the name Touchdown Atlantic
.
The league awards points based on regular season results (two for a win, one for a tie and none for a loss). As of the 2011 season, in the event two teams in the same division finish the season with the same number of points the tie is broken based on the following criteria (in descending order):
s begin in November. After the regular season, the top team from each division has an automatic home berth in the division final, and a bye week during the division semifinal. The second-place team from each division hosts the third-place team in the division semifinal, unless a fourth-place team from one division finishes with a better record than a third place team in the other (this provision is known as the crossover rule, and while it implies that it is possible for two teams in the same division to play for the Grey Cup, only two crossover teams have ever won a semifinal: the Edmonton Eskimos on November 8, 2008, vs. the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and the BC Lions on November 15, 2009, vs. the Hamilton Tiger-Cats). The winners of each division's semifinal game then travel to play the first place teams in the division finals. Since 2005, the division semifinals and division finals have been sponsored by Scotiabank
. The two division champions then face each other in the Grey Cup
game, which, since 2007
, has been held on the fourth or fifth Sunday of November.
is both the name of the championship of the CFL and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. The Grey Cup is the second oldest trophy in North American professional sport after the Stanley Cup. The Grey Cup game is hosted in one of the league's member cities. In recent years, it has been hosted in a different city every year, selected two or more years in advance. The 2007 Grey Cup
, held in Toronto
on November 25, 2007, featured a Labour Day Classic match up for the first time ever, with the Saskatchewan Roughriders
winning 23–19 over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers
. In 2008 the Grey Cup champions were the Calgary Stampeders
, after defeating the Montreal Alouettes
22–14 in Montreal. In 2009, the Montreal Alouettes defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders 28–27. The following year, in a rematch of the previous championship game, the Montreal Alouettes
defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders
21–18 at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.
As the country's single largest annual sporting event, the Grey Cup has long served as an unofficial Canadian autumn festival generating national media coverage and a large amount of revenue for the host city. Many fans travel from across the country to attend the game and the week of festivities that lead up to it.
and Grey Cup Most Valuable Canadian
are selected. A number of league individual player awards, such as the Most Outstanding Player
and Most Outstanding Defensive Player
, are awarded annually at a special ceremony in the host city during the week before the Grey Cup game; this ceremony is broadcast nationally on TSN
. The Annis Stukus Trophy
, also known as the Coach of the Year Award, is awarded separately at a banquet held during the off-season each February. While the CFL has not held an all-star game
since 1988
, an All-Star Team is selected and honoured at the league awards ceremony during Grey Cup week.
(which began televising CFL games in 1985
), while TSN's French-language network RDS
broadcasts Montreal Alouettes
games for the Quebec
television market. Games are typically scheduled for Thursday to Saturday evenings during June, July and August, but switch to more Saturday and Sunday afternoon games during September and October. TSN has created a tradition of at least one Friday night game each week, branded as Friday Night Football. CBC and TSN drew record television audiences for CFL broadcasts in 2005. The 2006 season was the first season in which every regular season game was televised, as the league implemented an instant replay
challenge system. In 2006, the CFL also began offering pay-per-view webcasts of every game on CFL Broadband. Until the end of the 2007 season CBC and RDS were the exclusive television broadcasters for all playoff games, including the Grey Cup
, which regularly draws a Canadian viewing audience in excess of 4 million.
Since 2008
, TSN and RDS are the exclusive television and internet broadcasters of all CFL games, including the playoffs and Grey Cup. The five-year agreement, which includes an option for a sixth year, is worth about $16 million annually and marks the first time since 1952 that CBC will not be broadcasting any CFL games. The CFL will no longer be broadcast on Canadian terrestrial television, unless TSN chooses to air the game on its terrestrial partners, CTV
or CTV Two (formerly /A\); as of 2011, TSN has not transferred any CFL games to broadcast TV. The move to TSN all but assures that all CFL games will be broadcast in high definition. , TSN was available in about 8.8 million of Canada's 13 million households. The two play by play announcers are Chris Cuthbert and Rod Black
while the colour commentators are Glen Suitor
(with Cuthbert) and Duane Forde
(with Black).
CFL teams have local broadcast contracts with terrestrial radio stations for regular season and playoff games, while The Fan Radio Network (Rogers Communications
) owns the rights to the Grey Cup. In 2006, Sirius Satellite Radio
gained exclusive rights for North American CFL satellite radio
broadcasts and broadcast 25 CFL games per season, including the Grey Cup, through 2008.
, with the network carrying fourteen games, no more than one each week, in the 2010 season and increased its output to two games each week for the 2011 season.
, which held a monopoly on Canadian television until 1961, held Canadian professional football broadcast rights beginning the year of its debut, 1952
. From the time of CTV
's debut in 1962
through 1986
, CBC and CTV shared CFL broadcasting rights. They split playoff games and simulcast
the Grey Cup. In 1962
, 1965
, 1967
, 1968
and 1970
, CTV commentators were used for the dual network telecast, while in 1963
, 1964
, 1966
and 1969
, CBC announcers were provided. From 1971
through 1986
, one network's crew called the first half while the other called the rest of the game. After the 1986 season, CTV dropped coverage of the CFL and the Grey Cup. From 1987
through 1990
, the CFL operated its own syndicated network, CFN. Like CTV, CFN split playoff games with CBC. However, CFN had completely separate coverage of the Grey Cup, utilizing its own production and commentators. From 1991
to 2007
, all post-season games had been exclusively on CBC; beginning in 2008
, the Grey Cup was carried on TSN
, although the cable provider reserves the right to move the game to sister network CTV
.
in 1954 that provided far more coverage than the NFL's existing contract with DuMont
. NBC aired games on Saturday afternoons, competing against college football broadcasts on CBS and ABC. The revenue from the contract allowed the IRFU to directly compete against the NFL for players in the late 1950s, setting up a series of CFL games in the United States beginning in 1958 and a series of interleague exhibitions beginning in 1959. Interest in the CFL in the United States faded dramatically after the debut of the American Football League
in 1960.
In 1982, during a players' strike in the NFL
, NBC
broadcast CFL games in the United States in lieu of the NFL games which were cancelled; the first week of broadcasts featured the NFL on NBC
broadcast teams, before a series of blowout games on the network and the resulting low ratings resulted in NBC cutting back and eventually cancelling its CFL coverage. ESPN host Chris Berman became a fan of the game in the early days of ESPN, when the network used to air CFL games, and continues to cover the Canadian league on-air. FNN-SCORE
(unrelated to the Canadian "The Score") carried games in the late 1980s. In the late 80s and early 90s, SportsChannel America
carried games, using CBC and CFN feeds. Beginning in 1994
, with now four US-based teams in the league, ESPN
reached a deal with the league to produce and air two games per week and all post-season games on its fledgling ESPN2
. They also put some games on the main network to fill broadcast time vacated by the 1994 Major League Baseball strike. The 1994 and 1995 Grey Cups were shown live on ESPN2 and then re-aired on ESPN the following day, leading into the network's Monday Night Countdown
show. ESPN's on-air talent included a mix of the network's American football
broadcasters and established CFL broadcasters from Canada. Most of the US-based teams also had deals with local carriers to show games that were not covered in the national package. Though there were no US teams in the league after 1995, ESPN2 continued showing games until 1997.
America One
held CFL broadcast rights in the United States from 2004 to 2009 and aired a majority of the league's games. Until the 2007 season
, America One syndicated CFL games to regional sports network
s like Altitude
, NESN
, and MASN
; these were discontinued in 2008
, mainly because America One and the CFL were able to reach a deal only days before the season began, not allowing the network time to establish agreements with individual RSNs. The Grey Cup aired on Versus
on November 22, 2008, with a replay the next day on America One. From 2006 through the 2008 season, Friday Night Football was carried exclusively on World Sport HD
in the United States; however, due to the January 2009 shutdown of that channel's parent company, Voom HD Networks, America One reclaimed those rights.
of CFL games in the United States and elsewhere prior to 2009, but the service ceased operations prior to the 2010 season. During America One's time broadcasting CFL games, some CFL video feeds could be found for free due to the fact that a small number of America One affiliates streamed their video on the Internet, even though the CFL discouraged this.
In Canada, Bell Mobility
provides streaming of CFL games to its mobile devices.
of $4.05 million per team. The cap was raised to $4.2 million in the 2008 season
and remained at that level for 2009. On June 29, 2010, a new collective bargaining agreement was ratified that raised the salary cap to $4.25 million for the 2010 CFL season
and would continue to increase by $50,000 each season until 2013. Financial penalties for teams that breach the cap are set at $1 to $1 for the first $100,000 over, $2 to $1 for $100,000 to $300,000 over, and $3 to $1 for $300,000 and above. Penalties could also include forfeited draft picks. For 2010, the minimum team salary was set at $3.9 million while the minimum player salary was set at $42,000. In 2006, the active roster limit was increased from 40 to 42. The import/non-import ratio, which required teams to keep at least 20 non-import ("A player who was physically resident in Canada for an aggregate of 7 years prior to turning 15 or if he’s a Canadian Citizen, was physically resident in Canada for an aggregate period of 5 years prior to turning 18") players on their active roster, was retained at 50%, and thus 21 non-import players are required on the active roster. Teams may have up to 4 players on their reserve roster, and up to 7 on their practice roster. Eligible non-imports (usually from CIS football
or American college football
) are drafted by teams in the annual Canadian College Draft
, which follows an evaluation camp similar to the NFL Combine
. A junior player in the locale of a team may be claimed as a territorial exemption and sign with that team before beginning collegiate play (one recent example is of when the Saskatchewan Roughriders claimed Mike Maurer
). Teams maintain "negotiation lists" of players they wish to sign as free agent
s. CFL players are represented by the Canadian Football League Players' Association
(CFLPA). Each team elects two players to the CFLPA Board of Player Representatives, which meets once per year. Every two years, it elects an executive Board of Directors.
teams using a mixture of each league's rules. The last such exhibition game was on August 8, 1961, when the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats
defeated the AFL's Buffalo Bills
. This was the only time in which a Canadian team defeated an American team in the series.
In the days when sports teams were financed almost entirely by ticket sales, the CFL and NFL
were, financially speaking, on relatively equal footing. In the 1970s, CFL teams signed top U.S. college football
players such as Johnny Rodgers
, Joe Theismann
, and Tom Cousineau
. As late as the 1970s and early 1980s, when high-capacity stadiums were built in Montreal
, Edmonton
, Vancouver
, and Toronto
, people such as Montreal Alouettes
owner Nelson Skalbania
continued to believe that relative parity could be sustained so long as the CFL could get larger stadiums built in its other cities and sell them out.
However, by the 1980s it became clear that financial parity between the two leagues would not be maintained, not so much because of the disparity in attendance figures, but because of the NFL's increasingly lucrative television contracts that now bring in a majority of the NFL's revenue. The CFL could not hope to negotiate similar contracts with Canadian networks because the U.S. television market is more than ten times the size of Canada's (whereas, at the time, the NFL only had 3 times as many teams as the CFL). A notable exception to this trend occurred in 1991 when the deep-pocketed owners of the Toronto Argonauts (tycoon Bruce McNall
, actor John Candy
, and hockey star Wayne Gretzky
) signed U.S. college star Raghib "Rocket" Ismail to the then-unheard of sum of $18.2 million spread over four years. This proved unsustainable and Ismail left for the NFL after two seasons. Currently, the difference in average salaries between the CFL and NFL is significant, with only a handful of CFL players making more than the NFL minimum.
There is a significant difference in talent between the two leagues due to style of play, CFL teams often recruit skilled players who would be considered undersized by NFL standards. For this reason, there are few players who have played in both leagues, and even fewer who have achieved success in both leagues. Only two people have been elected to both the Canadian Football Hall of Fame
and the U.S. Pro Football Hall of Fame
: quarterback Warren Moon
and coach Bud Grant
. There are many cases of CFLers going to the NFL and having success, such as Pro Bowl
ers Joe Horn
, Brendon Ayanbadejo
, Joe Theismann
, Cameron Wake
and Doug Flutie
. Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy
and Jeff Garcia
are also good examples. On the other hand, there have also been cases of NFL stars coming to the CFL and failing to excel, such as Vince Ferragamo
, Onterrio Smith
and Ricky Williams
. According to Williams and Jarrett Payton
, who has also played in both leagues, since running backs in the CFL get fewer rushing touches they are expected to be more versatile.
for the 2010 CFL season
to a group of people in Ottawa
led by Jeff Hunt
, the owner of Ottawa 67's
of the Ontario Hockey League on the condition of getting a lease agreement of Frank Clair Stadium
. The CFL had previously stated that this team would be a resurrection of the "Ottawa Renegades
", but their announcement did not make this clear. Stadium issues and legal delays have delayed the start of play for the Ottawa franchise until 2014 at the earliest.
Halifax, Nova Scotia; Moncton, New Brunswick; Quebec City
; London, Ontario
; and Windsor, Ontario
also have been lobbying for Canadian Football League franchises in recent years. With Atlantic Canada however, there is not yet a permanently suitable CFL stadium, which was the main problem that kept a previous attempt at a Halifax franchise (the Atlantic Schooners
) off the field. Until 2010, the largest fields in Atlantic Canada were Huskies Stadium
in Halifax and Canada Games Stadium
in Saint John, both of which only seat 11,000, even with temporary seating. As of 2010, the new largest stadium in the Atlantic region is the 10,000 seat Stade Moncton Stadium which is expandable to 20,000 seats, making a CFL franchise possible. A pre-season game, dubbed Touchdown Atlantic
, was held in Halifax in the 2005 CFL season
and regular season games were played in Moncton in 2010 and 2011. All 20,000 seats for the 2010 Moncton game sold out in 32 hours.
