Ashley Messier builds hockey legacy with sights on PWHL, Olympics
8h ago
Mark Messier is her distant cousin, but this Sask. hockey product is carving her own path.
There is no magic elixir for the CFL to increase fan engagement, ticket sales and ratings when – or should I say, if – the league returns in 2021.
However, one thing that continues to be debated is whether having more Canadian starters would be best for the league.
I don’t think that’s the case but many people do; that players like Neal Hughes, Chris Getzlaf, Brendon LaBatte, Gene Makowsky and Roger Aldag being from Saskatchewan helped fans relate to them.
But when you look around the stadium, among the most popular jerseys you see are those with the names Lancaster, Reed, Jurasin, Narcisse, Dressler, Durant – all of them Americans. So you see, fans don’t care about the passport when buying jerseys.
The common theme among those American stars is longevity. That’s going away in the CFL. Superstars aren’t sticking around. They’re bouncing from CFL team to CFL team.
Having fans identify a player without reaching for a roster list, that is what the league needs to do a better job of.
Free agency used to be 10-or-so players per team, per year. Now, it reaches 30.
But again, it’s just one of the many things that need to change for a stronger CFL whenever it returns.