Sports in Canadian culture

[FrankieFlowerpot]

Originally Posted by esquire

This is interesting, and it's the first that I've heard of beIN Sports Canada. Nice to see a smaller specialty sports network (one that I've never heard of before!) doing this sort of original programming.

BeIN carry Spanish and Italian soccer as well. I just noticed the station a few weeks ago - just in time to see Barcelona play Real Madrid

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by Berklon

This also shows us that the NFL ratings are pretty impressive in Canada considering there isn't a single Canadian team in the league to give them the incentive to follow...

The opposite is true.

The NFL ratings in Canada are surprisingly low considering the NFL is the NFL, i.e., the biggest, most famous, most hyped, most marketed, most wealthy, most celebrity-filled league in the world, playing within driving distance of Canada, a football-loving country. The NFL even plays some of its games in Canada. As Canadians, we grow up with NFL stars on our cereal boxes and in our television commercials. And, as you like to tell us, all the talk around the water cooler is about the NFL, never the CFL.

That the NFL, the very pinnacle of the gridiron game and the greatest show on earth, cannot match the television ratings of the CFL, a small, poor, 2nd-tier league, ignored and forgotten around the water coolers of Canada, when they compete head-to-head on TV, is absolutely stunning (and amusing).

[Riise]

Originally Posted by esquire

This is interesting, and it's the first that I've heard of beIN Sports Canada. Nice to see a smaller specialty sports network (one that I've never heard of before!) doing this sort of original programming.

I'm stoked that beIn Sports is finally launching in Canada, I can watch lower league English football again!

They are a part of the Al Jazeera Media Network so I wouldn't really call them small.

[FrankieFlowerpot]

It's been on Rogers since March 6th - and it's in HD - Channel 391

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

The opposite is true.

The NFL ratings in Canada are surprisingly low considering the NFL is the NFL, i.e., the biggest, most famous, most hyped, most marketed, most wealthy, most celebrity-filled league in the world, playing within driving distance of Canada, a football-loving country. The NFL even plays some of its games in Canada. As Canadians, we grow up with NFL stars on our cereal boxes and in our television commercials. And, as you like to tell us, all the talk around the water cooler is about the NFL, never the CFL.

That the NFL, the very pinnacle of the gridiron game and the greatest show on earth, cannot match the television ratings of the CFL, a small, poor, 2nd-tier league, ignored and forgotten around the water coolers of Canada, when they compete head-to-head on TV, is absolutely stunning (and amusing).

It is indeed surprising. In some parts of Canada where I have lived, in many circles during NFL season if you're a (assumed to be sports-interested) young male you're almost made out to be a loser if you don't follow it, and multiply that a few times if you actually tell them you prefer the CFL.

The peer pressure to follow the NFL can be quite strong on many Canadians.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It is indeed surprising. In some parts of Canada where I have lived, in many circles during NFL season if you're a (assumed to be sports-interested) young male you're almost made out to be a loser if you don't follow it, and multiply that a few times if you actually tell them you prefer the CFL.

The peer pressure to follow the NFL can be quite strong on many Canadians.

That's weird. In my experience the more someone is steeped in the game the more likely they are to follow more types of football than just the NFL. It is usually the more casual fans... the kinds of guys who really don't follow football super-closely but just pick a random NFL team to cheer for and watch the marquee games only, who tend to be the more outspoken "NFL only" fans. In other words, the ones who really don't know very much about the CFL at all.

I think Acajack's experience is maybe more of an eastern thing?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

That's weird. In my experience the more someone is steeped in the game the more likely they are to follow more types of football than just the NFL. It is usually the more casual fans... the kinds of guys who really don't follow football super-closely but just pick a random NFL team to cheer for and watch the marquee games only, who tend to be the more outspoken "NFL only" fans. In other words, the ones who really don't know very much about the CFL at all.

I think Acajack's experience is maybe more of an eastern thing?

It's entirely a central-eastern thing in my experience, but I am pretty sure it exists in the West to some degree as well (though not as much).

I've met westerners who have the same attitude and there are some on SSP even.

[MrOilers]

Originally Posted by esquire

In my experience the more someone is steeped in the game the more likely they are to follow more types of football than just the NFL.

This is what I find as well.

Football fans follow both the CFL and NFL, whereas casual football fans seem to just know about the NFL teams that are "hot" at the time.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by esquire

That's weird. In my experience the more someone is steeped in the game the more likely they are to follow more types of football than just the NFL. It is usually the more casual fans... the kinds of guys who really don't follow football super-closely but just pick a random NFL team to cheer for and watch the marquee games only, who tend to be the more outspoken "NFL only" fans. In other words, the ones who really don't know very much about the CFL at all.

I think Acajack's experience is maybe more of an eastern thing?

Maybe, I know that in Regina most people follow both leagues quite closely. And with Jon Ryan (UoR Rams alumni) with the Seahawks and Weston Dressler (Roughrider royalty) with a legit chance of making it with the Chiefs, we have identifiable players to cheer for once "Real Football" is done in November!