While Quebec City has not gotten as much attention as have Moncton and Halifax, there has been expressed interest to add a team there. In 2003, an exhibition game was held at PEPS Le Stade Extérieur
between the Montreal Alouettes
and Ottawa Renegades
where Montreal won 54–23. In May 2009, Christina Saint Marche, a British businesswoman, announced her interest in operating a team in Quebec City—stating that there would be a natural rivalry with the Montreal Alouettes. Saint Marche entered a joint venture agreement with Quebec City Lawyer Marc Bellemare, a star candidate
with the Liberal Party in the Quebec election of 2003, with Saint Marche escrowing the first $20 million.
However, Commissioner Mark Cohon
noted that he has not been approached by Saint Marche, and that she would still need to secure a suitable stadium of a capacity of at least 25,000. Bellemare had tried to expand PEPS Stadium, but the Université Laval
did not want to expand the stadium due to fear that fans would stop attending CIS
games in favour of professional games. During the 2010 Grey Cup
state of the league news conference, Cohon noted that the Alouettes hold the rights for the entire province of Quebec
and that any expansion would have to be negotiated with them first. Cohon also said that he has not yet had any conversations with Alouettes owner Bob Wetenhall regarding said expansion.
London hosted a 2002 exhibition game between Hamilton and Toronto; the game was held at TD Waterhouse Stadium
, which expands to 16,000 seats, slightly below what the CFL would demand for a full-time team.
Due to the demolition of Ivor Wynne Stadium
and the construction of Pan American Stadium in Hamilton, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats will need to find a temporary home for the 2013 season. London, Quebec City and Moncton have all been mentioned as potential temporary hosts for the team during that season.
Windsor, as part of the Detroit-Windsor metropolitan area, has been suggested by the potential owner Oronde Gadsden
as a prospective market for a team he is pursuing, though Gadsden indicated the team, if he were to own it, would possibly be based in the U.S. suburbs of Detroit, Michigan) at the Silverdome
indoor stadium.
Western New York
has also been mentioned as a potential expansion site; Gadsden mentioned Rochester, New York
, as another potential market for his team, while there have been suggestions, both serious and non-serious, that the teams from Southern Ontario play some games in Buffalo, New York
, as a response to the Buffalo Bills
' playing some home football games in Toronto
. Buffalo's UB Stadium
(29,000) and Coca-Cola Field (19,500, with potential for expansion) are at or near CFL-capacity; though Ralph Wilson Stadium
and its over 70,000 seats has enough capacity, its playing surface is far too small to accommodate a CFL-sized field. Since the demolition of Holleder Memorial Stadium
in 1985, Rochester, New York
, lacks a stadium with a sufficient seating capacity. Both Frontier Field
and Sahlen's Stadium in Rochester seat fewer than 14,000. The only other stadiums in the region that could possibly support a CFL team would be the 46,000-seat Carrier Dome
in Syracuse and the 25,000-seat Schoellkopf Field
in Ithaca.
Notes
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Media
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Sports league
League is a term commonly used to describe a group of sports teams or individual athletes that compete against each other in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete on weekends; at its most complex, it can be an...
located in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football
Canadian football
Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...
, a form of gridiron football
Gridiron football
Gridiron football , sometimes known as North American football, is an umbrella term for related codes of football primarily played in the United States and Canada. The predominant forms of gridiron football are American football and Canadian football...
closely related to American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
.
Its eight teams, which are located in eight cities, are divided into two divisions of four teams each—the East Division
Canadian Football League East Division
The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues.- Pre-1907 :...
and the West Division
Canadian Football League West Division
The West Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the West Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues.-Pre-1936:...
. The league's 19-week regular season runs from late June to early November; each team plays 18 games with one bye week
Bye (sports)
A bye, in sports and other competitive activities, most commonly refers to the practice of allowing a player or team to advance to the next round of a playoff tournament without playing...
. Following the regular season, the three teams with the best records in their division (except if the fourth place team in one division has a better record than the third place team in the other division, the team with the better record makes the playoffs and "crosses over" to the other division's playoff) will compete in the league's three-week divisional playoff
Playoff
The playoffs, postseason, or finals of a sports league are a game or series of games played after the regular season by the top competitors, usually but not always with a single-elimination system, to determine the league champion or a similar accolade.In the U.S...
s, which culminate in the late-November Grey Cup
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals...
championship, the country's largest annual sports and television event.
The CFL was officially founded in 1958. It is the highest level of play in Canadian football, the most popular football league in Canada, and the second-most popular major sports league in Canada, after the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
. Although ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
is Canada's most popular sport, the CFL has increased the popularity of Canadian football
Canadian football
Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...
in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
and Western Canada. Canadian football is also played at amateur levels (i.e. youth, high school, CJFL
Canadian Junior Football League
The Canadian Junior Football League is a national amateur Canadian football league consisting of 19 teams playing in six provinces across Canada. The teams compete annually for the Canadian Bowl...
, QJFL
Quebec Junior Football League
The Quebec Junior Football League operated from 1970 to the present, as a successor to the Quebec Juvenile Football League. It began competition as a conference of the Canadian Junior Football League from which it eventually withdrew. Upon withdrawal from the CJFL, the QJFL incorporated teams from...
, CIS
CIS football
Twenty-six universities across Canada compete in football under the auspices of Canadian Interuniversity Sport . The teams are divided into four conferences, drawing from the four regional associations of the CIS: Canada West Universities Athletic Association, Ontario University Athletics, Quebec...
and senior leagues such as the Alberta Football League
Alberta Football League
The Alberta Football League is an amateur Canadian football league. For the 2010 season, 8 teams competed for the league championship...
).
The 2010s will be a significant decade for the CFL in terms of growth, as teams have renovated, expanded stadiums, or plan to build entirely new stadiums. The Montreal Alouettes
Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes are a Canadian Football League team based in Montreal, Quebec.The current franchise named the Alouettes moved to Montreal from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1996 where they had been known as the Baltimore Stallions...
accomplished this first, adding 5,000 seats to Percival Molson Memorial Stadium in time for the 2010 CFL season
2010 CFL season
The 2010 CFL season is the 57th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it is the 53rd season of the league. Edmonton is scheduled to host the 98th Grey Cup on November 28...
. The Edmonton Eskimos
Edmonton Eskimos
The Edmonton Eskimos are a Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. They currently play in the West Division of the Canadian Football League . Edmonton is currently the third-youngest franchise in the CFL, although there were clubs with the name Edmonton Eskimos as early as 1895...
and Calgary Stampeders
Calgary Stampeders
The Calgary Stampeders are a Canadian Football League team based in Calgary, Alberta and named in reference to the Calgary Stampede. The Stampeders play their home games at McMahon Stadium...
also renovated their respective stadia and facilities for the 2010 season. During the following season
2011 CFL season
The 2011 CFL season was the 58th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it was the 54th season of the league. The complete schedule was released on February 18 and featured the defending Grey Cup champion Montreal Alouettes opening the season against the visiting BC Lions on...
the BC Lions
BC Lions
The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team competing in the West Division of Canadian Football League . Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Lions play their home games at BC Place Stadium in Downtown Vancouver, having previously played at Empire Stadium in East Vancouver from 1954...
will play under a new, retractable roof in BC Place after spending one year at Empire Field
Empire Field
Empire Field was a temporary outdoor football and soccer stadium built at the former location of Empire Stadium at Hastings Park in Vancouver, British Columbia. It served as the home of the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League from the summer of 2010 until the fall of 2011 when the installation...
. Then, the following year, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Winnipeg Blue Bombers
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League . They play their home games at Canad Inns Stadium, and plan to move to a new stadium for the 2012 season.The Blue Bombers were founded...
will play in an entirely new stadium
New Winnipeg Blue Bombers Stadium
New Winnipeg Blue Bombers Stadium is an approved football stadium planned for Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.The stadium is being built on the grounds of the University of Manitoba campus at the intersection of Chancellor Matheson Road and University Crescent next to the existing University Stadium...
at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
, scheduled to open in time for the 2012 CFL season. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Hamilton Tiger-Cats
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a Canadian Football League team based in Hamilton, Ontario, founded in 1950 with the merger of the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats. The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Ivor Wynne Stadium...
, Saskatchewan Roughriders
Saskatchewan Roughriders
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a Canadian Football League team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. They were founded in 1910. They play their home games at 2940 10th Avenue in Regina, which has been the team's home base for its entire history, even prior to the construction of Mosaic Stadium at Taylor...
and the new Ottawa franchise will also be looking at new or extensively-renovated stadiums in the following years.
Early history
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
began to be played in Canada in the 1860s, and many of the first Canadian football teams played under the auspices of the Canadian Rugby Football Union
Football Canada
Football Canada is the governing body for amateur Canadian football. It is Canada's representative member of the International Federation of American Football , the world's governing body for American football.-History:...
(CRFU), founded in 1884. The CRFU was reorganized as the Canadian Rugby Union (CRU) in 1892, and served as an umbrella organization
Umbrella organization
An umbrella organization is an association of institutions, who work together formally to coordinate activities or pool resources. In business, political, or other environments, one group, the umbrella organization, provides resources and often an identity to the smaller organizations...
that several leagues were part of. The Grey Cup
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals...
was donated by Governor General
Governor General of Canada
The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...
Earl Grey in 1909 to the team winning the Senior Amateur Football Championship of Canada. By that time, the sport as played in Canada had diverged markedly from its rugby origins. From the 1930s to the 1950s, the two senior leagues of the CRU, the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU) gradually evolved from amateur
Amateur sports
Amateur sports are sports in which participants engage largely or entirely without remuneration. Sporting amateurism was a zealously guarded ideal in the 19th century, especially among the upper classes, but faced steady erosion throughout the 20th century with the continuing growth of pro sports...
to professional leagues, and amateur teams such as those in the Ontario Rugby Football Union
Ontario Rugby Football Union
The Ontario Rugby Football Union or ORFU was an early amateur Canadian football league with teams in the Canadian province of Ontario. The ORFU was founded in 1883 and in 1903 became the first major competition to adopt the Burnside Rules, from which the modern Canadian football code would...
(ORFU) were no longer competitive in their Cup challenges. The ORFU withdrew from Grey Cup competition in 1954, heralding the start of the modern era of professional Canadian football, in which the Grey Cup has been exclusively contested by professional teams (Since 1965, Canada's top amateur teams, competing in Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is The Canadian Colleges Athletic Association...
(CIS), have competed for the Vanier Cup
Vanier Cup
The Vanier Cup is the name of the championship of Canadian Interuniversity Sport football and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is currently played between the winners of the Uteck Bowl and the Mitchell Bowl...
).
In 1956, the IRFU and WIFU formed a new umbrella organization, the Canadian Football Council (CFC), and in 1958
1958 CFL season
The 1958 CFL season was the fifth season in modern Canadian professional football, although officially it would become known as the inaugural season of the Canadian Football League .-CFL news in 1958:...
, the CFC left the CRU, becoming the Canadian Football League (The CRU remained the governing body for amateur play in Canada, eventually adopting the name Football Canada
Football Canada
Football Canada is the governing body for amateur Canadian football. It is Canada's representative member of the International Federation of American Football , the world's governing body for American football.-History:...
). Initially, there was no inter-divisional play between eastern (IRFU) and western (WIFU) teams except at the Grey Cup
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals...
final. Limited interlocking play was introduced in 1961
1961 CFL season
The 1961 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 8th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 4th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1961:...
and by 1981
1981 CFL season
The 1981 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 28th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 24th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1981:...
there was a full interlocking schedule of 16 games per season. The separate histories of the IRFU and the WIFU accounted for the fact that two teams had basically the same name: the IRFU's Ottawa Rough Riders
Ottawa Rough Riders
The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. One of the oldest and longest lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine times. Their most dominant era was the 1960s and 1970s, a...
were often called the "Eastern Riders", while the WIFU's Saskatchewan Roughriders
Saskatchewan Roughriders
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a Canadian Football League team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. They were founded in 1910. They play their home games at 2940 10th Avenue in Regina, which has been the team's home base for its entire history, even prior to the construction of Mosaic Stadium at Taylor...
were called the "Western Riders" or "Green Riders". Other team names had unusual yet traditional origins: with rowing
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
a national craze in the late 19th century, the Argonaut Rowing Club of Toronto formed a rugby team for its members' off-season participation; the club name Toronto Argonauts
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. The Toronto, Ontario based team was founded in 1873 and is one of the oldest existing professional sports teams in North America, after the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta...
remains to this day, and after World War II, the two teams in Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
—the Tigers and the Flying Wildcats—merged both their organizations and their names, forming the Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Hamilton Tiger-Cats
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a Canadian Football League team based in Hamilton, Ontario, founded in 1950 with the merger of the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats. The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Ivor Wynne Stadium...
.
BC Lions
The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team competing in the West Division of Canadian Football League . Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Lions play their home games at BC Place Stadium in Downtown Vancouver, having previously played at Empire Stadium in East Vancouver from 1954...
in Vancouver in 1954, the league remained stable with nine franchises: (BC Lions
BC Lions
The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team competing in the West Division of Canadian Football League . Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Lions play their home games at BC Place Stadium in Downtown Vancouver, having previously played at Empire Stadium in East Vancouver from 1954...
, Calgary Stampeders
Calgary Stampeders
The Calgary Stampeders are a Canadian Football League team based in Calgary, Alberta and named in reference to the Calgary Stampede. The Stampeders play their home games at McMahon Stadium...
