There’s been a lot of fuss the past few days over the Gray Cup halftime show and the lack of an announcement from the CFL as to who will be performing on the biggest day of the game. football schedule. The topic dominated end-of-season conversation on Twitter, with 3DownNationJoel Gasson adds fuel to the fire with his own article earlier this week.
I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t matter.
The assumption that an announcement has to be made more than a week before a sold-out game — especially one that was always going to sell out in football-mad Regina — makes no sense to me.
Think for a moment, can you name the top performing players in the CFL this week? The game’s most dedicated fans could probably name one or two of the people on this list. Tell me now if you can remember who the top performers in week 15 were without going to Google.
I work with some of the most dedicated CFL fans here at 3DownNation and I bet they couldn’t either.
Why? It’s because no one cares. The answer to this question is irrelevant in our everyday life.
Yes, the halftime show is something that should be prestigious and an honor to perform. There have been many multi-platinum artists who have done this.
That said, did Shania Twain’s announcement on August 10, 2017 prompt anyone to put the Gray Cup date on their calendar as a must-see event? Or was he largely forgotten once the news cycle died down, before returning to public attention the week of the game?
If the game sells out quickly, as it usually does, the announcement should take place on the Monday before the event. This keeps the conversation fresh, in the public eye and in the mind of the casual fan.
Simply put, the message of “Hey fans, don’t make plans for around 8 p.m. EST five months from now because we’ve got 12 to 16 minutes of thrilling halftime entertainment that will transform you surely into a football fan for life”. it really works. Instead, we should get, “Hey fans, be sure to tune in next Sunday when you might still remember it!”
Having the announcement on Monday would also allow the spectacle-driven last-minute traveler who is willing to take the seats of an unloading season ticket holder in their disappointment that their team did not make it.
“Hey, let’s go to Regina because a hologram of Tom Petty is playing Gray Cup halftime with a hologram of John Lennon!” I can’t miss this!”
Let’s not forget that no matter who the act is, you’ll have an equal number of people celebrating and complaining because it’s not their cup of tea musically. Older people complaining that they don’t like hippity-hop and young people wondering why another classic rock band is being booked will both be heard in equal measure. Now the CFL has reduced the time people have to complain, and those who couldn’t see their team will care even less if they decided not to go to the game after all.
The Gray Cup is not the Super Bowl. Millions watch the NFL Championship game for the spectacle, commercials and halftime show as the game is an afterthought. Nobody watches the Gray Cup for the same 10 repeat commercials and a halftime show that is, more often than not, worthy of a shrug.
Not even Bell Media equates the two, as the Super Bowl is on free-to-air CTV while the Gray Cup languishes on pay-TV TSN despite both being owned by the media conglomerate.
Whoever performs on Gray Cup Sunday, it won’t be Lady Gaga leaping off the roof or a silhouetted Prince melting brains with a guitar solo. It will not be a collection of the greatest artists of a musical genre all playing together.
The best the CFL has had in recent memory is Shania Twain on a dog sled and a bunch of acts I had to watch to remember.
Whoever takes the stage, whether it’s a multi-platinum artist, a group of cultural dancers, or a demonstration of Tae-Kwon Do, all I ask is that there be no in-game interview. I don’t care what they think of our game. I just want to hear Dustin Nielson describe the action while Matt Dunigan tells us about it after the fact.
All this to say that for the true CFL fan, the halftime show doesn’t really matter. You will like it or you will not like it. You’ll watch it or head to the fridge for refreshments. You’ll think the act is famous enough or you won’t. None of this will change the ratings and none of this has affected ticket sales.
It’s the game that counts and it’s the game that gets our attention.
#dont #care #Gray #Cup #halftime #announcement #shouldnt #3DownNation