Johnston and Mackie on the CFL's major changes, the playoff format and the schedule look

0:00All right, you know what that music means. CFL on TSN, the CFL draft tonight. And I don't remember the last time we had two guests in studio at the same time, let alone a commissioner and the head of the Players Association, but there they are, Stuart Johnston, who are some commission to the CFL and David Mackey, CFL P executive director. What's it going boys? How you guys doing? Great, doing great. Yeah, I'm gonna be here. Everyone getting along over there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got the invite, so I appreciate you guys having us out. Absolutely, we appreciate you coming here. And we are referencing, you know, this is some pretty big news today. And I guess to allow you to kind of lay it out for us, but you're changing the schedule. Let's begin now. So take us through the reasoning behind it, like why it makes sense for you, specifically starting with the start date. And I think it's pretty cool. Like you're gonna try to amplify long weekends throughout the country. That's kind of where this starts and ends. Yeah, it really started with me going around the markets last year. And one of the questions I asked, I asked the fans and media and the whole CFL community, the players.

1:01Players actually knew the answer this pretty easily, but they'd say, hey, when does the CFL season start? And the answer I got was often some time in June. And some would say Canada Day. And it really is a week, I thought about it and thought, you know what, let's plant a flag on Victoria Day weekend. And say that is gonna be our tradition to start our season. Everyone's gonna know it's Victoria Day weekend. And from there, we've had so much success with Labor Day weekend and Thanksgiving. Why don't we just run it through? And some people would say, hey, the long weekends, that's kind of like people go away. That's isn't that a weakness of your schedule. I think we're gonna make it a strength. I think we're gonna make an event out of those long weekends, Canada Day, August long weekend, even in Quebec and Seizure on Baptist Day. I think these can be really fun events for us, but the key was let's place a marker on Victoria Day weekend as the start of our season. Well, guess what people do when they're all long weekends. They sit around, they gotta watch something. They do, they do. So it's exactly right. And what we've found is one of our strengths

2:02as a league is owning the summer. And this is Victoria Day weekend is often considered the unofficial start of summer. And we think we're gonna be the league that does own the summer. So David, what excites the CFLPA about these schedule changes? Well, I mean, it's consistent. Now we know exactly when it starts. If you're in the prairies, I was fortunate. I played BC the whole time. I was unfortunate to play most of my playoff games on the road, playing in Winnipeg and Regina. And now for not playing those critical games and some of those harsh weather games, as much as it makes it an elite Canadian, you love the story behind it. But if ultimately the best players have the best field services, the best conditions to perform, to ultimately get to the great cup, it's gonna be huge. So you bring this to the players and it's overwhelming. Yes, let's move forward, easy for the players to understand it and accept it. Yeah, I mean, ultimately when we first got presented to it, it's like, okay, well, what does this mean for the players, right? Both scope, if there's, you know, we'll talk about the playoffs as well, but they really went hand in hand.

3:04Where it's a gift of the season's moving, what does that mean? And ultimately we're workers and employees like everybody else. So, hey, what does that mean? And when am I away from my family? What, you know, how does that mean for my training schedule? That's really the questions that we're getting. Ultimately, that's 2027. We can align, you know, with our players, making sure they're getting taken care of. But it really came as a full package where what does the full year look like? Right, most of the guys just totally buy in. They realize it's like, hey, when I'm getting the call, the training camp, it's from then all the way to Grey Cup. They don't think when does the season end? For them, as soon as I report to training camp, all the way till, you know, Grey Cup days when I'm locked in the play football. So moving backwards, you know, to the start of the season, what does this mean for the Grey Cup? And making that obviously as big as it can be in terms of scheduling and prioritizing that? Well, I think that as Dave mentioned, if you go back and I didn't realize how much time I'd be spending with meteorologists in this new position of mine. And I'm looking at weather right through the winter

