Yes--after spending some time to think about what just happened, and listening to Ambrosie several times since the announcement, I concur. It was an abomination, and they would have been much better in hindsight to have cancelled the season in early April. The damage to the league's image is enormous, not just with the public, but to all the players and operations staff who were given false hope.David wrote: ↑Wed Aug 19, 2020 3:09 pm^^ This. ^^ Word for word.cromartie wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:00 pmThis is either a failure of PR, a failure of leadership, or both. Either way, someone who is employed today should not be as a result.
A league with a plan lays out to the public the costs and challenges of doing a reduced hub city season. They have a plan for this and an anticipated cost for that plan.
A league without leadership asks for money first and maybe comes out with a plan later.
Every North American sports league realized in April that COVID was going to negatively impact operations for their upcoming or current seasons. The NHL and NBA have found ways not only to finish their seasons, without fans in a hub city concept but they have plans in place for the next one. That's indicative of leadership, and believe me that's not a word I associate with Gary Bettman that often.
Even MLS, whose margins as a sports league are on par with the CFL most of the time (ponzi scheme expansion fees notwithstanding), found a way to execute the hub city concept after a delayed start. For the Commissioner to say "we didn't see this coming" is unacceptable.
There are ways to go about this, and still come to the conclusion that the season isn't viable, but this was the worst possible way to do it, and it is a clear failure in leadership at the league level, and a fundamental failure in the Commissioner's Office.
DH
I'm sure the CFL as we know it will not exist next year. If it exists at all it will be very different--and quite frankly it needs to change.