A venerable Canadian sport is wasting away

IN CANADA, FOOTBALL (meaning the Canadian version of the American sort) generally comes far below ice hockey in terms of the emotions it generates. The latter occasionally sparks riots by demented young fans; the former is watched mostly by a dedicated but older crowd, who huddle in cold stadiums with Thermos flasks. But it is not for lack of effort by its promoters. In the 1990s the Canadian Football League’s (CFL) marketers tried to attract American football fans with the slogan “Our balls are bigger”. Last year the pandemic stopped the league entirely, but this year the games restarted and they are trying again. October 11th, Canadian Thanksgiving, will be a big day of sport. It is a chance to boost the fanbase.

Canadian football differs from the American variant in that its teams are of 12, not 11, players and the playing field is somewhat larger (the balls were bigger once but since 2018 have been the same size). The rules slightly differ too. The season usually starts in June, when the NFL, America’s league, is not running. The sport has been in decline for years, particularly beyond the interior plains, its heartland. The BC Lions, a team based in Vancouver, drew an average of 18,000 fans to its games at BC Place in 2019. Fifteen years ago they routinely had twice as many. Derek Mager, a data analyst who consults for CFL teams...