CFL postpones start of regular season due to COVID-19 pandemic

TORONTO — The CFL is the latest league to postpone play due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The league, which was slated to kick off the regular season on June 11, announced Tuesday that the season won’t start before the beginning of July.

“Like our fellow Canadians, we in the CFL are striving to meet today’s challenges with both pragmatism and hope,” commissioner Randy Ambrosie said in a statement. “We are pragmatic enough to see our country still has sacrifice and hard work ahead of it.”

The announcement follows recent comments by Mayor Naheed Nenshi that Calgary’s ban on public events until June 30 includes CFL and NHL games should those leagues resume before then.

Toronto Mayor John Tory announced last week that Canada’s largest city is cancelling events through June 30 that require city permission. That ban did not extend to sporting events although provincial gathering bans would factor in.

“We respect the decisions being made by the federal government, provinces and municipalities on behalf of our safety and we will continue to follow their directives,” Ambrosie said. “These include indications from Canadian cities that they will not allow sporting events to take place before the end of June.

“While it is now clear that the 2020 CFL season won’t start before the beginning of July, we are committed to working with our teams, the Players’ Association, TSN and RDS to play a full season or as close as we can come to one. We recognize this may require some creativity and we are preparing for multiple scenarios.”

Pre-season play was scheduled to open May 24 with Edmonton at Winnipeg.

The regular season was slated to start June 11 with the B.C. Lions playing at the Edmonton Eskimos. June originally featured three weeks of play.

The 21-week campaign was to wrap up Oct. 21 with November playoffs culminating in the 108th Grey Cup on Nov. 22 in Regina.

The CFL has already postponed the start of training camps due to the global pandemic. That announcement was made March 30.

Full training camps had been slated to open on May 17, with rookie arrivals scheduled for May 11 with a May 13 start date for their camp.

At the time, Ambrosie said the league was “in the hands of our public health officials” in terms of future plans.

“We realize there are more important things on Canadians’ minds right now than games of any sort,” the commissioner said Tuesday. “But we also know Canadian football has long been a source of pride and unity for our country and — when the time is right — we can play an important role in its recovery.”

Major League Baseball, whose Opening Day was scheduled for March 26, remains on hiatus.

“MLB has been actively considering numerous contingency plans that would allow play to commence once the public health situation has improved to the point that it is safe to do so,” the league said Monday.

The NHL and NBA previously suspended play due to COVID-19.

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press