Fourth quarter fumble

Call it the CFL on CBC, sort of...

Wild weather in Saskatchewan sent football fans scrambling for cover on Saturday night and on Sunday CBC executives were doing the same.

The problems for both began with a weather system that arrived at Mosaic Field just as the fourth quarter was getting under way, an intense lightning storm sent players to the dressing rooms and fans under the stands as the prairie skies opened to a deluge. In the midst of the storm power was knocked out to the area surrounding Mosaic Field, it took a little less than an hour to return full power to the stadium and send the teams back on the field.

However, by that time a mid level programming executive at the CBC Mother Ship in Toronto had decided to pull the plug on the fourth quarter of the CFL on CBC. The miscue sent many CFL fans off to the Internet in search of a radio feed or just off to bed without knowledge of the final result. For those with insomnia, the CBC offered up a late movie, called The Good Thief a film which now becomes Canada’s version of Heidi.

For Saskatchewan’s football fans, common sense won out shortly after the fourth quarter resumed play, the local CBC Affiliates of Saskatchewan picked up the broadcast, no doubt fearful of complaints by Sask Tel once the deluge of phone calls would start. Football fans with a satellite dish could thus also take in the final quarter of what was a very entertaining football game.

It’s a good thing that someone had the good sense to show the game to the Rider nation, as the home side made a strong statement on a rain filled Saturday night. Defeating the Eskimos 39 to 32 and moving into uncontested control of first place in the West division and league leaders of the eight team circuit.

The CBC is in the midst of reviewing its procedures in wake of the football fiasco; the head of CBC sports Scott Moore, had the misfortune of having moved into a new home and was unavailable to those in master control looking for guidance. He was taking full responsibility for the mess on Sunday and said measures would be put in place to make sure that an incident like this would never happen again.
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The CFL seemed a little less than impressed with the CBC's handling of the situation and issued a media release outlining the league's disappointment with their broadcast partner.
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Of course it’s perhaps a little late for the promises, marking just the latest in CBC miscues when it comes to the CFL. The league recently completed a new television deal with TSN which will see football become the exclusive property of the sports network, taking the Canadian game off of the public airwaves since the CBC first began broadcasting football back in the black and white cathode ray days.

Judging by the business acumen of the network and its executives, things seem to be returning back to those black and white days of one camera angle and intermittent picture failures and tape delayed broadcasts of old. As a matter of fact, as a form of penance for their mistake, the CBC planned on showing the last quarter of Saturday's game on Sunday night at midnight across the nation.
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If the CBC wanted to leave the CFL with a lasting memory of what they’ll be missing when the season ends they seem to be going about it the wrong way..