There will be no pro football played in Canada this year. On Monday, the Canadian Football League canceled the shortened 2020 season due to financial issues. As of now, the plan is to get back on the field in 2021.
“Even with additional support, our owners and community-held teams would have had to endure significant financial losses to play in 2020,” CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie said in a press release. “Without it, the losses would be so large that they would really hamper our ability to bounce back strongly next year and beyond. The most important thing is the future of our league.”
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The CFL had plans for a shortened season that would take place in Winnipeg, which would have been a bubble environment. However, the Canadian government rejected the league’s request for a $30 million loan to help fund it, according to ESPN.
“Our league governors decided today it is in the best long-term interests of the CFL to concentrate on the future,” Ambrosie said. “We are absolutely committed to 2021, to the future of our league and the pursuit of our vision of a bigger, stronger, more global CFL.”
The shortened season was slated to start in September. Winnipeg was set to be the host city, which would have provided hotels, practice fields and a stadium that would have hosted every game. Normally, the CFL season begins in June, but the season was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We know people have been longing for certainty,” Ambrosie added. “But we felt we owed it to our fans and our players to do everything we could to find a way to play this year if we could so safely and in a way that was responsible and feasible, as well as, prudent and safe.”
The CFL joins the XFL and two major American college football conferences – the Big Ten and the Pac-12 to cancel their 2020 seasons because of the pandemic. All leagues at scheduled to return in 2021, including the XFL, which was bought by Dany Garcia and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. As for the NFL, the league is planning to move forward with the 2020 season with the first game kicking off on Sept. 10. All teams are currently in the middle of training camp, but no preseason games will be played this year.