, Edmonton Eskimos
Edmonton Eskimos
The Edmonton Eskimos are a Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. They currently play in the West Division of the Canadian Football League . Edmonton is currently the third-youngest franchise in the CFL, although there were clubs with the name Edmonton Eskimos as early as 1895...
, Saskatchewan Roughriders
Saskatchewan Roughriders
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a Canadian Football League team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. They were founded in 1910. They play their home games at 2940 10th Avenue in Regina, which has been the team's home base for its entire history, even prior to the construction of Mosaic Stadium at Taylor...
, Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Winnipeg Blue Bombers
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League . They play their home games at Canad Inns Stadium, and plan to move to a new stadium for the 2012 season.The Blue Bombers were founded...
, Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Hamilton Tiger-Cats
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a Canadian Football League team based in Hamilton, Ontario, founded in 1950 with the merger of the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats. The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Ivor Wynne Stadium...
, Toronto Argonauts
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. The Toronto, Ontario based team was founded in 1873 and is one of the oldest existing professional sports teams in North America, after the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta...
, Ottawa Rough Riders
Ottawa Rough Riders
The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. One of the oldest and longest lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine times. Their most dominant era was the 1960s and 1970s, a...
, Montreal Alouettes
Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes are a Canadian Football League team based in Montreal, Quebec.The current franchise named the Alouettes moved to Montreal from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1996 where they had been known as the Baltimore Stallions...
) from its 1958 inception until 1982
1982 CFL season
The 1982 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 29th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 25th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1982:After the 1981 season the Montreal Alouettes folded...
, when the Alouettes folded and were replaced the same year by a new franchise named the Concordes
Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes are a Canadian Football League team based in Montreal, Quebec.The current franchise named the Alouettes moved to Montreal from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1996 where they had been known as the Baltimore Stallions...
.
In 1986
1986 CFL season
The 1986 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 33rd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 29th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1986:...
the Concordes were renamed the Alouettes to attract more fan support, but the team folded the next year. The demise of the Alouettes, leaving only three teams in the East Division compared to five teams in the West Division, forced the League to alter its playoff structure by moving the easternmost Western team, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Winnipeg Blue Bombers
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League . They play their home games at Canad Inns Stadium, and plan to move to a new stadium for the 2012 season.The Blue Bombers were founded...
, into the East Division, upsetting the long-standing tradition of "East vs. West", as Winnipeg is not considered part of eastern Canada.
United States expansion
The CFL began eyeing an American expansion in 1992. In 19931993 CFL season
The 1993 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 40th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 36th Canadian Football League season.-CFL news in 1993:...
, the league admitted its first United States-based franchise, the Sacramento Gold Miners
Sacramento Gold Miners
The Sacramento Gold Miners were a Canadian football team based in Sacramento, California. The franchise was the first American team in the Canadian Football League. The Gold Miners were originally the "descendants" of the Sacramento Surge from the defunct World League of American Football...
. After modest success, the league then expanded further in the U.S. in 1994
1994 CFL season
The 1994 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 41st season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 37th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1994:...
with the Las Vegas Posse
Las Vegas Posse
The Las Vegas Posse was a Canadian Football League team that played the 1994 season as part of the CFL's short-lived American expansion. The Posse was one of the least successful CFL teams, both on the field and off.-On the field:...
, Baltimore Stallions
Baltimore Stallions
The Baltimore Stallions were a Canadian Football League team based in Baltimore, Maryland, which played the 1994 and 1995 seasons. They were the most successful American team in the Canadian Football League, having two winning seasons and a division title. In 1995 they became the only American team...
, and Shreveport Pirates
Shreveport Pirates
The Shreveport Pirates were a Canadian Football League team, playing at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA, in 1994 and 1995....
. The Las Vegas franchise was unsuccessful and turned into a road team by the end of the season. Baltimore, however, advanced all the way to the 82nd Grey Cup
82nd Grey Cup
The 82nd Grey Cup was the 1994 Canadian Football League championship game played between the Baltimore Football Club and the BC Lions at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, BC. It was the first-ever championship in professional football history to feature a United States-vs-Canada matchup...
and was a financial success as well.
For the 1995
1995 CFL season
The 1995 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 42nd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 38th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1995:...
campaign, the American teams were split off into their own South Division. Las Vegas was folded, while two new teams, the Birmingham Barracudas
Birmingham Barracudas
The Birmingham Barracudas were a Canadian football team that played the 1995 season in the Canadian Football League. The Barracudas were part of a failed attempt to expand the CFL into the United States.-In the beginning:...
and Memphis Mad Dogs
Memphis Mad Dogs
The Memphis Mad Dogs were a Canadian football team that played the 1995 season in the Canadian Football League. The Mad Dogs were part of a failed attempt to expand the CFL into the United States....
, were added. The Sacramento team moved to become the San Antonio Texans
San Antonio Texans
The San Antonio Texans were a Canadian Football League team that played in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, in the 1995 CFL season. They had relocated from Sacramento, California, where the team had been called the Sacramento Gold Miners...
A San Antonio team was to have been admitted into the CFL along with the Gold Miners for 1993 but folded before taking a single snap
Snap (football)
A snap starts each American football and Canadian football play from scrimmage.-Action:...
. 1995 saw the Stallions become the first non-Canadian team to win the Grey Cup
83rd Grey Cup
The 83rd Grey Cup aka The Wind Bowl was the 1995 Canadian Football League championship game played between the Baltimore Stallions and the Calgary Stampeders at Taylor Field in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Stallions won the game by a score of 37-20...
.
The success of the CFL's U.S. expansion was mixed. Baltimore and San Antonio had sustainable operations and were expected to return in 1996. Memphis and Birmingham had reasonable success in 1995 but ran into severe attendance problems during college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
season; Shreveport, although it had solid attendance, did not fare well on the field and suffered from poor management. By the end of the 1995 season, Shreveport and Birmingham moved out of their cities and ultimately folded, and Memphis followed suit. When Art Modell
Art Modell
Arthur B. Modell is an American businessman, entrepreneur and former National Football League team owner. He owned the Cleveland Browns franchise from 1961–1995 and the Baltimore Ravens franchise from 1996–2004. Modell is the grandson of the late Morris Modell who founded the northeast...
, owner of the NFL's Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, announced he would be moving his team
Cleveland Browns relocation controversy
The Cleveland Browns relocation controversy was the decision by then Browns owner Art Modell to move the National Football League team from its longtime home of Cleveland, Ohio to Baltimore, Maryland for the 1996 NFL season...
to Baltimore to become the Baltimore Ravens
Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens are a professional football franchise based in Baltimore, Maryland.The Baltimore Ravens are officially a quasi-expansion franchise, having originated in 1995 with the Cleveland Browns relocation controversy after Art Modell, then owner of the Cleveland Browns, announced his...
, the Stallions moved to Montreal, becoming the revived Montreal Alouettes
Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes are a Canadian Football League team based in Montreal, Quebec.The current franchise named the Alouettes moved to Montreal from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1996 where they had been known as the Baltimore Stallions...
. San Antonio decided not to continue operations as the only American team and folded shortly thereafter. By the 1996 season
1996 CFL season
The 1996 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 43rd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 39th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1996:...
, the Canadian Football League was once again based entirely in Canada.
Recent history
After three seasons that included American teams, the CFL American expansion experiment came to a close, as the CFL returned to an all-Canadian format in 19961996 CFL season
The 1996 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 43rd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 39th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1996:...
with nine teams; however, the Ottawa Rough Riders
Ottawa Rough Riders
The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. One of the oldest and longest lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine times. Their most dominant era was the 1960s and 1970s, a...
, in existence since 1876, folded after the 1996 season, due to poor ownership and fan support, in addition to an aging facility which no longer was suitable for providing a profitable location for professional football. In 2002
2002 CFL season
The 2002 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 49th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 45th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 2002:...
, the league expanded back to nine teams with the creation of the Ottawa Renegades
Ottawa Renegades
Ottawa Renegades was the most recent name of a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario founded in 2002, seven years after the storied Ottawa Rough Riders folded...
. After four seasons of financial losses, the Renegades were suspended indefinitely before the 2006 season
2006 CFL season
-2006 Rogers CFL Awards:* CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award – Geroy Simon , BC Lions* CFL's Most Outstanding Canadian Award – Brent Johnson , BC Lions* CFL's Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award – Brent Johnson , BC Lions...
; their players were absorbed by the remaining teams in a dispersal draft
Dispersal draft
A dispersal draft is a process in professional sports for assigning players to a new team when their current team goes out of business, consolidates with another team, or for some other reason ceases to exist. Since most sports drafts are held in North America, this is where most dispersal drafts...
.
In 1997, the NFL provided a $3-million USD interest-free loan to the financially struggling CFL, as CFL teams were losing money after the failed US expansion. In return, the NFL was granted access to CFL players entering a defined two-month window in the option year of their contract. This was later written into the CFL's collective bargaining agreement with its players. The CFL's finances have since stabilized and they eventually repaid the loan. The CFL–NFL agreement expired in 2006. Both leagues have been attempting to reach a new agreement, however the CFL broke off negotiations after Canadian telecommunications firm Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications Inc. is one of Canada's largest communications companies, particularly in the field of wireless communications, cable television, home phone and internet with additional telecommunications and mass media assets...
paid $78 million to host eight games
Bills Toronto Series
The Bills Toronto Series is a five-year deal consisting of a series of National Football League games featuring the Buffalo Bills played at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The series began in the 2008 NFL season and will end during the 2012 NFL season...
of the NFL's Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
over five seasons.
The league had struck a committee in 2003 to examine the feasibility of adding a tenth team (which has been a long-standing CFL ambition), the leading candidate cities were Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
and Halifax. Exhibition games were held in Quebec City in 2003 and in Halifax in 2005. The Halifax event, dubbed Touchdown Atlantic
Touchdown Atlantic
Touchdown Atlantic is a series of Canadian Football League games played in the maritime provinces .In 2003, the league had struck a committee to examine the feasibility of adding a tenth team, with the leading candidate cities being Quebec City and Halifax. An exhibition game between Ottawa and...
, was scheduled to repeat in 2006 but was cancelled after the suspension of the Ottawa Renegades franchise. Commissioner Tom Wright at that time had indicated that Halifax was the leading candidate for expansion. Moncton is also pursuing a CFL team and has now replaced Halifax as the leading expansion candidate. A newly constructed stadium for the World Junior Track and Field Championships, which opened in 2010, would need the seating and field itself expanded for a CFL team. The mayor of Moncton, premier of New Brunswick, and league commissioner Mark Cohon met in February 2009 to negotiate a deal that would see the city host a regular season game annually over five years, beginning in the 2010 CFL season
2010 CFL season
The 2010 CFL season is the 57th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it is the 53rd season of the league. Edmonton is scheduled to host the 98th Grey Cup on November 28...
.
2005 CFL season
The 2005 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 52nd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 48th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 2005:...
, the league set an all-time attendance record
CFL attendance
To date, a CFL game has drawn in excess of 50,000 spectators 107 times. It happened for the first six times in 1976, when Toronto's Exhibition Stadium was renovated to accommodate the Toronto Blue Jays, and its capacity was enlarged to become the first stadium capable of holding such a large crowd...
with a total attendance of more than 2.3 million. With the absence of Ottawa in 2006, the league recorded total regular season attendance of 2,112,696, increasing the average per-game attendance to 29,343. This is the third highest per-game attendance of any North American sports league and the seventh highest per-game attendance of any sports league worldwide. A recent survey conducted at the University of Lethbridge
University of Lethbridge
The University of Lethbridge is a publicly-funded comprehensive academic and research university, founded in the liberal education tradition, located in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, with two other urban campuses in Calgary and Edmonton. The main building sits among the coulees on the west side of...
confirmed that the CFL is the second most popular sports league in Canada, with the following of 19% of the total adult Canadian population compared to 30% for the NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
. The NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
had 13% following, with a total of 34% following at least one of the pro football leagues. This could be interpreted to mean that approximately 80% of Canadian football fans follow the CFL and about 55% follow the NFL. The 2007 CFL season
2007 CFL season
The 2007 CFL season was the 54th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it was the 50th season of the league, and many special events were held to commemorate the event. Regular-season play began on June 28, 2007 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario and concluded on...
marked the sixth straight season of over two million attendance in regular season. Though slightly less than 2006, the 2,100,016 total attendance figure showed greater over-all strength as the average game attendance rose to 29,167, the highest since the 1983 season
1983 CFL season
The 1983 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 30th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 26th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1983:...
. Leading the growth were the Roughriders with six consecutive sellouts, the Blue Bombers with five consecutive sellouts, and the Argonauts, whose average attendance of 30,931 was their highest since 1992. The 2007 Grey Cup
95th Grey Cup
The 95th Grey Cup was held in Toronto at the Rogers Centre on November 25, 2007. The Grey Cup, first awarded in 1909, is the championship game of the Canadian Football League. It was played between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, with the Roughriders winning 23-19...
champion Roughriders were named Canada's team of the year by Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Canadian Press Enterprises Inc. is the entity which "will take over the operations of the Canadian Press" according to a November 26, 2010 article in the Toronto Star...
and credited with rekindling interest in football in the West
Western Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a region of Canada that includes the four provinces west of the province of Ontario.- Provinces :...
.
In 2008
2008 CFL season
The 2008 CFL season was the 55th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it was the 51st season for the league. It was also the first CFL season in which all of the league's regular season and post-season games, including the Grey Cup game, were aired on TSN. This meant the CFL...
