COVID-19 : How it could impact Lions/CFL

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Toppy Vann
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All it takes it someone to attack someone's view and get the Mods on the file.

This is the last post I'll deliver to this site.
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KnowItAll
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Toppy Vann wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:58 pm
All it takes it someone to attack someone's view and get the Mods on the file.

This is the last post I'll deliver to this site.
that would be a shame
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DanoT
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Toppy Vann wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:58 pm
All it takes it someone to attack someone's view and get the Mods on the file.

This is the last post I'll deliver to this site.
^^^What is this all about?

If left to my own devices I would guess that a post got deleted....People are getting stressed, especially about the virus...so I suggest take a time out and return to Lionbackers at a later date.
Dusty
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DanoT wrote:
Fri Apr 24, 2020 5:03 pm
Toppy Vann wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:58 pm
All it takes it someone to attack someone's view and get the Mods on the file.

This is the last post I'll deliver to this site.
^^^What is this all about?

If left to my own devices I would guess that a post got deleted....People are getting stressed, especially about the virus...so I suggest take a time out and return to Lionbackers at a later date.
This is a bit of a shocker.... I don't recall any "attack" on people's views.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...
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Sir Purrcival
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Hambone wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:51 pm
DanoT wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 6:48 pm
I saw a thing on TV where Bettman and the NHL are talking about the fantasy (my word) of setting up to play a bunch of NHL fanless playoff games in Edmonton. Several nearby hotels to house teams.

I guess they have the $$ to do this but not enough virus test kits.
At first there were rumours about one neutral site to play all games. Latest is one neutral site per conference with Edmonton being considered for the Pacific Conference.
https://www.tsn.ca/four-nhl-cities-that ... -1.1469143
Leaving Alberta aside (as a neutral site?) for the moment, what about the other conferences? You going to play in New York?, nope,? Florida? unlikely, California?, unlikely. I mean what jurisdiction is really safe right now? I guess if you are thinking beyond an NHL Rink, you could play these games in any rink in any town. Since there is no audience, you could play in Sask or Utah or someplace where the virus is less but that begs the obvious question. Do any of these places really want to have a bunch of teams and associated other persons descending on their otherwise lightly touched communities? How long do they stay? Is there adequate space to house them while they play the games? How will that put pressure on the already strained food chain? That would be a long hard decision I think. There is a pretty sound reason why people are being encouraged not to travel. I don't see how that has changed at least for the moment. Moving teams around by plane, having them descend on a host city, staying perhaps for several days while the season is played out. I mean you can do anything I suppose but who is going to pay for all that? Do you think the Canucks for example are going to be thrilled to have to pay for all the travel associated costs while at the same time the host city gets a big financial shot in the arm while the home team has advantages for all the rest of their conference games (if it is an NHL city like Edmonton for example). There is just a lot of kinks that would need to be sorted out. Firstly neutral sites have to be "neutral". Secondly, you have to consider the current situation of those sites. You aren't going to pick a neutral site that has been hard hit by the virus. You have to pick a site that can accommodate several teams all at the same time. I don't have an answer but in reality at best it would raise questions about the overall fairness and validity of the whole process. They do have a lot of better minds than mine to think about how this can work but I remain yet to be convinced. Better to have no product than a half assed one that is forever going to have an asterisk beside it because of the way it was finished off. Same with other leagues as well.
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maxlion
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This may not be a popular view among sports enthusiasts, but I don't feel any urgency for sports to return. If I had a financial stake in professional sports, perhaps I would feel differently. As a fan, I am more concerned about people dying and social stability. Professional sports does generate economic activity, but in the wider context it is not that significant.

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the CFL go bankrupt. Maybe it could return after a few years. It has a long history and there is lots of nostalgia, even if the fan base has been aging and dwindling.

Other sports and leagues are less vulnerable, but no league is safe and secure.

Trying to reopen with mostly empty stadiums with covid still running rampant would be a huge mistake, in my opinion. Let's fight the virus first, sports can come later.
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KnowItAll
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I think they should all write off playing this year.

NHL should try to take up exactly where they left off this yr next march. Finnish this years schedule and proceed to playoffs.

The thing I am going to miss the most is upcoming NFL because I was really looking forward to what might be Brees last year.
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Hambone
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Sir Purrcival wrote:
Sat Apr 25, 2020 1:08 pm
Hambone wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:51 pm
DanoT wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 6:48 pm
I saw a thing on TV where Bettman and the NHL are talking about the fantasy (my word) of setting up to play a bunch of NHL fanless playoff games in Edmonton. Several nearby hotels to house teams.