4:06or sorry, the late fall. And every week, early in November that you can go, just better weather. It's very clear what that says. They'll be hitting misses, of course, with this unpredictable weather. But we think getting it one week earlier in November will be really important for sort of the fans, the players, the play on the field, all of you, TSN covering the Grey Cup. I think it's just going to be make for a great show. And we, again, we want to make sure the bulk of our play is concentrated in the summer. And then we have our playoffs just rocking right into the fall. So this will begin in 2027, but the playoffs are going to take on a different complexion as well. Like this is, I think the scheduling is something, I think all Canadians will get behind. Explain the changes in the playoffs. Because this is somewhat drastic. More teams are going to get in. There's going to be plans, a variety of options for who could be in the Grey Cup. Take us through that process and kind of lay it out for people that are wondering what this is going to look like. Sure. Look, I think it's starting off, we're a nine team league.

5:07So getting a playoff schedule was some robust number of games is difficult as a nine team league. And we've decided, you know, we've only got five playoff games. And in all of sports, you see what's going on right now in hockey and basketball. Playoffs are the games of consequence. They're the most meaningful time of the season. For us to only have five games leading into the biggest championship in Canada, which is the Grey Cup, just felt like it just wasn't enough to build that momentum. So we borrowed a page from curling and their page playoff system. And so how it works is you're going to have that the divisions are still in place. So in the East and the West, the top two from each division are going to play off in the first round of the playoffs, which normally you don't have your top two teams doing that. But the reason that's so effective and such an incentive for those teams is they're guaranteed to playoff games. The winner of those games gets a buy to the third round, which is the semis, and the losers of those games

6:09move on to the second round. And then we go away from divisions. It's going to be five through eight, just seeded and five plays eight, six plays seven. Winners move on to the second round. Losers go home. And we've now created nine playoff games total up from five. We think the attention on our regular season down the pike is going to be so great because as you're jockeying for position, you want to be in those top two in the division because it's so advantageous. But you also want a home game. In the last five years, the home team is 180% of all games in the playoffs. So getting your home field advantage with your fans behind you is huge. We think it's going to make the last month of our regular season even more dramatic. Well, and that I think is significant because I think a lot of people would look at this and say, okay, there used to be six teams getting in, now there's eight teams getting in. What does that mean for the dilution possibly of the regular season? Well, you don't see it that way, Stu. I don't think people will experience it that way.

7:10I don't, but I fully acknowledge that, right? It's eight out of nine teams makes the playoffs. You don't hear that too often. We think this format rewards your regular season to such a degree that we're going to get past that. And really those five through the five through eight, which you call the play ends, is about getting home field and moving forward. So we think the end of the regular season, in fact, the entire regular season is going to take on even more meaning. Stu, I like the idea when you said we're just, we're trying to build momentum and there's more games that totally makes sense. Should to everyone, but you understand that's traditionalists out there. And basically in this day and age, everybody hates something. Do you expect like the traditionalists to be like, what's this, why do we need this? Go back to the old way. What do you think the, how do you think it's going to be received by the fan base? Well, look, I think that, yeah, I think we're going to have lots of opinion, lots of reaction and certainly lots of people might say, hey, things are working great and we are.

8:12We're in a really good position. We've got a lot of great momentum with the league, but we're looking forward. And I think the conversation that this passionate fan base brings to a debate like this, whether you're all for it, you're kind of just figuring it out or you're against, is a demonstration of the power of our league and the power of that fan base, just the scale of it. And that has been noticed. And we're working with TSN and with others in discussing kind of the next cycle of media rights. And I think the fact that our fan base is so loud is a wonderful testament to what this league is and can be. CFL change is coming in 2027, Stuart Johnston, CFL Commissioner in studio, David Mackie, the executive director of the PA also in studio. So David, the CFL draft tonight, you've gone through the process, any advice for the young players getting drafted and also maybe any memories of when you did, when you were 18, I think it was in Montreal. Yeah, it's funny, there's been so much focus