, the CFL re-awarded the former Renegades franchise to Ottawa 67's
Ottawa 67's
The Ottawa 67’s are a junior ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Ontario. They have played in the Ontario Hockey League since 1967, Canada's centennial year. The current coach is Chris Byrne.-History:...
owner Jeff Hunt, who was supposed to launch a new Ottawa franchise
Ottawa CFL
The Ottawa Canadian Football League team is an unnamed conditional CFL franchise that has been awarded in the city of Ottawa. On March 25, 2008, an ownership group led by Ottawa 67's owner Jeff Hunt was awarded the franchise. The team is expected to play at Frank Clair Stadium if the stadium can be...
in 2010; issues with Frank Clair Stadium
Frank Clair Stadium
Frank Clair Stadium is a Canadian football stadium in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located in Lansdowne Park, on the southern edge of The Glebe neighbourhood, where Bank Street crosses the Rideau Canal.-Tenants:...
and numerous legal delays in the reconstruction of the stadium have left the team on hold until at least 2014.
Season structure
2011 CFL season
The 2011 CFL season was the 58th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it was the 54th season of the league. The complete schedule was released on February 18 and featured the defending Grey Cup champion Montreal Alouettes opening the season against the visiting BC Lions on...
, the CFL season includes:
- A two-game, two-week exhibition season (or pre-season) in mid-June
- An 18-game, 19-week regular season running from late June to early November
- A six-team, three-week single elimination playoffPlayoffThe playoffs, postseason, or finals of a sports league are a game or series of games played after the regular season by the top competitors, usually but not always with a single-elimination system, to determine the league champion or a similar accolade.In the U.S...
tournament beginning in November and culminating in the Grey CupGrey CupThe Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals...
championship in late November. Championship teams will play either two or three playoff games, including the Grey Cup game, depending on their standing at the end of the regular season. The division leader at the end of the regular season receives a bye in the first round of the playoffs.
Exhibition season
Team training camps open in early June, with pre-season exhibition games beginning in mid-June. The pre-season schedule is two weeks long with each team playing two games against teams from its own division.Regular season
The regular season is 19 weeks long, with games beginning Canada DayCanada Day
Canada Day , formerly Dominion Day , is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act , which united three British colonies into a single country, called Canada, within the British Empire...
weekend and finishing by early November. The CFL's eight teams are divided into two divisions: the East Division
Canadian Football League East Division
The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues.- Pre-1907 :...
and West Division
Canadian Football League West Division
The West Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the West Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues.-Pre-1936:...
, with four teams in each division. Each team plays two games against each team in the opposite division, three games against two teams in its own division, and four games against one other team in its own division on a rotating basis. Alternating divisional bye weeks take place in weeks nine and ten, putting the focus on games within the division not resting that week. The most popular featured week in the CFL season is the Labour Day Classic
Labour Day Classic
The Labour Day Classic is a particular week of the Canadian Football League schedule that is played over the Labour Day weekend. This particular weekend, typically the tenth or eleventh week in the season, is known for its matchups that do not change from year to year, unlike other weeks of the...
, played over the course of the Labour Day weekend, where the matchups feature the first half of home-and-home series between the traditional geographic rivalries of Toronto–Hamilton (a rivalry which began in 1873), Edmonton–Calgary (see Battle of Alberta), and Winnipeg–Saskatchewan. BC—Montreal, while not considered a "traditional" rivalry, rounds out the week's games. The following week's rematch of these games is a popular event as well, especially in recent years, where the rematch of the Saskatchewan–Winnipeg game has been dubbed the Banjo Bowl. Other features of the regular season schedule are the Hall of Fame
Canadian Football Hall of Fame
The Canadian Football Hall of Fame is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is an open to the public institution. It includes displays about the Canadian Football League, Canadian university football and Canadian...
Game in Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
and the Thanksgiving Day Classic
Thanksgiving Day Classic
The Thanksgiving Day Classic is an annual doubleheader held on Thanksgiving in the Canadian Football League. It is one of two days in which the league plays on a Monday afternoon; the other is the Labour Day Classic...
, the doubleheader held on Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving (Canada)
Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day , occurring on the second Monday in October , is an annual Canadian holiday to give thanks at the close of the harvest season....
where the match ups usually do not feature traditional rivalries. Starting in 2010, a neutral site regular season game will be played in Moncton under the name Touchdown Atlantic
Touchdown Atlantic
Touchdown Atlantic is a series of Canadian Football League games played in the maritime provinces .In 2003, the league had struck a committee to examine the feasibility of adding a tenth team, with the leading candidate cities being Quebec City and Halifax. An exhibition game between Ottawa and...
.
The league awards points based on regular season results (two for a win, one for a tie and none for a loss). As of the 2011 season, in the event two teams in the same division finish the season with the same number of points the tie is broken based on the following criteria (in descending order):
- Number of wins;
- Number of wins between the tied teams;
- Net aggregate of points scored (i.e. total points scored less total points conceded) between the tied teams;
- Net quotient of points scored (i.e. total points scored divided by total points conceded) between the tied teams;
- Number of wins in divisional games;
- Net aggregate of points scored in divisional games;
- Net quotient of points scored in divisional games;
- Net aggregate of points scored in all games;
- Net quotient of points scored in all games;
- Coin toss
Playoffs
The playoffPlayoff
The playoffs, postseason, or finals of a sports league are a game or series of games played after the regular season by the top competitors, usually but not always with a single-elimination system, to determine the league champion or a similar accolade.In the U.S...
s begin in November. After the regular season, the top team from each division has an automatic home berth in the division final, and a bye week during the division semifinal. The second-place team from each division hosts the third-place team in the division semifinal, unless a fourth-place team from one division finishes with a better record than a third place team in the other (this provision is known as the crossover rule, and while it implies that it is possible for two teams in the same division to play for the Grey Cup, only two crossover teams have ever won a semifinal: the Edmonton Eskimos on November 8, 2008, vs. the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and the BC Lions on November 15, 2009, vs. the Hamilton Tiger-Cats). The winners of each division's semifinal game then travel to play the first place teams in the division finals. Since 2005, the division semifinals and division finals have been sponsored by Scotiabank
Scotiabank
The Bank of Nova Scotia , commonly known as Scotiabank , is the third largest bank in Canada by deposits and market capitalization. It serves some 18.6 million customers in more than 50 countries around the world and offers a broad range of products and services including personal, commercial,...
. The two division champions then face each other in the Grey Cup
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals...
game, which, since 2007
95th Grey Cup
The 95th Grey Cup was held in Toronto at the Rogers Centre on November 25, 2007. The Grey Cup, first awarded in 1909, is the championship game of the Canadian Football League. It was played between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, with the Roughriders winning 23-19...
, has been held on the fourth or fifth Sunday of November.
Grey Cup
The Grey CupGrey Cup
The Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals...
is both the name of the championship of the CFL and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. The Grey Cup is the second oldest trophy in North American professional sport after the Stanley Cup. The Grey Cup game is hosted in one of the league's member cities. In recent years, it has been hosted in a different city every year, selected two or more years in advance. The 2007 Grey Cup
95th Grey Cup
The 95th Grey Cup was held in Toronto at the Rogers Centre on November 25, 2007. The Grey Cup, first awarded in 1909, is the championship game of the Canadian Football League. It was played between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, with the Roughriders winning 23-19...
, held in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
on November 25, 2007, featured a Labour Day Classic match up for the first time ever, with the Saskatchewan Roughriders
Saskatchewan Roughriders
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a Canadian Football League team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. They were founded in 1910. They play their home games at 2940 10th Avenue in Regina, which has been the team's home base for its entire history, even prior to the construction of Mosaic Stadium at Taylor...
winning 23–19 over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Winnipeg Blue Bombers
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League . They play their home games at Canad Inns Stadium, and plan to move to a new stadium for the 2012 season.The Blue Bombers were founded...
. In 2008 the Grey Cup champions were the Calgary Stampeders
Calgary Stampeders
The Calgary Stampeders are a Canadian Football League team based in Calgary, Alberta and named in reference to the Calgary Stampede. The Stampeders play their home games at McMahon Stadium...
, after defeating the Montreal Alouettes
Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes are a Canadian Football League team based in Montreal, Quebec.The current franchise named the Alouettes moved to Montreal from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1996 where they had been known as the Baltimore Stallions...
22–14 in Montreal. In 2009, the Montreal Alouettes defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders 28–27. The following year, in a rematch of the previous championship game, the Montreal Alouettes
Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes are a Canadian Football League team based in Montreal, Quebec.The current franchise named the Alouettes moved to Montreal from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1996 where they had been known as the Baltimore Stallions...
defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders
Saskatchewan Roughriders
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a Canadian Football League team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. They were founded in 1910. They play their home games at 2940 10th Avenue in Regina, which has been the team's home base for its entire history, even prior to the construction of Mosaic Stadium at Taylor...
21–18 at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.
As the country's single largest annual sporting event, the Grey Cup has long served as an unofficial Canadian autumn festival generating national media coverage and a large amount of revenue for the host city. Many fans travel from across the country to attend the game and the week of festivities that lead up to it.
Awards
Following the Grey Cup game, the Grey Cup Most Valuable PlayerGrey Cup Most Valuable Player
The Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player award is awarded annually to the player deemed to have the best performance in the Grey Cup Game, the Canadian Football League's championship game.-Grey Cup Most Valuable Player Award winners:...
and Grey Cup Most Valuable Canadian
Grey Cup Most Valuable Canadian
The Dick Suderman Trophy for the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Canadian is awarded annually to the Canadian player deemed to have the best performance in the Grey Cup game, the championship of the Canadian Football League....
are selected. A number of league individual player awards, such as the Most Outstanding Player
CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award
The Most Outstanding Player Award is annually awarded to the best player in the Canadian Football League. The Most Outstanding Player award can be compared to the National Football League's Most Valuable Player, otherwise known as the "MVP" award...
and Most Outstanding Defensive Player
CFL's Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award
The Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award is annually rewarded to the best defensive player in the Canadian Football League. This is the third-last award to be given during the CFL Awards banquet, which takes place the week before Grey Cup weekend in the same city where it is hosted...
, are awarded annually at a special ceremony in the host city during the week before the Grey Cup game; this ceremony is broadcast nationally on TSN
The Sports Network
The Sports Network, commonly abbreviated as TSN, is a Canadian English language Category C specialty channel and is Canada's leading English language sports TV channel. TSN premiered in 1984, in the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels...
. The Annis Stukus Trophy
Annis Stukus Trophy
The Annis Stukus Trophy is a Canadian Football League trophy, which is presented annually by the Edmonton Eskimos Alumni Association to the Coach of the Year, as determined by the members of the Football Reporters of Canada...
, also known as the Coach of the Year Award, is awarded separately at a banquet held during the off-season each February. While the CFL has not held an all-star game
All-star game
An all-star game is an exhibition game played by the best players in their sports league, except in the circumstances of professional sports systems in which a democratic voting system is used...
since 1988
1988 CFL season
The 1988 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 35th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 31st Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1988:...
, an All-Star Team is selected and honoured at the league awards ceremony during Grey Cup week.
Broadcasting
The CFL Championship game, the Grey Cup, held the record for the largest television audience in Canadian history. Television coverage on CBC, CTV and Radio-Canada of the 1983 Grey Cup attracted a viewing audience of 8,118,000 people as Toronto edged B.C. 18–17. At the time, this represented 33% of the Canadian population. This has since been surpassed by both the 2002 and 2010 Men's Olympic Gold Medal Hockey Game.Canadian broadcasters
Currently, the official television broadcasters of CFL games are cable network TSNThe Sports Network
The Sports Network, commonly abbreviated as TSN, is a Canadian English language Category C specialty channel and is Canada's leading English language sports TV channel. TSN premiered in 1984, in the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels...
(which began televising CFL games in 1985
1985 CFL season
The 1985 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 32nd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 28th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1985:...
), while TSN's French-language network RDS
Réseau des sports
Réseau des sports , is a Canadian French language Category C specialty channel showing sports and sport-related shows. It is available in 2.5 million homes, and is owned by CTV Specialty Television Inc....
broadcasts Montreal Alouettes
Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes are a Canadian Football League team based in Montreal, Quebec.The current franchise named the Alouettes moved to Montreal from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1996 where they had been known as the Baltimore Stallions...
games for the Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
television market. Games are typically scheduled for Thursday to Saturday evenings during June, July and August, but switch to more Saturday and Sunday afternoon games during September and October. TSN has created a tradition of at least one Friday night game each week, branded as Friday Night Football. CBC and TSN drew record television audiences for CFL broadcasts in 2005. The 2006 season was the first season in which every regular season game was televised, as the league implemented an instant replay
Instant replay
Instant replay is the replaying of video footage of an event or incident very soon after it has occurred. In television broadcasting of sports events, instant replay is often used during live broadcast, to show a passage of play which was important or remarkable, or which was unclear on first...
challenge system. In 2006, the CFL also began offering pay-per-view webcasts of every game on CFL Broadband. Until the end of the 2007 season CBC and RDS were the exclusive television broadcasters for all playoff games, including the Grey Cup
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals...
, which regularly draws a Canadian viewing audience in excess of 4 million.
Since 2008
2008 CFL season
The 2008 CFL season was the 55th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it was the 51st season for the league. It was also the first CFL season in which all of the league's regular season and post-season games, including the Grey Cup game, were aired on TSN. This meant the CFL...
