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Grey Cup and Afterwards Review

Published on January 10, 2010 1:16 PM by dbo.

Late, but better than never, I itemize some of the stories from the Grey Cup through the end of 2009 from a wild finish to the game and how it happened to coaching moves and ownership questions.

The Grey Cup Prelude

• Criticized as small potatoes in the past, not up to scale of the Super Bowl's 24 hours of pre-game coverage, TSN is criticized for its 17 hours of Grey Cup coverage including the game. Canadians will always be critical of ourselves, too much or too little, we can never get it just right.
• Support for the Canadian quota comes from an unlikely source.
• Mark Cohon faced the media in his State of the League address, and fans in an open forum.
• Defence Minister Peter MacKay indicated his support for an Atlantic CFL team, stating "Mark Cohon seems very open about it." and suggesting 2012 would be a perfect opportunity for the CFL to expand in the 100th anniversary of the league (it is actually the 100th awarding of the Grey Cup, the current league only being formed in 1958). How about facing reality, Mr. MacKay, and kicking in some federal funds towards a stadium that would help find some owners and move this towards reality?

The Grey Cup

• The play-by-play highlighted the Grey Cup coverage.
• New rating system, two division champions and an exciting game led to record television rating numbers.
• In the end, everyone wanted to know how it happened.

The Afterwards

• Reports during Grey Cup week surfaced that the Argos were eyeing a move to BMO field. The whole idea was oddly timed and poorly reasoned. The Argos knew the limitations of the field (field size, seating reduction from current ticket base, modification costs) and the idea that the current owners saw a stadium move as a factor to whether they kept the team seems silly. In the end the CFL squashed any idea of playing at BMO field with a modified field size.
• The Argos fired coach Bart Andrus two weeks after the Grey Cup, adding to the growing list of items which indicate a dysfunctional football structure that Toronto has been plagued by for decades. Please, who ever owns the Argos, hire strong football people and business people and build a consistently strong organization. No more quick fixes on the field or anywhere else (coaching, stadium moves).
• The Argos' search for a new coach will apparently focus on someone with Canadian experience. Hopefully they also focus on Canadians on the field, another place the Toronto team had a visible deficit of talent and depth. Whoever takes the job will have their work cut out for them with a lack of proven talent in key positions like quarterback.

This article is categorized under Grey Cup and tagged with mark-cohon, stadiums, toronto-argonauts and tv-ratings.

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