BTW the other day at my work here in Victoria the "kids" (20 something sailors) started beaking off about the CFL and I called them on it (gave them the disapproving dad look) and eventually all of them admitted that they did follow their own CFL teams and actually enjoyed watching it. They also enjoyed watching the NFL on Sunday as well.
It kind of proves the old adage that watching the CFL is like watching porn. Everybody does it, they just don't talk about it. That maybe changing though.

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by Acajack

The peer pressure to follow the NFL can be quite strong on many Canadians.

That's the beauty of ratings data, as opposed to anecdotal reports about water cooler conversations. Ratings data objectively show what the population is actually interested in when behind closed doors. Ratings data reveal true popularity.

[logan5]

Here's some ratings data from the 2 championship games. Draw your own conclusions...

Television ratings for the 101th Grey Cup game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats made it the most-watched sports program of the broadcast year, and the fourth most-watched Grey Cup game on record. Preliminary overnight data from BBM Canada found Sunday’s game attracted an average audience of 4.5 million viewers on TSN.

SUPER BOWL XLVIII is the second most-watched SUPER BOWL broadcast on record, with an average audience of 8 million viewers on CTV and RDS (CTV: 7.3 million; RDS: 610,000), preliminary data from BBM Canada confirms.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...ticle15596026/
http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1299...on-ctv-and-rds

[GlassCity]

In my group of friends I always get called out when I say I prefer the CFL. In fact most football fans I know talk about and prefer the NFL. So it's not always an eastern thing.

[VANRIDERFAN]

[QUOTE=logan5;6551900]Here's some ratings data from the 2 championship games. Draw your own conclusions...

QUOTE]


That the Grey Cup was on a cable network and only advertised every once in awhile on CTV and competed against NFL, NHL and NBA games .
Super Bowl on CTV and extensively hyped on other networks and had no competing leagues playing games against their time slot.

So I am not surprised they get the numbers. Still does nothing to smear the fact CFL football is very popular within Canada.

Cheers

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by GlassCity

In my group of friends I always get called out when I say I prefer the CFL. In fact most football fans I know talk about and prefer the NFL. So it's not always an eastern thing.

Let me guess.
"CFL players are losers who can't play in the bigs!"
"All they do is punt!"
CFL players can't tackle, catch or block!"
"A NCAA Div 1 team would kill them!"

It goes on and on and I have heard them all. I still don't understand why Canadians go out of their way to dis the CFL?

I personally have no interest in the NBA, but I don't go on and on to my friends and neighbours why I have no interest.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by VANRIDERFAN

Let me guess.
"CFL players are losers who can't play in the bigs!"
"All they do is punt!"
CFL players can't tackle, catch or block!"
"A NCAA Div 1 team would kill them!"

It goes on and on and I have heard them all. I still don't understand why Canadians go out of their way to dis the CFL?

I personally have no interest in the NBA, but I don't go on and on to my friends and neighbours why I have no interest.

Well they're nice guys so they usually don't go out of their way to say things like that, they just become legitimately surprised and bewildered that there are people that like the CFL more. I have heard all those lines too, just from other people.

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by logan5

Here's some ratings data from the 2 championship games. Draw your own conclusions...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...ticle15596026/
http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1299...on-ctv-and-rds

This issue has already been dealt with.

When the CFL and NFL "compete head-to-head on TV," and people are forced to decide which one to watch, the CFL beats the NFL, often by a large margin.

Regarding the Grey Cup, it takes place on a Sunday in late November and must compete directly with NFL Sunday and is aired on a specialty cable channel. The Super Bowl, by contrast, takes place after the CFL season is long over and is aired on Canada's main network channel. The Super Bowl has the stage all to itself, free of any competition, and is beamed into every Canadian household that possesses a television. Indeed, since the CFL season is over, the Super Bowl ratings actually piggyback on all the millions of idle CFL fans (including myself) who are starved for football and naturally watch the Super Bowl. The Grey Cup, by contrast, doesn't get any such help from Canadian NFL fans who are busy watching their important NFL match-ups that day.

Furthermore, the Super Bowl is the most famous, most hyped, most star-studded annual sporting spectacle in the entire universe. No one on the planet hasn't heard of it. Watching the Super Bowl is the must-watch event of the year, even if you don't know jack about football, as anyone who has ever attended and mingled at a large Super Bowl party knows. Everybody, including the clueless hangers-on who don't watch a second of regular season football, get counted in the ratings.

The fact that the largest, most advertised sporting spectacle on earth, which is aired on Canada's main network in the absence of any competition from the CFL, can only attract a few million more viewers than the little old Grey Cup, which must compete directly with NFL Sunday and can be seen only on cable, is shocking.

That's the conclusion to be drawn.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by GlassCity

Well they're nice guys so they usually don't go out of their way to say things like that, they just become legitimately surprised and bewildered that there are people that like the CFL more. I have heard all those lines too, just from other people.

