So the 2009 Canadian Football League season kicks off on Canada Day with games in Hamilton and Calgary.

Now, I’m already on the record as being anti-CFL, and going into this season things haven’t changed much. I don’t know any players and I really don’t care. I’ll carry my football jones until the NFL season starts in October, thank you very much.

Who Cares About the Grey Cup?

But the question remains: What could the CFL do to garner the attention of a fickle fan like me? Well, I’ve come up with a handful of suggestions.

1. Say it with me now: CFL Saturdays.

This one’s simple. How can the casual fan be drawn into the game when they have no idea when their team is playing? These weekday night games are for the birds. It has always been one of the simplest draws of NFL football: You know when the games are. They’ve created a franchise out of Sunday and Monday night football.

The CFL’s schedule is all over the map, with games on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Labour Day Monday. Competing against the NFL on Sundays isn’t a good idea. And Thursdays … whose idea was that one?

Whether at home or on the road, knowing your team will be playing every Saturday and that there is a CFL doubleheader on TV is a great way of drawing casual fans into the game. And I think a lot of people prefer Saturday games, when they can make an event of going to a game with the whole family instead being forced to sneak out of work or worrying about that early meeting the next day.

2. Real weather, real turf.

Come on, we’re well into the 21st century now. Do we still have to be playing games on plastic grass or away from the weather? In the U.S., franchises have been moving away from this for 20 years now. In the CFL, only one team plays on real grass. It’s a little embarrassing, frankly.

And don’t tell me the weather is an issue. If they can grow real grass in Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, they can grow real grass anywhere. Even Winnipeg. I’ve been to Winnipeg. They have lawns. It can be done. Real grass gives the game some old-time authenticity.

The Montreal Alouettes’ move from Olympic Stadium to Molson Stadium on the McGill campus should be all the evidence anyone needs about moving away from the big, impersonal buildings. At the Big Oh, the team was an afterthought verging on another bankruptcy. Since moving to the smaller, outdoor field the Als have sold out every game and are again part of the city’s identity. Fans love toughing it out together and bad-weather games are far more fun than antiseptic indoor games. We’re Canadians. We’re hearty. We like our football the same way.

3. Change the playoff format.

Having each team play 18 regular-season games to eliminate two teams from the playoffs is silly. The whole cross-over scheme – where the worst team in one division makes the playoffs if their record is better than two teams in the other division – is bush league.

Either get some more teams – Ottawa, Halifax and Quebec City can probably support franchises – or have only the top two teams from each division make it into the postseason.

4. Find some players with some personality.

Part of the reason I’m unfamiliar with any of the CFL players these days is because there aren’t a lot of magnetic personalities out there. I don’t know when it came into vogue to be dull as dishwater, but this league is starving for the next Pinball Clemons or Gizmo Williams, players who are flamboyant off the field and could back it up on the field. I couldn’t pick Scott Flory, Kamau Peterson and Cameron Wake out of a lineup if you paid me, and they all won awards last season. Right now, all these banal players make for a very boring league.

5. Be Canadian, but not in a pathetic way.

The CFL is uniquely Canadian, and that’s something that should be celebrated. I loved that “Our balls are bigger” marketing campaign from a few years ago. It showed humility and humour in our uniqueness, which is right in line with our Canadian identity.

I say the CFL should come to grips with the fact that it’s a second-rate league compared to the NFL and embrace it: “This isn’t American football, and thank goodness.”

I definitely prefer that approach to being guilted into supporting a team because the whole league is on the precipice of folding, and we’ll lose yet another piece of Canadiana right along with it to the mighty American sports machine.

There should be more Canadians on every team – this would not only give fans more home-grown players to rally around, but might give a boost to our grassroots football programs, because players would have a better chance at a career in the sport. Like junior hockey, we support the teams because they’re “our boys” who come from our communities, not a bunch of Americans who couldn’t cut it in the NFL.

Starting the season on Canada Day is a good start in terms of pulling at the old patriotic heartstrings. But this league has a long way to go before it counts me as a supporter.

Thomas Bink had his passion for sports rekindled when he made the switch to HD, trading in a 27-inch TV for a blessed 52-incher. If you’re a voyeur, you can follow him at www.twitter.com/thomasbink.