, TSN and RDS are the exclusive television and internet broadcasters of all CFL games, including the playoffs and Grey Cup. The five-year agreement, which includes an option for a sixth year, is worth about $16 million annually and marks the first time since 1952 that CBC will not be broadcasting any CFL games. The CFL will no longer be broadcast on Canadian terrestrial television, unless TSN chooses to air the game on its terrestrial partners, CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
or CTV Two (formerly /A\); as of 2011, TSN has not transferred any CFL games to broadcast TV. The move to TSN all but assures that all CFL games will be broadcast in high definition. , TSN was available in about 8.8 million of Canada's 13 million households. The two play by play announcers are Chris Cuthbert and Rod Black
Rod Black
Rod Black is a Canadian sports announcer for TSN and CTV Sports. He calls games for the CFL, occasionally for the The NHL on TSN, and used to call games for the Toronto Blue Jays, ending in 2009. He also calls Canadian golf tournaments for the PGA, on occasion bowling tournaments, curling, boxing ...
while the colour commentators are Glen Suitor
Glen Suitor
Glen Suitor was a defensive back who played eleven seasons for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. He ranks among the CFL all-time leaders in interceptions with 51. Suitor was a three-time CFL All-Star and a four-time Western All-Star...
(with Cuthbert) and Duane Forde
Duane Forde
Duane Forde is a Canadian Football League broadcaster for TSN and a former player in the CFL. He is married to TSN reporter Sheri Forde....
(with Black).
CFL teams have local broadcast contracts with terrestrial radio stations for regular season and playoff games, while The Fan Radio Network (Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications Inc. is one of Canada's largest communications companies, particularly in the field of wireless communications, cable television, home phone and internet with additional telecommunications and mass media assets...
) owns the rights to the Grey Cup. In 2006, Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams of music and 65 streams of...
gained exclusive rights for North American CFL satellite radio
Satellite radio
Satellite radio is an analogue or digital radio signal that is relayed through one or more satellites and thus can be received in a much wider geographical area than terrestrial FM radio stations...
broadcasts and broadcast 25 CFL games per season, including the Grey Cup, through 2008.
Foreign coverage
In the United States, CFL television broadcasts are available nationally on NFL NetworkNFL Network
NFL Network is an American television specialty channel owned and operated by the National Football League . It was launched November 4, 2003, only eight months after the league's 32 team owners voted unanimously to approve its formation...
, with the network carrying fourteen games, no more than one each week, in the 2010 season and increased its output to two games each week for the 2011 season.
Canada
CBC TelevisionCBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
, which held a monopoly on Canadian television until 1961, held Canadian professional football broadcast rights beginning the year of its debut, 1952
1952 in Canadian football
-Canadian Football News in 1952:The Canadian Rugby Union received television revenue for the first time when it was paid $7,500 by CBC for the rights to televise the Grey Cup game...
. From the time of CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
's debut in 1962
1962 CFL season
The 1962 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 9th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 5th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1962:The Canadian Football Hall of Fame was established in Hamilton....
through 1986
1986 CFL season
The 1986 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 33rd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 29th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1986:...
, CBC and CTV shared CFL broadcasting rights. They split playoff games and simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
the Grey Cup. In 1962
1962 CFL season
The 1962 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 9th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 5th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1962:The Canadian Football Hall of Fame was established in Hamilton....
, 1965
1965 CFL season
The 1965 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 12th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 8th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1965:...
, 1967
1967 CFL season
The 1967 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 14th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 10th Canadian Football League season.-CFL news in 1967:...
, 1968
1968 CFL season
The 1968 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 15th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 11th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1968:J.G...
and 1970
1970 CFL season
The 1970 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 17th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 13th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1970:...
, CTV commentators were used for the dual network telecast, while in 1963
1963 CFL season
The 1963 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 10th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 6th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1963:...
, 1964
1964 CFL season
The 1964 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 11th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 7th Canadian Football League season.-Final regular season standings:...
, 1966
1966 CFL season
The 1966 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 13th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 9th Canadian Football League season .-CFL news in 1966:...
and 1969
1969 CFL season
The 1969 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 16th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it was officially the 12th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1969:...
, CBC announcers were provided. From 1971
1971 CFL season
The 1971 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the eighteenth season in modern-day Canadian football, although it was officially the fourteenth Canadian Football League season.-CFL News for 1971:...
through 1986
1986 CFL season
The 1986 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 33rd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 29th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1986:...
, one network's crew called the first half while the other called the rest of the game. After the 1986 season, CTV dropped coverage of the CFL and the Grey Cup. From 1987
1987 CFL season
The 1987 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 34th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 30th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1987:...
through 1990
1990 CFL season
The 1990 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 37th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 33rd Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1990:J...
, the CFL operated its own syndicated network, CFN. Like CTV, CFN split playoff games with CBC. However, CFN had completely separate coverage of the Grey Cup, utilizing its own production and commentators. From 1991
1991 CFL season
The 1991 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 38th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 34th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1991:...
to 2007
2007 CFL season
The 2007 CFL season was the 54th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it was the 50th season of the league, and many special events were held to commemorate the event. Regular-season play began on June 28, 2007 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario and concluded on...
, all post-season games had been exclusively on CBC; beginning in 2008
2008 CFL season
The 2008 CFL season was the 55th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it was the 51st season for the league. It was also the first CFL season in which all of the league's regular season and post-season games, including the Grey Cup game, were aired on TSN. This meant the CFL...
, the Grey Cup was carried on TSN
The Sports Network
The Sports Network, commonly abbreviated as TSN, is a Canadian English language Category C specialty channel and is Canada's leading English language sports TV channel. TSN premiered in 1984, in the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels...
, although the cable provider reserves the right to move the game to sister network CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
.
United States
The predecessor to the CFL's East Division, the IRFU, had a television contract with NBCNBC Sports
NBC Sports is the sports division of the NBC television network. Formerly "a service of NBC News," it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games, the NFL, the NHL, MLS, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Triple Crown, and the French Open, among others...
in 1954 that provided far more coverage than the NFL's existing contract with DuMont
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
. NBC aired games on Saturday afternoons, competing against college football broadcasts on CBS and ABC. The revenue from the contract allowed the IRFU to directly compete against the NFL for players in the late 1950s, setting up a series of CFL games in the United States beginning in 1958 and a series of interleague exhibitions beginning in 1959. Interest in the CFL in the United States faded dramatically after the debut of the American Football League
American Football League
The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
in 1960.
In 1982, during a players' strike in the NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
, NBC
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is the sports division of the NBC television network. Formerly "a service of NBC News," it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games, the NFL, the NHL, MLS, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Triple Crown, and the French Open, among others...
broadcast CFL games in the United States in lieu of the NFL games which were cancelled; the first week of broadcasts featured the NFL on NBC
NFL on NBC
NFL on NBC is the brand given to NBC Sports coverage of National Football League games until 1998, when NBC lost the NFL American Football Conference rights to CBS...
broadcast teams, before a series of blowout games on the network and the resulting low ratings resulted in NBC cutting back and eventually cancelling its CFL coverage. ESPN host Chris Berman became a fan of the game in the early days of ESPN, when the network used to air CFL games, and continues to cover the Canadian league on-air. FNN-SCORE
SCORE (television)
SCORE was a joint venture with Financial News Network which aired sports-themed programming in the 1980s. It began in 1985 and shut down six years later. It was renamed FNN Sports in 1990 when FNN decided to go with a 24-hour feed on weekdays. SCORE was forced to dissolve after CNBC bought out FNN...
(unrelated to the Canadian "The Score") carried games in the late 1980s. In the late 80s and early 90s, SportsChannel America
SportsChannel America
SportsChannel America was a cable television network operated by Cablevision. It was the country's first regional sports network, and thus an important ancestor to many of the United States' regional sports outlets, especially Fox Sports Net and Comcast SportsNet. SportsChannel New York was the...
carried games, using CBC and CFN feeds. Beginning in 1994
1994 CFL season
The 1994 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 41st season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 37th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1994:...
, with now four US-based teams in the league, ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
reached a deal with the league to produce and air two games per week and all post-season games on its fledgling ESPN2
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN. The channel debuted on October 1, 1993.Originally nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross,...
. They also put some games on the main network to fill broadcast time vacated by the 1994 Major League Baseball strike. The 1994 and 1995 Grey Cups were shown live on ESPN2 and then re-aired on ESPN the following day, leading into the network's Monday Night Countdown
Monday Night Countdown
Monday Night Countdown, which debuted in 1993 on ESPN, is a television program featuring analysis and news on that night's NFL match to be broadcast on ESPN...
show. ESPN's on-air talent included a mix of the network's American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
broadcasters and established CFL broadcasters from Canada. Most of the US-based teams also had deals with local carriers to show games that were not covered in the national package. Though there were no US teams in the league after 1995, ESPN2 continued showing games until 1997.
America One
America One
America One is an over-the-air television network in the United States. The network serves over 170 LPTV, Class A, Full Power, Cable and Satellite affiliate stations...
held CFL broadcast rights in the United States from 2004 to 2009 and aired a majority of the league's games. Until the 2007 season
2007 CFL season
The 2007 CFL season was the 54th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it was the 50th season of the league, and many special events were held to commemorate the event. Regular-season play began on June 28, 2007 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario and concluded on...
, America One syndicated CFL games to regional sports network
Regional sports network
In the United States of America and Canada, a regional sports network, or RSN, is a cable television station that presents sports programming to a local market. The most important programming on an RSN consists of live broadcasts of professional and college sporting events, as those games generate...
s like Altitude
Altitude Sports and Entertainment
Altitude Sports and Entertainment is a regional sports network that serves the Rocky Mountain region, specifically Denver. It officially launched on Sept...
, NESN
New England Sports Network
The New England Sports Network, or NESN [NESS-en], is a regional cable television network that covers the six New England states except Fairfield County, Connecticut and Southbury, Connecticut, a town in New Haven County, Connecticut which is covered by New York City sports networks...
, and MASN
Mid-Atlantic Sports Network
Mid-Atlantic Sports Network is a regional sports network owned by two Major League Baseball franchises—the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals -- and televises every available game of both teams, live and in high-definition...
; these were discontinued in 2008
2008 CFL season
The 2008 CFL season was the 55th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it was the 51st season for the league. It was also the first CFL season in which all of the league's regular season and post-season games, including the Grey Cup game, were aired on TSN. This meant the CFL...
, mainly because America One and the CFL were able to reach a deal only days before the season began, not allowing the network time to establish agreements with individual RSNs. The Grey Cup aired on Versus
Versus (TV channel)
Versus is a sports-oriented cable television channel in the United States. It was previously known as Outdoor Life Network and was launched on July 1, 1995, focusing on fishing, hunting, and other outdoor sports...
on November 22, 2008, with a replay the next day on America One. From 2006 through the 2008 season, Friday Night Football was carried exclusively on World Sport HD
World Sport HD
Worldsport HD was an American sports television channel that broadcast exclusively in high definition and featured live coverage of sporting events from around the world...
in the United States; however, due to the January 2009 shutdown of that channel's parent company, Voom HD Networks, America One reclaimed those rights.
Internet
On the Internet, all radio broadcasts of CFL games are available for free through each affiliate's Web site. As of 2010, ESPN3 is the only place where CFL games are broadcast on Internet television. ESPN3 (and its predecessor, ESPN360) have broadcast games since 2008; the service is only available in the United States (or its military bases) through specially negotiated cable providers and not in Canada. Video broadcasts were free in Canada at one time, but are no longer available; viewers are able to purchase previous games on the TSN website. A service known as "CFL Broadband" offered pay-per-viewPay-per-view
Pay-per-view provides a service by which a television audience can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it...
of CFL games in the United States and elsewhere prior to 2009, but the service ceased operations prior to the 2010 season. During America One's time broadcasting CFL games, some CFL video feeds could be found for free due to the fact that a small number of America One affiliates streamed their video on the Internet, even though the CFL discouraged this.
In Canada, Bell Mobility
Bell Mobility
Bell Mobility is a CDMA and HSPA+ based wireless network and the division of Bell Canada which sells wireless services in Canada...
provides streaming of CFL games to its mobile devices.
Players and compensation
The CFL began enforcing a salary cap for the 2007 season2007 CFL season
The 2007 CFL season was the 54th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it was the 50th season of the league, and many special events were held to commemorate the event. Regular-season play began on June 28, 2007 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario and concluded on...
of $4.05 million per team. The cap was raised to $4.2 million in the 2008 season
2008 CFL season
The 2008 CFL season was the 55th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it was the 51st season for the league. It was also the first CFL season in which all of the league's regular season and post-season games, including the Grey Cup game, were aired on TSN. This meant the CFL...
and remained at that level for 2009. On June 29, 2010, a new collective bargaining agreement was ratified that raised the salary cap to $4.25 million for the 2010 CFL season
2010 CFL season
The 2010 CFL season is the 57th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it is the 53rd season of the league. Edmonton is scheduled to host the 98th Grey Cup on November 28...
and would continue to increase by $50,000 each season until 2013. Financial penalties for teams that breach the cap are set at $1 to $1 for the first $100,000 over, $2 to $1 for $100,000 to $300,000 over, and $3 to $1 for $300,000 and above. Penalties could also include forfeited draft picks. For 2010, the minimum team salary was set at $3.9 million while the minimum player salary was set at $42,000. In 2006, the active roster limit was increased from 40 to 42. The import/non-import ratio, which required teams to keep at least 20 non-import ("A player who was physically resident in Canada for an aggregate of 7 years prior to turning 15 or if he’s a Canadian Citizen, was physically resident in Canada for an aggregate period of 5 years prior to turning 18") players on their active roster, was retained at 50%, and thus 21 non-import players are required on the active roster. Teams may have up to 4 players on their reserve roster, and up to 7 on their practice roster. Eligible non-imports (usually from CIS football
CIS football
Twenty-six universities across Canada compete in football under the auspices of Canadian Interuniversity Sport . The teams are divided into four conferences, drawing from the four regional associations of the CIS: Canada West Universities Athletic Association, Ontario University Athletics, Quebec...
or American college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
) are drafted by teams in the annual Canadian College Draft
Canadian College Draft
The Canadian College Draft is an annual sports draft in which the teams of the Canadian Football League select eligible Canadian/non-import players, typically from the ranks of CIS football or NCAA college football...