I guess they have the $$ to do this but not enough virus test kits.
At first there were rumours about one neutral site to play all games. Latest is one neutral site per conference with Edmonton being considered for the Pacific Conference.
https://www.tsn.ca/four-nhl-cities-that ... -1.1469143
Leaving Alberta aside (as a neutral site?) for the moment, what about the other conferences? You going to play in New York?, nope,? Florida? unlikely, California?, unlikely.
Another article I had seen indicated Edmonton (Pacific), Dallas (Central) and Raleigh (Atlantic) but hadn't dropped a name for the Metropolitan Division.
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Hambone
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maxlion wrote:
Sat Apr 25, 2020 2:09 pm
This may not be a popular view among sports enthusiasts, but I don't feel any urgency for sports to return.
You're not alone. I'm a sports nut whose world has revolved around sports either playing or watching on TV or live all over North America since the mid 60s. Between CFL, NHL, MLB, NFL & NBA I've parked my butt in 57 different venues for 45 different teams. To that can be added Wimbledon, a NASCAR race, Indy Car series in Vancouver, Edmonton and St. Petersburg, FL, an NCAA Final Four, a couple of PGA events and Aussie football.

Despite being a Lions ST holder for all or parts of most seasons since 1980 I find myself, like you, not feeling an urgency for sports to return. Do I miss it? Absolutely. I especially miss it late in the evenings when there's no late games or highlights of the day's action to watch. I've never turned the lights off and gone to bed around 9:00pm so often since, well, when I was about 9 and my parents hadn't yet let me stay up past 9. It's hard to explain but right now instead of fearing a lost CFL season I'm much more concerned about being able head back to the Island to visit my 83 year old mother or to partake in a regular type vacation sometime this summer or to go back to Mexico as usual in December.

If I was given the option of a CFL season but no ability to partake in a regular 2 week vacation even if restricted to Canada or the option of the vacation but no CFL season I think I'd take the latter. I'm even at the point where I'm thinking I might not mind no Grey Cup because I wouldn't have to wait until it was over to head on my usual winter vacation. Until this CV19 thing I never would have considered something as personally blasphemous as that.
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Sir Purrcival
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Something like this has an interesting way of refocusing priorities. We spend a lot of time doing things while not always thinking about what's important. One of the things about sports is that at the end of the day they are other people's accomplishments and for the most part we are simply spectators. I would much rather find something that is my own if it came down to a choice between 1 or the other. This virus has made a lot of us think about the things that we value most. And for me a sporting event while fun and entertaining doesn't measure up to some of the more important things in life. In that light I truly do get the notion that if Sports don't comeback right away, that it isn't automatically a terrible thing.
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Murdoch
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Agree that pro sports won't be missed if it goes.

I do have to give them credit though for taking it to where they did and making out like bandits along the way. To make a game so important that many thousands of people would pay astronomical ticket prices and concession prices is quite the achievement. We'll see what emerges. Life will go on either way.

As for the whole social distancing thing they may as well close the public schools permanently and let kids learn online just like they are doing now. Private schools for those that want that option. Would be a big savings and possibly encourage stronger family ties. Not sure it would be worse.
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KnowItAll
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Murdoch wrote:
Sun Apr 26, 2020 4:57 pm
Agree that pro sports won't be missed if it goes.
bite yer tongue

just because there are way more important things and issues doesn't mean pro sports don't matter.

I am missing NHL playoffs.

I am bummed about not getting to see the women's soccer at the Olympics.

just because I think they should probably cancel cfl 2020 doesn't mean I wont miss it terribly.

I will be extremely disappointed if the next NFL season doesn't happen.

I want them all to come back, when it is safe and proper
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B.C.FAN
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KnowItAll wrote:
Sun Apr 26, 2020 5:37 pm
I want them all to come back, when it is safe and proper
I'm with you, and I hope all sports are up and running by fall. I'll be the first fan through the doors of B.C. Place when it reopens. I've been lapping up classic CFL replays on TSN on Friday nights and Super Bowl replays on the NFL Network. I don't watch much non-sports television, and that leaves a big hole in my evenings and weekends.
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BC 1988
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Hambone wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:06 pm
Sir Purrcival wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:50 am
There are an enormous amount of people required to play a CFL game. Besides the players, you have coaches, trainers, officials, camera crews and so on and so on.
At any given time during a game there is probably close to 200 people down at field level with all but the 24 players and 7 officials being outside the white lines. Obviously some like PR and injured players can easily be weeded out. No need for Felions (Yikes did I just say that?) and others organizing contests and in-game entertainment etc given there's nobody in the seats for them to entertain.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/590/good-show/ ... ans-seats/
Ambrosie on SN 590 today. Good interview. At around the 10 minute mark they get into the reality of what the CFL faces. The high number of personnel required was also mentioned (along with no fans=not enough revenue) as the reason crowd limiting will likely scuttle the season.
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David
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Just read that the CFL, which already suffers an image problem, has asked the federal government for up to $150 million in financial assistance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cue the haters who say "let it fold." That's among the more benign things people are saying on Twitter. This request just reinforces the notion it's a moribund league, thereby creating further distance from casual sports fans. Those types don't want to back a loser.

https://twitter.com/GlobalDurant/status ... 34304?s=20


DH :cool:
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