Article content continued

But Montreal’s season-opener, which was more than 3,000 fans short of a sellout, was emblematic of troubling recent trends. While attendance has been excellent in Hamilton’s new stadium, in back-from-the-dead Ottawa and in always-reliable Saskatchewan, the country’s largest markets — Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver — have all seen sharp declines of one sort or another in recent seasons. Even in Calgary, where the Stampeders were historically good in 2016, attendance lagged behind 2015.

Add in the surprise departure of commissioner Jeffrey Orridge this spring, who was only two years into the job and whose split was only ever explained as being over “philosophical differences” with the league’s board, and it’s fair to ask of the one pro sports league that is unabashedly Canadian: should the CFL be worried? Or are these just headwinds that the venerable league is figuring out how to overcome?

Photo by Justin Tang / CP

First, a couple of statements of fact before the discussion. One, the situation in Toronto is so different than anywhere else in the CFL that it merits a separate examination. The Argonauts were thought to be on a short path to an Alouettes-like rebirth with their move to BMO Field last season, but instead attendance was alarmingly poor, the team stunk, and the whole football operations staff was eventually blown up. But we will leave that for later.

And two, the CFL is in no kind of crisis. The league still has five seasons, including this one, left on a $40 million-per-year broadcast deal with TSN that almost on its own allows clubs to cover their biggest cost, player salaries. There are dozens of baseball, hockey and basketball teams in the big North American leagues who would love that kind of financial security.