9:13on the playoffs today. I was like, I forgot the drafts' else today. I think that's it for a lot of players. Yeah, it's a huge day and it's kind of twofold. We're one, I've given a lot of advice to guys where it's like, enjoy the day, where it's like, this is when you're at your absolute peak. Once you move on from the draft, you're still a rookie with a short camp. But right now it's like, you're the one getting the phone call and it's the absolute peak, your phone's gonna blow up. Everyone that's met you in any capacities gonna be proud of you and it's something to enjoy. But ultimately, it's like for me and a lot of similarities with these guys is when you really look at the ones that have sacrificed for you, there's been consequences of you've missed time at parties, you've held back in school, your parents have done a lot for you. So to surround yourself with those people, like I was up in hell with my old man, my uncle, my wife and my siblings, it was really small, but it's like those people sacrificed a ton for me for a number of years and get to enjoy it and it's something that I retired last year and it was one of those moments where I looked back on and said that was really cool, right? Because when you're in the spotlight and once you're playing,

10:15you're looking at this is cool because I'm in front of 30, 40,000 people. But then when you actually hone in and some of those experience where it's like, I'm with the five or six people that mean the most to me and it's actually my brain, see my sister record the screen and ran these up there, say my name and oddly enough, you're so nervous when you get that phone call, right? And it's like, you tell everyone, it's like, do not phone me tonight. It's like, whatever the house is on fire, don't phone me with that phone call. And obviously, a Southern Ontario kid and my phone rings when Hamilton's on the clock and my family loses their mind. And so I go outside and it's BC and they say, has Hamilton called you? Oh, what's going on? And they said, okay, sit tight and just hung up. So I go in, my family's like, they're waiting, they're looking at the TV. I was like, guys, it's not, not Hamilton. It's not Hamilton. They're coming up. They announced someone else and the next pick was BC and they're just as happy. I mean, I was super fortunate to get my career there and it's just such an exciting night and looking back on it. Like I said, to be able to spend that with your close-knit group and some people do huge draft parties, but just try on yourself with the right people and enjoy it.

11:16Dude, I just wanted to, about the format, I wanted to go back and touch on it. The two top teams facing off right away early. Do you think there'll be any blowback on that? Because I'm not saying that a top quality team would want to snooze early on. But to go head to head like that early on, what do you think the reaction to that is good? I find that fascinating. I've never heard of it. It's interesting. But what do you think the teams are going to think? Because usually it's like, we're slotted up here. Let's get a laffer and move on and build something and right away, it's kind of like the NHL playoffs where it's like you're going and you got a tough first round opponent. I look, I love the entertainment value of that to start. And I think that the teams are going to realize, hey, I battled my way into top two and now's my chance to get a buy all the way to the semis. So let's take a look at, we're a four round playoffs system now. And I get to take a buy if I win this game. I think that's going to be the incentive here that I could possibly move on to the gray cup. And by the way, that's another piece to this, right?

12:18And in the current format, a team can win one game and get to the gray cup. And now you have to win a minimum of two, which we think is actually a way to battle test these teams and really make the road to the gray cup that much more special. So I think, yeah, there's going to be some adjustment, but I think there's going to be so much excitement about it. Well, we are looking forward to seeing these changes come into effect in 2027. But the 2026 season, I guess, begins tonight. The draft on TSN. So enjoy that, good luck with that. The season right around the corner. We can't wait and congrats on this. Great seeing you guys. Thank you for coming in. There's the other top of this. And shake is on this very far. And shake, there's two Johnson and David Mackie. This May, IHR radio celebrates Asian Heritage Month, discover powerful stories, vibrant cultures, and unforgettable music, from inspiring podcasts to playlists that span East, South, Southeast, and West Asian artists.

13:18We're honoring the voices shaping our world. Listen now on the free IHR radio app. And at IHRidio.ca.