It was arguably the game of the regular season.
First place in the West was on the line at McMahon Stadium in a game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Calgary Stampeders. Henry Burris was struggling coming in, but there wasn't a football fan in the country that didn't think he was due to break out of his slump. The Riders had just lost their best playmaker in Weston Dressler and would have to rely heavily on a group of young Canadian receivers to pick up the slack.
The stage was set for a showdown in Cowtown and the athletes delivered. It was a dog fight to the end; a 44 – 44 tie in double overtime.
It was a game that had it all, from big catches to big hits and even a little controversy. It was, in a word, a "classic." Due to Grey Cup preparations, McMahon was beyond capacity. There were over 38,000 fans on the edge of their seats on a perfect October afternoon for football -- and yet the game was blacked out.
There were also the Labour Day rematches. It was a double header on Friday night where game one had Hamilton against Toronto and the second game was, of course, the battle of Alberta between Calgary and Edmonton.
The Esks traditionally get a huge crowd in Commonwealth for this one and this year was no exception as over 46,000 showed up. And yet the Esks blacked out the game.
The problem was the blackout kicked in at 8pm (local time) and game one went into overtime. Because it went long, the thousands who live in about a 50km radius of Edmonton went on a wild ride for three hours in the first game, but did not get to see how it finished due to the blackout kicking in.
I'm not picking on Calgary and Edmonton because every team in the league, with the exception of the Argos and Alouettes over the last few years, have blacked out games. These are just two of the most recent examples of an ancient football tradition that needs to be abolished all together.
It is time to once again set the record straight. Blackouts are the decision of the club, not of TSN and not of the Canadian Football League. The club makes the decision to blackout a game.
There is absolutely no reason in the world that a television network would want to deny someone access to the game. Owners, presidents and general managers around the league will word answers carefully when asked about blacked out games. They will suggest that under a contractual agreement, between TSN and the CFL there are a certain number of games that are blacked out and blah, blah, blah.
Yes, there is a contract in place, the contents of which I do not know. What I do know is that if your local professional football team decided that there will not be any blacked out games, then there wouldn't be, plain and simple. The clubs blackout the games, not TSN.
It is an archaic practice and, yes, the NFL still does it, but there is a difference. Due to the amount of teams in the league, when they do blackout a game they are able to give the viewer another game from another city. It is not the home team, but they are still giving you your football fix. That practice is impossible in Canada, but it shouldn't matter anyway. It is time to get rid of this form of intimidation to sell tickets. Never have I planned an evening with my family or friends around whether or not a sporting event was blacked out, and I suspect that not many people - if any - ever have. You either plan your night to go and watch a ball game or go to the theater or a movie, or you plan to stay in and watch a little TV, read a book or maybe rent a flick.
Then, there are those who can't afford to buy season tickets or can't physically get to a game. And don't even get me started on the possible marketing opportunities when you show hundreds of thousands of potential new customers your product on what, when it is right, can become the best three and half hour commercial you will ever get. Some owners will argue that it costs them thousands of dollars to lift a blackout, but I wonder how much it would cost to run a three and a half hour advertisement promoting your product on national TV.
It is time to move into the 21st Century and get rid of this ancient practice. The CFL is a great product. It is most entertaining when you are there in person, soaking up the atmosphere, painting your face and cheering so loud for your favorite team that they actually get a competitive advantage. The Riders vs. Stamps game was a great example of that and so was the Labour Day rematch, but the time has passed where the league has to continue to influence fans to attend in person. It just doesn't make any sense anymore to deprive your fans of this great product. In fact, in realit, it never did make any sense.