Calgary broke the recent streak of winning the Grey Cup on your home turf. If the Winnipeg Blue Bombers want to bring that streak back, the team will have to go from worst to first.
The 103rd Grey Cup will be November 29 at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg. This will be the city's first Grey Cup since 2006 and the first in the new stadium.
Unless the Blue Bombers know something we don't, the home team will watch the Grey Cup from their homes or in the stands.
There are no stadium issues in 2015. Hamilton and Ottawa have homes, and while Winnipeg has issues with its new stadium, games go on without interruption.
The only stadium currently in construction is Saskatchewan's new place. The new stadium in Regina is next to the current stadium so there won't be any drama over where the team will be playing.
Rule Changes
The most visually obvious change is that the kicking convert on a touchdown will move from the 12-yard line to the 32-yard line. The flip side of this move is that in going for the 2-point convert, the ball will move from the 5-yard line to the 3-yard line.
This will look ridiculous and will legitimately be criticized from south of the border (look at those crazy Canadians with their football).
However, one underreported asset is that the move makes it easier to return a blocked extra point for a 2-point conversion for the other team.
Calgary's Keon Raymond blocked an extra point against Saskatchewan in the 2012 Western Semifinal. The Roughriders were set at the end of the first half to take a 17-14 lead when Fred Bennett ran the ball back for 2 points. The game was tied at 16 as a result, and the Stampeders went on to win the game.
Here are the other major rule changes before the 2015 CFL season.
- To open up the offense, a defensive player can contact a receiver in front of him within five yards of the line of scrimmage. However, no one can create or initiate contact that impedes or redirects an opponent beyond the 5-yard mark.
- On a 5-yard no-yards penalty (where the ball hits the ground before the returner catches the ball), the penalty will automatically be added to the end of the return. If the return is negative, the penalty will be assessed from the point the ball was first touched by the return team. This gets rid of the awkwardness of calling a penalty that wouldn't result in movement of the ball. Having an actual penalty for this call makes a lot more sense.
- The offence can now signal to the referee that it doesn't want to substitute players, and then the officials will blow the play in immediately once the ball and yardsticks are set. This encourages more uptempo offences, especially near the end of games.
- There is a new 10-yard penalty for the 5 interior linemen on the punting team from leaving the line of scrimmage until the ball is kicked.
New Commissioner
Jeffrey Orridge became the 13th CFL commissioner in the offseason. Orridge replaced Mark Cohon as commissioner.
Orridge was most recently the executive director of sports and general manager, Olympics for the CBC. He secured the media rights to the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games, the 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Games, and the 2018 and 2020 Olympics. His specialties are marketing and digital, 2 directions the league needs to pursue.
While Orridge is American, he and his family have lived in Canada since 2007 and Orridge is about to become a Canadian citizen.
The new commissioner also meant new sponsorship deals. "The 103rd Grey Cup presented by Shaw" is a phrase you'll hear a lot of in November. Shaw is the new CFL official telecommunications partner, which includes several sponsorship components. Starting after Labour Day weekend, the Shaw Road to the Grey Cup will run during telecasts and on digital platforms.
Whistle Sports has a content and sales partnership with the CFL for its millions of subscribers on various social platforms including YouTube and Facebook. The Andy Fantuz catching balls one-handed video with star quarterbacks Bo Levi Mitchell (Calgary) and Darian Durant (Saskatchewan) was a sample of what that partnership will become.
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