I enjoy watching NFL because I have no emotional investment in any of the teams. So I can enjoy the performance of the players.
OTOH, I live and die with the Roughriders and all the anxiety issues that come with the commitment.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by GlassCity

An NBA team in Vancouver would do fantastic, I guarantee it.

That's never gonna happen. Seattle will eventually get a team again, and that will be it for that corner of the world.

I know a stats guy with the team who moved with them to Memphis, and according to him the NBA in Vancouver was a mistake from the get-go. Toronto is the only city that can support an NBA franchise, as there just isn't enough interest in basketball in Canada, in spite of the growing numbers of immigrants who may or may not be more inclined to watching it instead of hockey.

I say this as a lifelong hoops fan who stopped watching hockey when I turned twelve. There's a definite subset of sports fans in southern Ontario that live and breath basketball, and that support is solidifying around the growing success of the Raptors along with the emergence of all of the young talent coming out of Toronto, but even so, my guess would be that maybe one sports bar out of ten would actually have any of the NBA playoffs on the TVs. I've gone to bars to watch games, and the request to have just one of the TVs devoted to basketball is usually seen as eccentric by the other patrons. They're not necessarily hostile about it, but they do raise their eyebrows.

That doesn't bother me, though. We're a hockey nation, and all other sports are secondary. It is what it is. No big deal.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by rousseau

That's never gonna happen. Seattle will eventually get a team again, and that will be it for that corner of the world.

I know a stats guy with the team who moved with them to Memphis, and according to him the NBA in Vancouver was a mistake from the get-go. Toronto is the only city that can support an NBA franchise, as there just isn't enough interest in basketball in Canada, in spite of the growing numbers of immigrants who may or may not be more inclined to watching it instead of hockey.

I say this as a lifelong hoops fan who stopped watching hockey when I turned twelve. There's a definite subset of sports fans in southern Ontario that live and breath basketball, and that support is solidifying around the growing success of the Raptors along with the emergence of all of the young talent coming out of Toronto, but even so, my guess would be that maybe one sports bar out of ten would actually have any of the NBA playoffs on the TVs. I've gone to bars to watch games, and the request to have just one of the TVs devoted to basketball is usually seen as eccentric by the other patrons. They're not necessarily hostile about it, but they do raise their eyebrows.

That doesn't bother me, though. We're a hockey nation, and all other sports are secondary. It is what it is. No big deal.

I don't doubt that it's very unlikely that I'll ever see the NBA return here. I'm just saying that I think it would be well supported. I may be living in a little bubble because I grew up in Richmond, so basketball was absolutely everywhere and I may have skewed perceptions of its popularity region wide because of this.

But I do love basketball, possibly more than hockey, so I hope we get some sort of team eventually. I wouldn't mind an NBLC franchise at all, though I suspect it will be a long, long time before they start expanding west.

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

This issue has already been dealt with.

When the CFL and NFL "compete head-to-head on TV," and people are forced to decide which one to watch, the CFL beats the NFL, often by a large margin.

Regarding the Grey Cup, it takes place on a Sunday in late November and must compete directly with NFL Sunday and is broadcast on a specialty cable channel. The Super Bowl, by contrasts, takes place after the CFL season is long over and is broadcast on Canada's main network channel. The Super Bowl has the stage all to itself, free of any competition, and is beamed into every Canadian household that possesses a television. Indeed, since the CFL season is over, the Super Bowl ratings actually piggyback on all the millions of idle CFL fans (including myself) who are starved for football and naturally watch the Super Bowl. The Grey Cup, by contrast, doesn't get any such help from Canadian NFL fans who are busy watching their important NFL match-ups that day.

Furthermore, the Super Bowl is the most famous, most hyped, most star-studded annual sporting spectacle in the entire universe. No one on the planet hasn't heard of it. Watching the Super Bowl is the must-watch event of the year, even if you don't know jack about football, as anyone who has ever attended and mingled at a large Super Bowl party knows. Everybody, including the clueless hangers-on, get counted in the ratings.

The fact that the greatest sporting spectacle on earth, when broadcast on Canada's main network and in the absence of any competition from the CFL, can only attract a few million more viewers than the little old Grey Cup, which must compete directly with NFL Sunday and can be seen only on cable, is shocking.

That's the conclusion to be drawn.

There's also the fact that even regular TV shows on other networks don't run new programming against the Superbowl either, they put a movie from 3 years ago into the time slot. So, there's not just an absence of sports competition, there's an absence of any competition, which helps to get the casual viewer to tune in, especially for the half-time show, which is the highest rated part of the Superbowl broadcast (how many comments did we see about the "football game at the Beyonce Concert"?), while at the Grey Cup, the half-time is a secondary thing that generally does nothing to boost the ratings.

The Super Bowl definitely does a way better job at bringing in the casual fan, especially because of how the US media market treats it, which forces the hand of the Canadian media market due to their dependence on US production.

The gap might also get wider as people drop cable in favour of other options.