CFL sets September target date for new website, smartphone app

Photo: Aru Das/3DownNation. All rights reserved.

The CFL’s new website and smartphone application are set for release on September 1, league commissioner Stewart Johnston told Winnipeg Sports Talk on Tuesday.

“September 1 is our date, it’s our target date,” he said. “Everyone’s on board, we’re tracking very well to hit that date for an unveiling of a new digital ecosystem at cfl.ca and a new app, as well. These are the things that if you’re holding yourself out as an elite professional sports league, you’ve got to have, so I cannot wait to get there.”

At last year’s Grey Cup in Winnipeg, Johnston announced what he termed a “historic commitment to modernize (the CFL’s) digital platforms.”

“In today’s world, if you don’t have a modern, reliable digital offering, you won’t succeed,” he said at the time. “On my third day on the job, during the CFL draft, our website went down. During the first preseason game of the year, it went down again. If we want to be considered a major professional sports league, this cannot happen.”

Not only did it happen, but it happened again — specifically, on the evening of the 2026 CFL Draft when the tracker failed near the end of the fifth round.

Days later, the league told 3DownNation “the issue was isolated to the draft tracker functionality” and they “remain confident in the stability of the current website until the new platform is launched.” They also promised an update on when the new website would be launched, which has now occurred.

One of the league’s new online offerings has already been launched — a season-long fantasy game.

Once fans signed up and had the opportunity to do drafts, many took to social media complaining about technical problems and delays. It seems the league is aware of these complaints and has been working to ensure the issues are resolved.

“We had issues Sunday night. The good news is: an overwhelming number of people doing drafts. Outstanding. Terrible news? Our system didn’t keep up with it,” said Johnston.

“We had a lot of conversations with our vendor on Sunday night, and those issues have been worked on for 24 hours and beyond. Since then, we think that anyone coming on board right now won’t experience glitches, and certainly we apologize for any sluggishness on Sunday night, but outside of that, everyone who has been coming on has been having a great experience, so we think that’ll be seamless moving forward.”

Despite some early technical problems, Johnston is clearly thrilled with the product and believes fans will enjoy it.

“In terms of CFL fantasy, we couldn’t have been more excited to launch that,” he said. “We think this is a platform — very unique because of the uniqueness of the CFL — but I think as players come on board and have some fun with it, they will find it’s on par with fantasy platforms from other leagues — any other league. We are really, really excited about it.”