, which follows an evaluation camp similar to the NFL Combine
NFL Combine
The National Invitational Camp or NFL Scouting Combine, as it is more widely known, is a week-long showcase, occurring every February in Indianapolis, Indiana's Lucas Oil Stadium , where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Football League coaches, general...
. A junior player in the locale of a team may be claimed as a territorial exemption and sign with that team before beginning collegiate play (one recent example is of when the Saskatchewan Roughriders claimed Mike Maurer
Mike Maurer
Michael "Mike" Maurer is a professional Canadian football fullback with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League and a professional mixed martial artist....
). Teams maintain "negotiation lists" of players they wish to sign as free agent
Free agent
In professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise....
s. CFL players are represented by the Canadian Football League Players' Association
Canadian Football League Players' Association
The Canadian Football League Players' Association represents Canadian football players in the Canadian Football League . The association was established in 1965. Its current president is Stu Laird....
(CFLPA). Each team elects two players to the CFLPA Board of Player Representatives, which meets once per year. Every two years, it elects an executive Board of Directors.
CFL–NFL comparisons
During the 1950s and 1960s exhibition games were played between CFL and NFL/AFLAmerican Football League
The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
teams using a mixture of each league's rules. The last such exhibition game was on August 8, 1961, when the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Hamilton Tiger-Cats
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a Canadian Football League team based in Hamilton, Ontario, founded in 1950 with the merger of the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats. The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Ivor Wynne Stadium...
defeated the AFL's Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
. This was the only time in which a Canadian team defeated an American team in the series.
In the days when sports teams were financed almost entirely by ticket sales, the CFL and NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
were, financially speaking, on relatively equal footing. In the 1970s, CFL teams signed top U.S. college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
players such as Johnny Rodgers
Johnny Rodgers
Johnny Steven Rodgers is a former American college football player voted the University of Nebraska's "Player of the Century" and the winner of the 1972 Heisman Trophy.-College career:...
, Joe Theismann
Joe Theismann
Joseph Robert "Joe" Theismann is a former quarterback in the National Football League and Canadian Football League . He achieved his most enduring fame in his 12 seasons playing for the Washington Redskins, where he was a two-time Pro Bowler and quarterback of the winning team in Super Bowl XVII...
, and Tom Cousineau
Tom Cousineau
Tom Cousineau is a former American Football linebacker who played three seasons in the Canadian Football League with the Montreal Alouettes from 1979 to 1981, and six seasons in the National Football League with the Cleveland Browns and the San Francisco 49ers from 1982 to 1987...
. As late as the 1970s and early 1980s, when high-capacity stadiums were built in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
, Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, and Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, people such as Montreal Alouettes
Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes are a Canadian Football League team based in Montreal, Quebec.The current franchise named the Alouettes moved to Montreal from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1996 where they had been known as the Baltimore Stallions...
owner Nelson Skalbania
Nelson Skalbania
Nelson M. Skalbania is a Canadian businessman from Vancouver, British Columbia best known for signing a 17-year-old Wayne Gretzky to the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association....
continued to believe that relative parity could be sustained so long as the CFL could get larger stadiums built in its other cities and sell them out.
However, by the 1980s it became clear that financial parity between the two leagues would not be maintained, not so much because of the disparity in attendance figures, but because of the NFL's increasingly lucrative television contracts that now bring in a majority of the NFL's revenue. The CFL could not hope to negotiate similar contracts with Canadian networks because the U.S. television market is more than ten times the size of Canada's (whereas, at the time, the NFL only had 3 times as many teams as the CFL). A notable exception to this trend occurred in 1991 when the deep-pocketed owners of the Toronto Argonauts (tycoon Bruce McNall
Bruce McNall
Bruce Patrick McNall is a former Thoroughbred racehorse owner, and a sports executive who once owned the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League .McNall claimed to have made his initial fortune as a coin collector, though...
, actor John Candy
John Candy
John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...
, and hockey star Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. Nicknamed "The Great One", he is generally regarded as the best player in the history of the National Hockey League , and has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters,...
) signed U.S. college star Raghib "Rocket" Ismail to the then-unheard of sum of $18.2 million spread over four years. This proved unsustainable and Ismail left for the NFL after two seasons. Currently, the difference in average salaries between the CFL and NFL is significant, with only a handful of CFL players making more than the NFL minimum.
There is a significant difference in talent between the two leagues due to style of play, CFL teams often recruit skilled players who would be considered undersized by NFL standards. For this reason, there are few players who have played in both leagues, and even fewer who have achieved success in both leagues. Only two people have been elected to both the Canadian Football Hall of Fame
Canadian Football Hall of Fame
The Canadian Football Hall of Fame is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is an open to the public institution. It includes displays about the Canadian Football League, Canadian university football and Canadian...
and the U.S. Pro Football Hall of Fame
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...
: quarterback Warren Moon
Warren Moon
Harold Warren Moon is a former American professional gridiron football quarterback who played for the Canadian Football League's Edmonton Eskimos and the National Football League's Houston Oilers, Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs...
and coach Bud Grant
Bud Grant
Harry Peter "Bud" Grant, Jr is the former longtime American football head coach of the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League for eighteen seasons. Grant was the second and fourth head coach of the team...
. There are many cases of CFLers going to the NFL and having success, such as Pro Bowl
Pro Bowl
In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...
ers Joe Horn
Joe Horn
Joseph Horn is a retired American football wide receiver. He was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the fifth round of the 1996 NFL Draft, and also played for the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons...
, Brendon Ayanbadejo
Brendon Ayanbadejo
Oladele Brendon Ayanbadejo is an American football linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. He was originally signed by the Atlanta Falcons as an undrafted free agent in 1999. He played college football for the UCLA Bruins....
, Joe Theismann
Joe Theismann
Joseph Robert "Joe" Theismann is a former quarterback in the National Football League and Canadian Football League . He achieved his most enduring fame in his 12 seasons playing for the Washington Redskins, where he was a two-time Pro Bowler and quarterback of the winning team in Super Bowl XVII...
, Cameron Wake
Cameron Wake
Derek Cameron Wake is an American football linebacker for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League. He was signed by the New York Giants as an undrafted free agent in 2005. He played college football at Penn State....
and Doug Flutie
Doug Flutie
Douglas Richard "Doug" Flutie is a former American and Canadian football quarterback. Flutie played college football at Boston College, and played professionally in the National Football League, Canadian Football League, and United States Football League...
. Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy
Marv Levy
Marvin Daniel Levy is a former American and Canadian football coach, front office executive and author.He is a former professional football coach, in the CFL as head coach of the Montreal Alouettes , and in the NFL as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills , coaching the Bills...
and Jeff Garcia
Jeff Garcia
Jeffrey Jason "Jeff" Garcia is an American football quarterback who is currently a free agent. He played college football at San Jose State University....
are also good examples. On the other hand, there have also been cases of NFL stars coming to the CFL and failing to excel, such as Vince Ferragamo
Vince Ferragamo
Vince Anthony Ferragamo is a former professional football player, a quarterback in the National Football League and Canadian Football League.-College career:...
, Onterrio Smith
Onterrio Smith
Onterrio Raymond Lloyd Smith is a former professional American football Running back who played for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League...
and Ricky Williams
Ricky Williams
Errick Lynne "Ricky" Williams, Jr. is an American football running back for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. He was drafted by the New Orleans Saints fifth overall in the 1999 NFL Draft...
. According to Williams and Jarrett Payton
Jarrett Payton
Jarrett Walter Payton is a professional American and Canadian football running back. He is the son of Walter Payton. Payton was previously signed as an undrafted free agent by the NFL Tennessee Titans....
, who has also played in both leagues, since running backs in the CFL get fewer rushing touches they are expected to be more versatile.
League commissioners
| Commissioner Commissioner Commissioner is in principle the title given to a member of a commission or to an individual who has been given a commission .... s |
|
| Sydney Halter Sydney Halter Gerald Sydney Halter, was a Canadian lawyer and the first commissioner of the Canadian Football League.-Biography:... |
1958–1966 |
| Keith Davey Keith Davey Keith Douglas Davey, was a Canadian politician, Senator, and campaign organizer.Born in Toronto to Charles Minto Davey and Grace Viola , Keith Davey attended high school at North Toronto Collegiate Institute... |
1966 |
| Ted Workman Ted Workman M. E. "Ted" Workman is a former Canadian Football League executive.Workman purchased controlling interest in the Montreal Alouettes in 1954 with minority owner Léo Dandurand remaining as team president. Workman replaced Dandurand as team president after the 1957 season and in 1965, he took on the... (interim) |
1967 |
| Allan McEachern Allan McEachern Allan McEachern, BA, LL.B, LL.D was a Canadian lawyer, a judge, and a Chancellor of the University of British Columbia.-Career:... |
1967–1968 |
| Jake Gaudaur Jake Gaudaur For the former world champion sculler see Jake Gaudaur Snr.Jacob Gill "Jake" Gaudaur, Jr., OC was a Canadian Football League player, executive, and commissioner... |
1968–1984 |
| Douglas Mitchell | 1984–1988 |
| Bill Baker | 1989 |
| Roy McMurtry Roy McMurtry Roland "Roy" McMurtry, OC, OOnt is a judge and former politician in Ontario, Canada and the current Chancellor of York University.-Early life:McMurtry was born in Toronto and educated at St. Andrew's College, graduating in 1950... (interim) |
1990 |
| J. Donald Crump J. Donald Crump John Donald Crump was Commissioner of the Canadian Football League from January 1990 to December 1991. During the previous two decades he had worked for Harold Ballard as an executive of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and financial officer of Maple Leaf Gardens.He was a chartered accountant by training... |
1990–1991 |
| Phil Kershaw (interim) | 1992 |
| Larry Smith | 1992–1996 |
| John Tory John Tory John Howard Tory is a Canadian businessman, political activist, former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, former Member of Provincial Parliament and broadcaster... |
1996–2000 |
| Michael Lysko | 2000–2002 |
| David Braley David Braley David Braley is the owner of the B.C. Lions and Toronto Argonauts teams of the Canadian Football League. On May 20, 2010, he was appointed to the Canadian Senate where he sits as a Conservative.-Early life:... (interim) |
2002 |
| Tom Wright | 2002–2006 |
| Mark Cohon Mark Cohon Mark Steven Cohon is the Canadian Football League's 12th Commissioner. The son of McDonald's of Canada founder George Cohon, he was appointed in 2007 succeeding Tom Wright.... |
2007–present |
Active teams
| Team | City/Area | Stadium | Founded | Quarterback | Head Coach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Division Canadian Football League East Division The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues.- Pre-1907 :... |
|||||
| Hamilton Tiger-Cats Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a Canadian Football League team based in Hamilton, Ontario, founded in 1950 with the merger of the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats. The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Ivor Wynne Stadium... |
Hamilton Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe... , ON Ontario Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.... |
Ivor Wynne Stadium Ivor Wynne Stadium Ivor Wynne Stadium is a Canadian football stadium located at the corner of Balsam and Beechwood Avenues, two blocks west of Gage Avenue North in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada... |
1869 | Kevin Glenn Kevin Glenn Kevin Glenn, Jr. is a professional Canadian football quarterback for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League. He was signed by the Saskatchewan Roughriders as an undrafted free agent in 2001... |
Vacant |
| Montreal Alouettes Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes are a Canadian Football League team based in Montreal, Quebec.The current franchise named the Alouettes moved to Montreal from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1996 where they had been known as the Baltimore Stallions... |
Montreal Montreal Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America... , QC Quebec Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level.... |
Percival Molson Memorial Stadium | 1946 | Anthony Calvillo Anthony Calvillo Anthony Calvillo is a Canadian Football League quarterback, currently playing for the Montreal Alouettes. He is the all-time professional football passing yards leader and first in all-time CFL passing yards... |
Marc Trestman Marc Trestman Marc Trestman is the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.-Early life:Trestman is Jewish. He graduated in 1974 from Saint Louis Park High School in Minnesota. He played quarterback for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football team for three seasons... |
| Toronto Argonauts Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. The Toronto, Ontario based team was founded in 1873 and is one of the oldest existing professional sports teams in North America, after the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta... |
Toronto Toronto Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from... , ON Ontario Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.... |
Rogers Centre Rogers Centre Rogers Centre is a multi-purpose stadium, in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated next to the CN Tower, near the shores of Lake Ontario. Opened in 1989, it is home to the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League... |
1873 | Steven Jyles Steven Jyles Steven Jyles is a professional Canadian football quarterback currently playing for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Edmonton Eskimos in 2006... |
Jim Barker Jim Barker Jim Barker is the head coach and general manager of the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.... |
| Winnipeg Blue Bombers Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League . They play their home games at Canad Inns Stadium, and plan to move to a new stadium for the 2012 season.The Blue Bombers were founded... |
Winnipeg Winnipeg Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name... , MB Manitoba Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other... |
Canad Inns Stadium Canad Inns Stadium Canad Inns Stadium is a Canadian football stadium located north of Polo Park Shopping Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Stadium, named for hotel chain Canad Inns, and originally completed in 1953, seats 29,533 for football... |
1930 | Buck Pierce Buck Pierce Buck James Pierce is a professional Canadian football quarterback for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League. Pierce signed with the Blue Bombers for the 2010 CFL season after he was released by the BC Lions, the team he spent the first five years of his professional career with... |
Paul LaPolice Paul LaPolice Paul LaPolice is the head coach for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League.-Coaching career:LaPolice entered the CFL in 2000 when Toronto Argonauts head coach John Huard hired him to become the team's receivers coach... |
| West Division Canadian Football League West Division The West Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the West Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues.-Pre-1936:... |
