Talk:Memphis Mad Dogs

League not to blame
This article is well written and summarizes accurately a good deal of the history of the CFL's brief foray into the United States. However, it is not fair to lay the blame for the failure of four of the US franchises solely at the league's doorstep. It would have been very hard for the league to "market" it's game to US fans in the expansion communities, as all but one of the US owners failed to pay the agreed expansion fee, and most cared little for adapting their business model to the game (preferring instead to see themselves as professional football owners in the NFL sense). Further, with the exception of Mr. Anderson and Mr. Speros/Gelfand, the US owners did little or nothing in the way of due diligence before buying a franchise. In my view, the 'blame' for the failure is at best shared between the Owners and the League itself. FYI, the CFL had not historically 'always' scheduled games on Thursday/Friday nights. Midweek games were a concession to US owners wanting to avoid direct competition with more traditional US sports. Perhaps the league erred in refusing to allow a shorter playing field in the Liberty bowl (the owners had asked for a 50 yd field and approx 15yd endzones). Certainly scoring was difficult with the configuration employed (7 yard endzones), and this contributed heavily to the team's impressive defensive statistics (though it must be said the team did have two league stars on defense in Cofield and Harding (?)). Finally, I find it unreasonable to suggest that owners were 'forced to fold' their teams after one season of operation. No matter how little prep work they may have done to join a new league, expansion franchise owners must have the means to run for at least five (and preferably ten) years while local interest is built in the team/league. Expecting a league to take hold in a new market in one season and make your franchise profitable is just not realistic. The US CFL owners were similar to the USFL owners in that respect - they demanded too much too soon. Had any of the owners been willing to fund operations for 4 or 5 years, the US side of the league may have survived. In the end, only Fred Anderson & Speros/Gelfand were willing to make the effort to build a franchise. The rest were effectively carpetbaggers who departed as quickly as they came. Posthocergopropterhoc (talk) 22:29, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 23:41, 29 April 2016 (UTC)