New CFL commissioner has a vision for league

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      The way the Canadian Football League has done business for years is changing. And that's a good thing. As training camps begin for each of the eight teams in the league, they do so under the watchful eye of new commissioner Mark Cohon. He's only two months into a five-year contract, so it's impossible to declare him the right man for the job just yet, but early indications are that he's the fresh coat of paint that this less-than-progressive league has needed for a while.

      Cohon brings an impressive business and sports-marketing background to the job, having worked for both Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. He's well-groomed and carries himself with an air that will surely garner respect in corporate Canada, yet there's also an ease about him that makes you think he'd be right at home pounding back a beer and scarfing down a hot dog at a tailgate party prior to a game in any CFL city.

      But most of all, the new commish brings a vision to the job: he knows what he wants and he's now mapping out how he's going to get there.

      "The league is very healthy. That was one of the key things I thought about when I took this job. The league is in great shape," Cohon told the Georgia Straight last week on his first visit to Vancouver since assuming his new role. "When I travel around the country right now, there are no big fires. It's all about building, and that's the exciting thing about the job."

      And at the top of the Chicago-born, Toronto-raised Cohon's to-do list is to connect–or in many cases reconnect–with young fans. Others have floated such a platitude in the past, but this guy seems serious. And he appears to have the savvy to do it.

      "I think that's why they hired me. They hired me because they knew I can cross that generation. I'm still kind of young, 41. I ran a software company, and I know the guys who were doing our programming at 22 were using the Web in a much different way than you and I use it, but clearly I have some understanding around that and I'm going to try to take advantage of it," he said, in town to meet with B.C. Lions brass and 150 of the team's community and business partners. "I think it's reengaging young people and making sure we get young fans and doing things like we did with the CFL draft on-line. The longer-term stuff is all the YouTube stuff–user-generated content and social networking. Those are things the league can be at the forefront of, and that's what I'm going to focus on in the next few years."

      Already–in his first 60 days on the job–Cohon has taken the CFL college draft (which had always been nothing more than a conference call) and made it an event. The commissioner took it to a whole new level, streaming it live from the league office in Toronto. It may not sound like much, but it's the way professional sports leagues have to do business today. The Internet is not something to be feared, as was the case with this league in the past. Cohon appears to have a firm grasp on that fact, and that's why the league put its money where its mouse was.

      "It was a no-brainer. We had 35,000 people on-line, we had 11,000 people watching it, we had 150,000 page views, and that's at a time of year when very few people are on the site," he said. "We're looking at a CFL video game, but I don't think it's just about a video game. When I worked at the NBA we had a lot of things, we had three-on-three basketball. I think you've got to get kids playing and being active. The CFL should be at the forefront of getting kids active. That's one thing I'd like to focus on, is getting kids playing and active again, whether that's putting on a helmet and shoulder pads or running around their school yard and just taking a ball and tossing it around."

      By his own admission, Cohon doesn't like sitting behind a desk. Listening to him speak, it's obvious he's big on being active. The commissioner plans to visit every CFL city before the season starts, and he says it's his intention to attend every team's home opener as well.

      He's well aware he has issues to deal with, like the controversial new salary-management system, expansion to Ottawa and Atlantic Canada, and the lack of any meaningful drug policy. And he plans to tackle those in time. With the security of a five-year deal in hand, Cohon isn't under the gun to solve all of the league's problems tomorrow or even next week.

      So he'll exercise patience on some of those matters and deal with them when the time is right. But the one thing he won't wait for is the chance to share his passion for the sport with people from coast to coast.

      With this season's Grey Cup to be played in Toronto for the first time in 15 years, Cohon knows the importance of his first year on the job. He sees the league's showcase event in the league's largest market as the best possible opportunity to expose fans and financial backers to what the CFL is all about. And Cohon plans to use every means possible–on-line, on television and radio, and on the field–to bring Canadian football to the masses.

      "I want to be very progressive, engaging, and inspirational," he said. "I want to make sure we get the next generation. I'm really all about getting young kids to come back to the game. It's so competitive out there, when you think about all the professional sports and the Olympics as well. It's challenging."

      Everything about running the Canadian Football League has been challenging for anyone who has held the top job. But–and it's a big "but" at this point, since the league hasn't even held a game under his watch yet–with the hiring of Cohon, the CFL seems to have made one of its best decisions in years.

      Jeff Paterson is a sportscaster and talk-show host on Vancouver's all-sports radio, Team 1040. E-mail him at jeff.paterson@team1040.ca .

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