The Buffalo Bills’ plan to play one regular season game a year in Toronto is seen by some as the first step of an effort by the NFL to eventually put a team in Canada permanently. And many in Canada don’t like that idea at all.
One Canadian who doesn’t like it is Vancouver senator Larry Campbell, who has introduced a bill that would prevent the NFL from creating an expansion team in Canada or moving a current franchise north of the border.
“If this plan were to come to fruition, I, together with many others, believe that the CFL’s future would be in significant peril,” Campbell said, per the CBC. “As proud Canadians and fans of the CFL, we must make every effort to defend our own brand of football.”
Campbell’s comments point out that the NFL faces a sticky situation in Canada: The league needs to attract Canadian football fans, but it needs to do so without appearing to be taking those fans away from the CFL. Advance ticket sales for the Bills’ games at the Rogers Centre in Toronto have been robust, but it remains to be seen whether all those ticket buyers who turn to the NFL will also turn away from the CFL.
_2.gif)






June 13th, 2008 at 9:39 am
As a Canadian I can promise you that the majority of true ’sports fans’ and football fans would rather watch NFL versus CFL…SuperBowl parties quadruple the number of Grey Cup parties….bring us the NFL !!!!!
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 5 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 9:51 am
good keep the NFL in america…whats next talks of a Mexico City expansion team?
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 1 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 9:59 am
I have no problem with the NFL eventually expanding to Mexico and Canada but is it asking so much for them to put a team in L.A. before Toronto or Mexico City???
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 2.8 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 10:04 am
These Canadians should settle down. There is always room for more football. Only a small portion of the CFL schedule even overlaps with the NFL season. College football almost completely overlaps and they don’t lose fans to the NFL.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: Not yet rated
June 13th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Well then…
The majority of NFL fans want to keep NFL teams based in the states, and Canada doesn’t want an NFL team, sooo….
Why is the league trying to put a team there again?
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 10:11 am
@Zerfas, why would they put the NFL in L.A., they probably have more fan interest in Toronto or Mexico City.
L.A. had it’s chance……twice!
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 4.75 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 10:11 am
So, Canadians can’t be fans of both the NFL and the CFL? Why are most CFL games scheduled so that they don’t clash with NFL contests?
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Sounds like its time for Senator Arlen Comcast to launch a Mitchell investigation.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 3.3 / 5 with 10 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 10:16 am
This might be a problem in smaller markets, but Toronto is a huge city - it could easily support an NFL team alongside the Argonauts. Besides, as the first poster suggested, the CFL isn’t quite as popular as Senator Campbell wants you to think it is.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 10:21 am
If the CFL were in any way as compelling as the NFL, this senator would not need to worry about “defend[ing] our own brand of football.”
If the CFL fails as a result of local competition from NFL teams, then it deserves its fate.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: Not yet rated
June 13th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Proof Canada also has its rednecks!
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 10:30 am
I still think the Bills to Toronto is a forgone conclusion. The CFL rarely play games opposite NFL games and the NFL would definitely make sure the Bills and Argonauts weren’t playing the same day. There are plenty of areas in this country where the local NFL and college football teams draw huge fanbases.
Heck, look at Michigan. Michigan and Michigan State probably each have larger fan bases than the Detriot Lions. Michigan is in Ann Harbor and that is less than an hour away from Michigan.
Other states where NFL and college football co-exist very peacably are Florida (the Hurricans can out draw the Dolphins plus Florida and Florida State have big following probably bigger than at least the Jags), the Carolinas, Texas, Lousiana, etc.
If the CFL fails because of NFL expansion, it is because the CFL product isn’t very good. That isn’t the NFL’s fault.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 4 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Looks like it’s time for regime change in Canada.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 10:47 am
“Heck, look at Michigan. Michigan and Michigan State probably each have larger fan bases than the Detriot Lions.”
Michigan and Michigan State win enough to keep large fan bases.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 10:58 am
The NFL will be in Toronto to the tune of 1 or 2 Bills games per year. The CFL folds without Toronto and there is no way the Argos coexist with a permanent NFL team. Bills are not going anywhere.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 1 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 11:05 am
In Canada Senators are not elected they are just political hacks. So who cares what that political appointee thinks?
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 11:09 am
So what you are trying to say Senator is that the CFL isn’t very good? At least they still got Casey Printers as a premier player. He makes chicken salad out of chicken shit, or so he claims.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: Not yet rated
June 13th, 2008 at 11:13 am
The bill is called: “Take off you hosers, No NFL in Canada, eh!”
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Well, first off, Canadian Senators are unelected party hacks so I wouldn’t get too worried about this. Also, he’s from BC; you didn’t see any Ontario Senators whining about this, did you? As has already been posted by others, the NFL is already far more popular in Canada than the CFL. Toronto wants to be a big league city and have been pining for an NFL team for 30 years or more. The CFL is like AAA baseball (yawn). The # of people who signed up for tickets (including me) is evidence enough of the hunger for NFL football in Canada. As for LA, like the other poster said, how many shots at a team do you want?
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 11:13 am
“Campbell’s comments point out that the NFL faces a sticky situation in Canada: The league needs to attract Canadian football fans…”
Why does the NFL “need” Canadian football fans? Is the NFL going to fold if some guy in Moose Jaw doesn’t give a rip about it? I think they’ve done OK so far…
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 11:15 am
IFL? International Football League? I think not.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 1 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 11:16 am
The U.S. fans don’t want to get shortchanged a home game, and the Canadians don’t want the NFL. So this shouldn’t even be debatable right? Right? Oh.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 11:21 am
“Michigan and Michigan State win enough to keep large fan bases.”
How would that be different than the CFL. Most teams fan bases no matter the sports consist of a large number of fairweather fans. You win, they come. You don’t, they don’t. There are only a handful of teams in all of sports that have fanbases that will stay loyal if their team sucks for more than a few years.
I still don’t know how that distinction will affect the CFL if the NFL expands in to Canada.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Senator Arlen Comcast, surprisingly I havent heard that one yet and I live in Pa.
of course, we have the Governor of Philadelphia, Ed Rendell
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 13th, 2008 at 11:25 am
For our american friends.
A canadian senator is not like an american senator.
American senators have real power ,especially the big money committee ones.
The canadian senate is a retirement plan for political hacks.
They get paid to rubber stamp the government ( and most don’t bother showing up).
They are an anachronism like the governor general.
Don’t worry in the least about anything one of these parasites says.
(report as inappropriate)
Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)