The Canadian Football League says Winnipeg has tentatively been chosen as the hub city for a possible 2020 season, pending final approval from health and safety officials in Manitoba.
In a release Tuesday, the league says the selection was made by a committee of CFL team presidents from teams not among those bidding to host the season.
Winnipeg, Saskatchewan and Calgary had all made a bid to be named the league’s hub city amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“All three proposals – from Saskatchewan, Winnipeg and Calgary – were excellent and all three would make superb hosts,” said CFL Commissioner, Randy Ambrosie, in the league’s release.
“We look forward to returning to Saskatchewan for Grey Cup in 2022 and we remain immensely proud of the tremendous Grey Cup that Calgary hosted just a year ago.”
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The city of Winnipeg, Manitoba has been tentatively chosen as the “hub city” for a possible 2020 Canadian Football League season.
The CFL has yet to say definitively whether or not it will play a shortened season this year.
The 2020 regular season was scheduled to kick off June 11 but was postponed due to COVID-19.
The league said Tuesday it’s hoping to play a shortened season starting in September, with all games played out of a single city. That hub city would see players and coaches live in a protected “bubble” consisting of hotels, practice fields and a stadium which will host each game.
But the league says much needs to be accomplished before it will commit to the shortened season, including a new collective bargaining agreement with the CFL Players’ Association, significant federal government support, and approval from public health authorities.
Two sources said Tuesday even if the two sides successfully amend the CBA by Thursday — the CFL-mandated deadline — players concerned about their safety will be allowed to opt out with impunity.
Last week, Hamilton Tiger-Cats receiver Brandon Banks — the CFL’s most outstanding player last year — tweeted he wasn’t planning on playing this season.
The sources were granted anonymity because the CFL and CFLPA haven’t formally announced details of their ongoing negotiations.
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The sources said the two sides continue to discuss the logistics of American players coming to Canada being tested before their arrival here.
‘It’s very positive’
Winnipeg Blue Bombers CEO Wade Miller is optimistic a deal can be reached.
“We’re working really positively with our players,” Miller said during a telephone interview. “Everyone is looking for a solution to get our players back on the field playing football.
“It’s very positive.”
Predictably, Miller wouldn’t comment about any specifics being discussed.
1:02 Coronavirus: Pallister pushes for Winnipeg to be named a CFL hub city, should season go ahead
Coronavirus: Pallister pushes for Winnipeg to be named a CFL hub city, should season go ahead
On Monday Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister announced an offer of $2.5 million to help pay for accommodations, transportation, practice field rentals and more. Saskatchewan offered $3 million later in the day, but the league still settled on Winnipeg.
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Manitoba’s plan calls for a 60-game schedule and Grey Cup to be played in Winnipeg.
The Manitoba plan also calls for all players to be tested upon their arrival to Winnipeg. That could create a risk, given many players would be coming from the U.S., where COVID-19 has caused far bigger problems.
But the sources say talks continue about players being tested prior to boarding their flights to Manitoba. And once in Winning, the plan would be for all CFL team officials to be in a virus-free bubble.
0:55 Edmonton Football Team to drop ‘Eskimo’ from name
Edmonton Football Team to drop ‘Eskimo’ from name
Recently, the Canadian government determined the Toronto Blue Jays couldn’t play at Rogers Centre because the pandemic had made it unsafe for players to travel between Canada and the U.S. regularly.
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But Miller doesn’t feel that situation applies to Americans coming to Canada to play football.
“I think that was a different scenario,” he said. “You’ve seen it with the NHL having players here so I think the NHL is a better example of what the CFL would be doing.”
Federal financial help
Earlier this month, the CFL submitted a revised financial ask to Ottawa for roughly $42.5 million in aid.
In April, the CFL asked the federal government for up to $150 million in assistance in the event of a cancelled 2020 season due to the pandemic. The new request covers operating costs and player salaries for a shortened campaign and includes a letter of support from the CFLPA.
But the CFL’s revised request will require co-operation from the six provinces its franchises operate within. That’s because Ottawa is dealing with the league’s offer via the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), which is a federal agency but also a crown corporation, meaning the federal government can’t mandate financial assistance for the CFL.
The BDC is essentially a bank with lending criteria and the CFL is unlikely to qualify given its financial state. To secure financial assistance, the league would likely require the Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. governments to serve as guarantors on any funding provided.
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3:42 Future of the CFL remains up in the air
Future of the CFL remains up in the air
That could be an issue as Ontario sports minister Lisa MacLeod has stated there are many other sectors within the province that also require government help.
If an abbreviated season is deemed a go, the expectation is the players could report to the hub by mid-August. After a one-week quarantine, training camps would then be open, paving the way for regular-season games to begin in September.
A 60-game season would mean each team plays six regular-season contests. The top eight would make the playoffs, with the final two teams meeting in the Grey Cup game.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
