Canadians who follow CFL somewhat support proposed rule changes, poll suggests

Almost half the people who follow the Canadian Football League are OK with or support proposed changes to league’s rules — but nearly two-thirds say now is not the time to make the CFL more like the U.S. game, a new national poll suggests.

In September, CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston announced a series of rule changes that are to be implemented over the course of the next two years.

In 2026, the league will stop awarding a single point for field goal attempts, punts or kickoffs that sail through or bounce out of the end zone. The league will also implement a 35-second automatic play clock instead of allowing 20 seconds after officials whistle in a play.

In 2027, the league will reduce the size of playing fields from 110 yards to 100 yards, end zones will shrink from 20 yards to 15 yards and goalposts will be moved from the goal line to the back of the end zones.

In a survey of 1,230 Canadian adults conducted by Winnipeg firm Probe Research from Oct. 6 to 14, 30 per cent of respondents were aware of the proposed rule changes.

The poll suggests 11 per cent of Canadians are CFL fans who attend games or watch them on TV, while another 29 per cent watch the occasional game or check the occasional CFL score.

The poll suggests 60 per cent of Canadians do not follow the CFL at all.

Of the casual and engaged fans polled, a full 42 per cent supported or somewhat supported the proposed rule changes, while 20 per cent opposed the changes. Thirty-seven per cent expressed no opinion about the changes.

Among poll respondents, opposition to the proposed rule changes was stronger, at 35 per cent, in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers attract the largest live attendances in the league.

A supplemental survey, augmented by a subsample of 448 Manitoba adults, suggested there is even more staunch opposition in the Prairie province, with 45 per cent of Manitoba survey respondents disliking the rule changes.

Among respondents across Canada who follow the CFL, there was the most support — 62 per cent — for the new 35-second play clock. Fifty-nine per cent of them also supported or can live with eliminating the award of a single point when the ball travels through the end zone.

The survey suggests slightly less support for the other proposed rule changes: 55 per cent for shortening the end zones to 15 yards, 54 per cent for moving the goalposts to the back of the end zones and 53 per cent for shortening the field to 100 yards.

At the same time, a full 64 per cent of the respondents who follow the CFL agreed that now is not the time to institute rule changes that make the CFL more like the NFL — while 42 per cent said they will stop watching the game if the changes are implemented.

The survey also suggests 50 per cent people who follow the CFL think it’s less interesting to watch than the NFL — and 59 per cent said the proposed changes would make the Canadian game more exciting.

Curtis Brown, a principal with Probe Research, said the CFL is walking a tightrope between tradition and innovation by changing the rules.

"It's a classic marketing dilemma. You're trying to grow your audience, get more people engaged in your product, on the one hand," he said.

"But on the other hand, you run the risk, when you do make some of those changes, you're going to upset your purists, your diehards, the people who come watch games all the times, watch it on TV and see the CFL as a distinctly Canadian game."

The Canadian Football League did not respond to requests for comment on the survey.

The Probe Research national survey was conducted using a national online survey provider, while the Manitoba subsample used Probe’s proprietary online panel.

A comparable random sample of 1,230 Canadians would have a 95 per cent certainty of a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points. A comparable random sample of 448 Manitobans would have an error margin of 4.6 percentage points.

Probe also applied minor statistical weighting to the sample to ensure it reflects Canada’s population, based on age, gender and geographic region.