|||||
| BC Lions BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team competing in the West Division of Canadian Football League . Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Lions play their home games at BC Place Stadium in Downtown Vancouver, having previously played at Empire Stadium in East Vancouver from 1954... |
Vancouver Vancouver Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,... , BC British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858... |
BC Place | 1954 | Travis Lulay Travis Lulay Travis Lulay is a professional American and Canadian football quarterback for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League. In his first season as a full-time starter, Lulay won the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award in 2011 and was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2011 Grey Cup... |
Wally Buono Wally Buono Pasquale "Wally" Buono is the head coach, general manager and alternate governor of the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League, and one of the most successful coaches in league history. He is in his 19th year of coaching, previously as head coach of the Calgary Stampeders and currently with the... |
| Calgary Stampeders Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a Canadian Football League team based in Calgary, Alberta and named in reference to the Calgary Stampede. The Stampeders play their home games at McMahon Stadium... |
Calgary Calgary Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies... , AB Alberta Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces... |
McMahon Stadium McMahon Stadium McMahon Stadium is a Canadian football stadium located in Calgary, Alberta. The stadium is owned by the University of Calgary and operated by the McMahon Stadium Society.... |
1909 | Drew Tate Drew Tate Drew Tate is a professional American and Canadian football quarterback for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. He was signed by the St. Louis Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2007. He played college football at Iowa.... |
John Hufnagel John Hufnagel John Coleman Hufnagel is a Canadian football coach and former pro quarterback. He is currently the head coach of the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League... |
| Edmonton Eskimos Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Eskimos are a Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. They currently play in the West Division of the Canadian Football League . Edmonton is currently the third-youngest franchise in the CFL, although there were clubs with the name Edmonton Eskimos as early as 1895... |
Edmonton Edmonton Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census... , AB Alberta Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces... |
Commonwealth Stadium Commonwealth Stadium (Edmonton) Commonwealth Stadium is a sports stadium located in the Norwood Area of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, primarily used by the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League. The stadium is owned and operated by the City of Edmonton.- History :... |
1949 | Ricky Ray Ricky Ray Ricky Ray is a Canadian and American football quarterback who has played in the Canadian Football League and af2, as well as spending time on a roster in the National Football League... |
Kavis Reed Kavis Reed Kavis Reed is the head coach for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League. He was named the 19th head coach in Eskimos history on December 10, 2010 after signing a three-year contract... |
| Saskatchewan Roughriders Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a Canadian Football League team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. They were founded in 1910. They play their home games at 2940 10th Avenue in Regina, which has been the team's home base for its entire history, even prior to the construction of Mosaic Stadium at Taylor... |
Regina Regina, Saskatchewan Regina is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province and a cultural and commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. It is governed by Regina City Council. Regina is the cathedral city of the Roman Catholic and Romanian Orthodox... , SK Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota.... |
Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field is a sports stadium located in Regina, Saskatchewan which is used primarily to play Canadian football. It has been the home of the Canadian Football League's Saskatchewan Roughriders in rudimentary form since 1910 and as a complete stadium since 1936... |
1910 | Darian Durant Darian Durant Darian Bernard Durant is a professional American football quarterback who plays for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League . He played college football at the University of North Carolina... |
Vacant |
| Future team | |||||
| Ottawa CFL Team | Ottawa Ottawa Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario... , ON Ontario Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.... |
Frank Clair Stadium Frank Clair Stadium Frank Clair Stadium is a Canadian football stadium in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located in Lansdowne Park, on the southern edge of The Glebe neighbourhood, where Bank Street crosses the Rideau Canal.-Tenants:... |
TBA | TBA | TBA |
Expansion (2012 and beyond)
On March 25, 2008, the CFL granted an expansion franchiseOttawa CFL
The Ottawa Canadian Football League team is an unnamed conditional CFL franchise that has been awarded in the city of Ottawa. On March 25, 2008, an ownership group led by Ottawa 67's owner Jeff Hunt was awarded the franchise. The team is expected to play at Frank Clair Stadium if the stadium can be...
for the 2010 CFL season
2010 CFL season
The 2010 CFL season is the 57th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it is the 53rd season of the league. Edmonton is scheduled to host the 98th Grey Cup on November 28...
to a group of people in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
led by Jeff Hunt
Jeff Hunt
Jeff Hunt is a Canadian businessman who currently owns the Ottawa 67's hockey club of the Ontario Hockey League. He started a carpet-cleaning firm called Canway. His firm was in the Profit Magazine 100 seven times in the 1990s.-OHL Hockey:...
, the owner of Ottawa 67's
Ottawa 67's
The Ottawa 67’s are a junior ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Ontario. They have played in the Ontario Hockey League since 1967, Canada's centennial year. The current coach is Chris Byrne.-History:...
of the Ontario Hockey League on the condition of getting a lease agreement of Frank Clair Stadium
Frank Clair Stadium
Frank Clair Stadium is a Canadian football stadium in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located in Lansdowne Park, on the southern edge of The Glebe neighbourhood, where Bank Street crosses the Rideau Canal.-Tenants:...
. The CFL had previously stated that this team would be a resurrection of the "Ottawa Renegades
Ottawa Renegades
Ottawa Renegades was the most recent name of a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario founded in 2002, seven years after the storied Ottawa Rough Riders folded...
", but their announcement did not make this clear. Stadium issues and legal delays have delayed the start of play for the Ottawa franchise until 2014 at the earliest.
Halifax, Nova Scotia; Moncton, New Brunswick; Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
; London, Ontario
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
; and Windsor, Ontario
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
also have been lobbying for Canadian Football League franchises in recent years. With Atlantic Canada however, there is not yet a permanently suitable CFL stadium, which was the main problem that kept a previous attempt at a Halifax franchise (the Atlantic Schooners
Atlantic Schooners
The Atlantic Schooners were a conditional Canadian Football League expansion team that was to begin play in 1984 out of Halifax, Nova Scotia.On May 13, 1982, Maritime Professional Football Club Ltd. was granted a conditional expansion franchise...
) off the field. Until 2010, the largest fields in Atlantic Canada were Huskies Stadium
Huskies Stadium
The Huskies Stadium is a Canadian football stadium in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that is host to Saint Mary's Huskies. It has a promoted capacity of 9,000 to 11,000 that is achieveable via temporary seating, but the actual permanent seating is only 4000. It was built in 1970...
in Halifax and Canada Games Stadium
Canada Games Stadium
Canada Games Stadium is a multi-purpose, fully lit stadium in Saint John, New Brunswick.It was built on the campus of UNB Saint John for the 1985 Jeux Canada Games and has a seating capacity of 5,000 spectators....
in Saint John, both of which only seat 11,000, even with temporary seating. As of 2010, the new largest stadium in the Atlantic region is the 10,000 seat Stade Moncton Stadium which is expandable to 20,000 seats, making a CFL franchise possible. A pre-season game, dubbed Touchdown Atlantic
Touchdown Atlantic
Touchdown Atlantic is a series of Canadian Football League games played in the maritime provinces .In 2003, the league had struck a committee to examine the feasibility of adding a tenth team, with the leading candidate cities being Quebec City and Halifax. An exhibition game between Ottawa and...
, was held in Halifax in the 2005 CFL season
2005 CFL season
The 2005 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 52nd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 48th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 2005:...
and regular season games were played in Moncton in 2010 and 2011. All 20,000 seats for the 2010 Moncton game sold out in 32 hours.
While Quebec City has not gotten as much attention as have Moncton and Halifax, there has been expressed interest to add a team there. In 2003, an exhibition game was held at PEPS Le Stade Extérieur
PEPS
The ' , usually called PEPS for short, is a sports complex located in Quebec City, Quebec, on the campus of the Université Laval...
between the Montreal Alouettes
Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes are a Canadian Football League team based in Montreal, Quebec.The current franchise named the Alouettes moved to Montreal from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1996 where they had been known as the Baltimore Stallions...
and Ottawa Renegades
Ottawa Renegades
Ottawa Renegades was the most recent name of a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario founded in 2002, seven years after the storied Ottawa Rough Riders folded...
where Montreal won 54–23. In May 2009, Christina Saint Marche, a British businesswoman, announced her interest in operating a team in Quebec City—stating that there would be a natural rivalry with the Montreal Alouettes. Saint Marche entered a joint venture agreement with Quebec City Lawyer Marc Bellemare, a star candidate
Star candidate
A star candidate refers to a high profile individual who has been recruited as a candidate by a political party. Star candidates have usually excelled in fields outside of politics such as academia, business, the media, journalism and/or sports...
with the Liberal Party in the Quebec election of 2003, with Saint Marche escrowing the first $20 million.
However, Commissioner Mark Cohon
Mark Cohon
Mark Steven Cohon is the Canadian Football League's 12th Commissioner. The son of McDonald's of Canada founder George Cohon, he was appointed in 2007 succeeding Tom Wright....
noted that he has not been approached by Saint Marche, and that she would still need to secure a suitable stadium of a capacity of at least 25,000. Bellemare had tried to expand PEPS Stadium, but the Université Laval
Université Laval
Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...
did not want to expand the stadium due to fear that fans would stop attending CIS
CIS football
Twenty-six universities across Canada compete in football under the auspices of Canadian Interuniversity Sport . The teams are divided into four conferences, drawing from the four regional associations of the CIS: Canada West Universities Athletic Association, Ontario University Athletics, Quebec...
games in favour of professional games. During the 2010 Grey Cup
98th Grey Cup
The 98th Grey Cup was a Canadian football game played between the Eastern Division champion Montreal Alouettes and Western Division champion Saskatchewan Roughriders to decide the champion of the Canadian Football League for the 2010 season...
state of the league news conference, Cohon noted that the Alouettes hold the rights for the entire province of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
and that any expansion would have to be negotiated with them first. Cohon also said that he has not yet had any conversations with Alouettes owner Bob Wetenhall regarding said expansion.
London hosted a 2002 exhibition game between Hamilton and Toronto; the game was held at TD Waterhouse Stadium
TD Waterhouse Stadium
TD Waterhouse Stadium is an 8,000-seat Canadian football stadium located at 100 Philip Aziz Avenue on the campus of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. It was built in 2000 at a cost of approximately $10.5-million and replaced J.W...
, which expands to 16,000 seats, slightly below what the CFL would demand for a full-time team.
Due to the demolition of Ivor Wynne Stadium
Ivor Wynne Stadium
Ivor Wynne Stadium is a Canadian football stadium located at the corner of Balsam and Beechwood Avenues, two blocks west of Gage Avenue North in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada...
and the construction of Pan American Stadium in Hamilton, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats will need to find a temporary home for the 2013 season. London, Quebec City and Moncton have all been mentioned as potential temporary hosts for the team during that season.
Windsor, as part of the Detroit-Windsor metropolitan area, has been suggested by the potential owner Oronde Gadsden
Oronde Gadsden
Oronde Benjamin Gadsden is a former professional American football player who played with the Miami Dolphins from 1998 to 2003. A 6'3", 220-lb...
as a prospective market for a team he is pursuing, though Gadsden indicated the team, if he were to own it, would possibly be based in the U.S. suburbs of Detroit, Michigan) at the Silverdome
Silverdome
The Silverdome is an indoor sporting and entertainment venue located in Launceston, Tasmania built in 1984. The Silverdome was built at an estimated cost of A$4 million, as the Tasmanian Government "proposed a world class facility" to replace the run down velodrome in the Launceston suburb of St...
indoor stadium.
Western New York
Western New York
Western New York is the westernmost region of the state of New York. It includes the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls, the surrounding suburbs, as well as the outlying rural areas of the Great Lakes lowlands, the Genesee Valley, and the Southern Tier. Some historians, scholars and others...
has also been mentioned as a potential expansion site; Gadsden mentioned Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, as another potential market for his team, while there have been suggestions, both serious and non-serious, that the teams from Southern Ontario play some games in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, as a response to the Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
' playing some home football games in Toronto
Bills Toronto Series
The Bills Toronto Series is a five-year deal consisting of a series of National Football League games featuring the Buffalo Bills played at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The series began in the 2008 NFL season and will end during the 2012 NFL season...
. Buffalo's UB Stadium
University at Buffalo Stadium
University at Buffalo Stadium is a stadium in Amherst, New York. It is primarily used for football and track and field events, and is the home field of the Buffalo Bulls. It opened on September 4, 1993 with a game against the University of Maine...
(29,000) and Coca-Cola Field (19,500, with potential for expansion) are at or near CFL-capacity; though Ralph Wilson Stadium
Ralph Wilson Stadium
Ralph Wilson Stadium is a football stadium, located in the town of Orchard Park, a suburb of Buffalo, New York. It is the home for the Buffalo Bills, of the NFL...
and its over 70,000 seats has enough capacity, its playing surface is far too small to accommodate a CFL-sized field. Since the demolition of Holleder Memorial Stadium
Holleder Memorial Stadium
Holleder Memorial Stadium was a 20,000 seat football stadium in Rochester, New York.Located on Ridgeway Avenue, at the south east corner of Mount Read Blvd., it was built in 1949 to serve as the home of Aquinas Institute football....
in 1985, Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, lacks a stadium with a sufficient seating capacity. Both Frontier Field
Frontier Field
Frontier Field is a baseball stadium located at One Morrie Silver Way in downtown Rochester, New York. The park opened in 1996, replacing Silver Stadium in northern Rochester, which had been home to professional baseball in Rochester since 1929...
and Sahlen's Stadium in Rochester seat fewer than 14,000. The only other stadiums in the region that could possibly support a CFL team would be the 46,000-seat Carrier Dome
Carrier Dome
The Carrier Dome is a 49,250-seat domed sports stadium located on the campus of Syracuse University in the University Hill neighborhood of Syracuse, New York, USA. It is home to the Syracuse Orange football, basketball, and lacrosse teams. High school football championships are also held in "The...
in Syracuse and the 25,000-seat Schoellkopf Field
Schoellkopf Field
Schoellkopf Field is a 25,597-capacity stadium at Cornell University's Ithaca-campus that opened in 1915 and is used for the Cornell Big Red football, sprint football, lacrosse and field hockey teams...
in Ithaca.
Defunct and inactive teams
| Team | City | Stadium | Years in CFL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantic Schooners Atlantic Schooners The Atlantic Schooners were a conditional Canadian Football League expansion team that was to begin play in 1984 out of Halifax, Nova Scotia.On May 13, 1982, Maritime Professional Football Club Ltd. was granted a conditional expansion franchise... |
Halifax, Nova Scotia | proposed for 1984 | none |
| Baltimore Stallions Baltimore Stallions The Baltimore Stallions were a Canadian Football League team based in Baltimore, Maryland, which played the 1994 and 1995 seasons. They were the most successful American team in the Canadian Football League, having two winning seasons and a division title. In 1995 they became the only American team... |
Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore... , Maryland Maryland Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east... |
Memorial Stadium Memorial Stadium (Baltimore) Memorial Stadium was a sports stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, that formerly stood on 33rd Street on an over-sized block also bounded by Ellerslie Avenue , 36th Street , and Ednor Road... |
1994 1994 CFL season The 1994 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 41st season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 37th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1994:... –1995 1995 CFL season The 1995 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 42nd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 38th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1995:... |
| Birmingham Barracudas Birmingham Barracudas The Birmingham Barracudas were a Canadian football team that played the 1995 season in the Canadian Football League. The Barracudas were part of a failed attempt to expand the CFL into the United States.-In the beginning:... |
Birmingham Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S... , Alabama |
Legion Field Legion Field Legion Field is a large stadium in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, primarily designed to be used as a venue for American football, but is occasionally used for other large outdoor events. The stadium is named in honor of the American Legion, a U.S. organization of military veterans. At its peak... |
1995 1995 CFL season The 1995 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 42nd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 38th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1995:... |
| Las Vegas Posse Las Vegas Posse The Las Vegas Posse was a Canadian Football League team that played the 1994 season as part of the CFL's short-lived American expansion. The Posse was one of the least successful CFL teams, both on the field and off.-On the field:... |
Las Vegas Las Vegas metropolitan area The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ... , Nevada Nevada Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its... |
Sam Boyd Stadium Sam Boyd Stadium Sam Boyd Stadium is a football stadium located in Whitney, Nevada, an unincorporated community in the Las Vegas metropolitan area; the mailing address of the stadium is "Las Vegas". The stadium is named after Sam Boyd, a major figure in the hotel/casino industry in Las Vegas. The stadium consists... |
1994 1994 CFL season The 1994 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 41st season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 37th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1994:... |
| Memphis Mad Dogs Memphis Mad Dogs The Memphis Mad Dogs were a Canadian football team that played the 1995 season in the Canadian Football League. The Mad Dogs were part of a failed attempt to expand the CFL into the United States.... |
Memphis Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers.... , Tennessee |
Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium is a football stadium, located at the Mid-South Fairgrounds, in Midtown Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The stadium is the site of the annual AutoZone Liberty Bowl, and is the home field of the University of Memphis Tigers football team... |
1995 1995 CFL season The 1995 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 42nd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 38th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1995:... |
| Miami Manatees Miami Manatees (CFL) The Miami Manatees was a proposed Canadian Football League team scheduled to begin play in the 1996 season, and had plans to play out of the Miami Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. After looking at a possible expansion franchise, the decision to relocate the Las Vegas Posse to Miami became the... |
Miami, Florida Miami, Florida Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625... |
proposed for 1996 | none |
| Ottawa Renegades Ottawa Renegades Ottawa Renegades was the most recent name of a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario founded in 2002, seven years after the storied Ottawa Rough Riders folded... |
Ottawa Ottawa Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario... , Ontario Ontario Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.... |
Frank Clair Stadium Frank Clair Stadium Frank Clair Stadium is a Canadian football stadium in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located in Lansdowne Park, on the southern edge of The Glebe neighbourhood, where Bank Street crosses the Rideau Canal.-Tenants:... |
2002 2002 CFL season The 2002 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 49th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 45th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 2002:... –2005 2005 CFL season The 2005 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 52nd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 48th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 2005:... |
| Ottawa Rough Riders Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. One of the oldest and longest lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine times. Their most dominant era was the 1960s and 1970s, a... |
Ottawa Ottawa Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario... , Ontario Ontario Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.... |
Frank Clair Stadium Frank Clair Stadium Frank Clair Stadium is a Canadian football stadium in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located in Lansdowne Park, on the southern edge of The Glebe neighbourhood, where Bank Street crosses the Rideau Canal.-Tenants:... |
1876–1996 1996 CFL season The 1996 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 43rd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 39th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1996:... |
| Sacramento Gold Miners Sacramento Gold Miners The Sacramento Gold Miners were a Canadian football team based in Sacramento, California. The franchise was the first American team in the Canadian Football League. The Gold Miners were originally the "descendants" of the Sacramento Surge from the defunct World League of American Football... |
Sacramento Sacramento, California Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,... , California |
Hornet Stadium Hornet Stadium Hornet Stadium is a 21,195 seat football stadium in Sacramento, California. It is located at Sacramento State. It was completed in 1969. It is the home football stadium of the Sacramento State Hornets and Sacramento Mountain Lions... |
1993 1993 CFL season The 1993 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 40th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 36th Canadian Football League season.-CFL news in 1993:... –1994 1994 CFL season The 1994 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 41st season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 37th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1994:... |
| San Antonio Texans San Antonio Texans The San Antonio Texans were a Canadian Football League team that played in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, in the 1995 CFL season. They had relocated from Sacramento, California, where the team had been called the Sacramento Gold Miners... |
San Antonio, Texas | Alamodome Alamodome The Alamodome is a domed 65,000 seat, multi-purpose facility that is primarily used as a football/basketball stadium and convention center in San Antonio, Texas, U.S... |
1995 1995 CFL season The 1995 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 42nd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 38th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1995:... |
| Shreveport Pirates Shreveport Pirates The Shreveport Pirates were a Canadian Football League team, playing at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA, in 1994 and 1995.... |
Shreveport Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States.... , Louisiana |
Independence Stadium | 1994 1994 CFL season The 1994 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 41st season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 37th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1994:... –1995 1995 CFL season The 1995 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 42nd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 38th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1995:... |
Notes
- The Hamilton Tiger-Cats were created in 1950 as a merger of the Hamilton TigersHamilton Tigers (football)The Hamilton Tigers were a Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario that played in the Ontario Rugby Football Union from 1883 to 1906 and 1948 to 1949 and in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union from 1907 to 1947. The club was a founding member of both the ORFU in 1883 and the IRFU in...
(founded 1869 as the Hamilton Foot Ball Club, and merged with the Hamilton AlertsHamilton AlertsThe Hamilton Alerts were a Canadian football-rugby union team based in Hamilton, Ontario that played in the Ontario Rugby Football Union from 1911 to 1912. The club won the 4th Grey Cup in 1912, becoming the first ever team from Hamilton to win the Grey Cup and the first team from the ORFU to win...
in 1914) and the Hamilton Flying Wildcats. Ivor Wynne Stadium is slated for closure in 2012, to be replaced by Pan American Stadium in 2014; the Tiger-Cats have not made plans for the 2013 season. - The Alouettes' main home field is Molson StadiumMolson StadiumPercival Molson Memorial Stadium is an outdoor football stadium located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada...
. In recent years, they also play their final regular season home game and any home playoff games at Olympic StadiumOlympic Stadium (Montreal)The Olympic Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada built as the main venue for the 1976 Summer Olympics...
. - The CFL considers the current Montreal Alouettes franchise (founded in 19941994 CFL seasonThe 1994 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 41st season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 37th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1994:...
as the Baltimore StallionsBaltimore StallionsThe Baltimore Stallions were a Canadian Football League team based in Baltimore, Maryland, which played the 1994 and 1995 seasons. They were the most successful American team in the Canadian Football League, having two winning seasons and a division title. In 1995 they became the only American team...
, moved to Montreal and renamed the Montreal Alouettes in 19961996 CFL seasonThe 1996 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 43rd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 39th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1996:...
) to be a continuation of the original Montreal Alouettes (founded 1946, played in the CFL 19581958 CFL seasonThe 1958 CFL season was the fifth season in modern Canadian professional football, although officially it would become known as the inaugural season of the Canadian Football League .-CFL news in 1958:...
–19811981 CFL seasonThe 1981 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 28th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 24th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1981:...
) and Montreal Concordes (founded 19821982 CFL seasonThe 1982 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 29th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 25th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1982:After the 1981 season the Montreal Alouettes folded...
, renamed the Montreal Alouettes in 19861986 CFL seasonThe 1986 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 33rd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 29th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1986:...
, folded just before the 1987 season1987 CFL seasonThe 1987 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 34th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 30th Canadian Football League season.-CFL News in 1987:...
). - Created by a merger of the Winnipegs (whose roots go back to 1879) and the St. John's team on June 10, 1930, and become known as the "Winnipeg Pegs" before changing to the current name, Blue Bombers, in 1936.
- Not related to the Vancouver GrizzliesVancouver Grizzlies (football)Vancouver Grizzlies was a Canadian football team that played a single season in 1941 in the Western Interprovincial Football Union, the fore-runner of the Canadian Football League West Division. League play was suspended in 1942 due to the Second World War and the team did not return when WIFU...
, who played one season in 1941. - Roots go back to the Calgary Rugby Foot-ball ClubCalgary Rugby Foot-ball ClubCalgary Rugby Foot-ball Club was an early football club formed in Calgary, Alberta in October 1907. Today's Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League directly trace their lineage to this club....
, which formed in 1909. - While football in Edmonton was first played in 1890, the Edmonton Eskimos recognize their first season in 1949. This was further evidenced by the "60 seasons" decals worn on their helmets during the 2008 season2008 Edmonton Eskimos seasonThe Edmonton Eskimos season was the 51st season for the team in the Canadian Football League and their 60th overall. The Eskimos finished 4th in the West division, but made the playoffs because of the "crossover" rule. Edmonton became the first Western team to win the East Semi-Final...
. - Became Saskatchewan Roughriders officially in 1950, after the team became the only pro football team left in the province in 1948.
- Another team named the San Antonio TexansSan Antonio RidersThe San Antonio Riders were a professional American football team that played in the WLAF in 1991 and 1992. The team played in the Alamo Stadium in 1991 and then were forced to move to Bobcat Stadium on the campus of Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, 45 miles northeast of San...
was formed in 1993, but folded before playing a game. The Texans team listed here were the Sacramento Gold Miners, who moved to Texas in 1995. - Percival Molson Memorial Stadium Phase II construction was completed in 2010, adding an additional 5,000 seats, in the northwest corner and east grandstand.
- The Miami ManateesMiami Manatees (CFL)The Miami Manatees was a proposed Canadian Football League team scheduled to begin play in the 1996 season, and had plans to play out of the Miami Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. After looking at a possible expansion franchise, the decision to relocate the Las Vegas Posse to Miami became the...
were a proposed team that was abandoned before the 1996 season, after an exhibition game between Birmingham and Baltimore in Miami was poorly attended.
Cheerleading
Each football team is also teamed up with a cheerleadingCheerleading
Cheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...
squad.
See also
- Canadian footballCanadian footballCanadian football is a form of gridiron football played exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...
- Canadian Football ActCanadian Football ActThe Canadian Football Act was a proposed Act by the Parliament of Canada in April 1974 designed to give a government-protected monopoly over professional gridiron football in Canada to the Canadian Football League...
- Canadian Football Hall of FameCanadian Football Hall of FameThe Canadian Football Hall of Fame is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is an open to the public institution. It includes displays about the Canadian Football League, Canadian university football and Canadian...
- Canadian Junior Football LeagueCanadian Junior Football LeagueThe Canadian Junior Football League is a national amateur Canadian football league consisting of 19 teams playing in six provinces across Canada. The teams compete annually for the Canadian Bowl...
- Canadian Football League CheerleadingCanadian Football League CheerleadingCanadian Football League Cheerleading, or CFL Cheerleading, is a professional cheerleading league that follows and supports teams from the Canadian Football League. Cheerleaders in this league must excel in gymnastics and dance...
- Football CanadaFootball CanadaFootball Canada is the governing body for amateur Canadian football. It is Canada's representative member of the International Federation of American Football , the world's governing body for American football.-History:...
- Canadian Football League attendance
- Comparison of American and Canadian football
- List of Canadian Football League records
- List of Canadian Football League seasons
- List of Canadian Football League stadiums
- Canadian Football League attendance
- Sports in Canada
- Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada
- List of professional sports teams in the United States and Canada
- List of attendance figures at domestic professional sports leagues
- TSN Top 50 CFL PlayersTSN Top 50 CFL PlayersThe TSN Top 50 CFL Players was a list of the greatest fifty Canadian Football League players, as selected by a panel of sixty former CFL players, then-current and former coaches, executives, and media members in 2006. The panel was assembled by sports television network TSN in partnership with the...
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