CFL Fans Deserve Better than What the League Gives Them

Those who have no use for the CFL, which is basically southern Ontario, were up in arms about money potentially going to American athletes who pay taxes in Canada, but outside of the CFL season usually don’t live in Canada in the off-season. There was also scorn for the lack of a game plan or accountability for where the money was going and why it was needed.

The public relations disaster that was that meeting at least seems to have acted an an impetus for the League and the Players’ Association to start talking to each again and why a united front is so important to make their case to Canadians. There are hopes that if the league can figure out a game plan to account for the money and perhaps avoid the spectacle of league wide free agency if there are no games played, then maybe the CFL can high step through the various scenarios that threaten to scuttle the league.

Towards the end of the week came word the CFL is looking at the concept of hub cities to play football in. Hub cities are where the rates of infection are relatively low and if the games are played, even without fans or a minimum of fans respecting social distancing, then the CFL can bring in the TSN money and then access the federal wage subsidy to pay players and staff.

So if you are looking at hub cities, and considering most if not all provinces are stopping public gatherings of more than 10 people until the end of August, it depends on how much of a schedule the league wants to play. Last month I heard the Riders were working on a schedule that would see teams play once every five days.

At that time I thought that was incredibly tight considering travel and what would amount to one day a week of on field team practice. But if you have a scenario where five western teams are in, say, Regina, staying at local hotels and playing each other, that type of scenario of teams playing every five days becomes doable.

The biggest question is one of logistics. Having five teams in one city staying at presumably separate hotels with testing and ensuring they do not get exposed is incredibly complicated. One would imagine a curfew or something that would ban players from going out in public and potentially getting exposed.

So let’s say a player gets exposed to Covid-19 and tests positive. Does that player stay out of the lineup for 14 days or is the whole team quarantined? If that is the case, then how would that affect games and standings?

The other thing is who pays for all of this? In contrast to say, the NFL, NBA and to some extent NHL (I’m going to ignore MLB for the moment just because they are having problems with working out how much players will get paid in their own version of hub cities) the CFL does not have a rich TV contract that would allow players to perform without fans. Gate revenue makes up a lot of what fuels these teams.

So federal help would be needed so teams could pay players and staff. As I’ve noted, the TSN money would fill in some of the gaps and the federal help would handle the rest. So let’s say as a theoretical the CFL opens Mosaic Stadium to about 35 per cent capacity to provide some income and perhaps some much needed color for the games.

With talk of a second wave of Coronavirus this fall, the idea would be to limit the possible means of infection so we might see fans sitting in every other or second seat away from each other. Washrooms would be limited along with concessions stands.

It would be a juggling spectacle worth of a circus with the knowledge that just one infection could blow this out of the water. However sitting back and doing nothing is not really in the cards either.

The CFLPA has served notice it if the season is cancelled then all the players would be considered free agents. Considering the Riders have been building a team to coincide with the 2020 Grey Cup, that would destroy their hopes of cashing in big time on this season.

The other thing to consider is that out of sight means out of mind. For the CFL to have games would give them a spotlight for people to focus on other than the daily recitation of how many new cases, how many deaths and how many recoveries there were during the day.

The NFL Draft was the only real sporting event to take place the last few months and it got record ratings and the CFL draft, long treated as second class citizen by TSN saw its rating go up 116 per cent because once again, there was no competition.

There is a window of opportunity for the CFL, but instead of the league going in one direction with no input from the players, the league could use this moment to demonstrate how Canadians can work together to solve problems. Judging from how they have handled it so far, it may appear to be wishful thinking, but there is an old saying that the prospect of a hanging tends to focus a mind.

The publicly owned CFL teams are starting to release their financial statements and Winnipeg came out this week noting they made a $3.5 million profit, most of that was Grey Cup profit, the team and others in the CFL chipped in $660,000 to help keep the Montreal Alouettes afloat after the owners walked away.

Ironically enough, the three most solid teams are the publicly owned ones and one wonders what a $660,000 cut from each budget would do for their respective teams bottom line. For teams like Toronto and Calgary, which are owned by corporations that also own NHL teams, one suspects those teams are operated as loss leaders to help balance out the profit from teams like the Leafs, Raptors and Flames.

The CFL has about a month or so to come up with a plan with the CFLPA, present it to the federal government, work through some of the more touchy issues like should government money go to American athletes. If the level of infections continues to drop then there is a possibility of the league managing to get its season complete.

Considering the CFL has a total player cap of $50 million, one suspects that somewhere in that neighbourhood is what the CFL ask should be of the federal government. One then wonders if the federal government would be open to such a request from the CFL.

My answer is that there is precedent for the government, especially a Liberal government, helping out the CFL. In 1974 the World Football League was established and one of the proposed teams was in Toronto and would be called the Toronto Northmen.

The government of the day, led by Pierre Trudeau, was not anxious to see a Canadian league being threatened by an American one and passed legislation to compell the Toronto WQFL franchise to move to Memphis to become the Memphis Southmen.

This time if the CFL can get its act together and present a coherent plan for what the money would be used for and how the league would develop its business plan to avoid future government intervention, it could be a major leap forward for the league.

For most of the CFL history of the last 30 years, the league has sometimes acted as its own worst enemy – complacent, entitled and oblivious to the world around it. That might have worked in the 1960s and 1970s, but it is a different world and the CFL needs to acknowledge that and more importantly, demonstrate its place in this new world.

While the Bombers released their financial statements, the Riders announced they would be making pay cuts in their organizations but no job losses as yet. The Riders have become a financial powerhouse in the league and with a Grey Cup scheduled for Regina in November the pieces seemed to be in place for a banner year.

With Ambrosie stating the most likely scenario was no league play this year, players are looking elsewhere to bring money in, especially since they don’t get paid unless there are games played. The Riders saw their prized acquisition in the 2019 CFL Supplemental Draft, offensive lineman Jake Bennett, announce his retirement.

Part of that might have been looking at the Rider depth chart and thinking with Dan Clark starting at centre, the potential for playing time was not there. The other part was if he was going to be on the practice roster, his it would be a pretty hardscrabble existence until he got into the regular lineup.

Depending on who you listen to, this move might have been contemplated last year when Bennett Joined the team. The Riders added to their depth in the CFL draft and have some interesting local territorial exemptions coming into camp, but there is a gap between potential and actual playing ability.

Edmonton saw a defensive lineman announce he was retiring to go into medical school while in BC Travis Lulay walked away from the BC Lions to join his family business in Oregon. There will likely be more such announcements as teams try to get a handle on how the 2020 season will unfold.

The suspended animation of the CFL season has thrown a boomerrang into the works of the Atlantic Schooners. Anthony LeBlanc has left the organization to join the Ottawa Senators and the likely isolation of the Atlantic provinces means the Touchdown Atlantic game between Toronto and the Riders will likely be cancelled.

I don’t know if it will kill the team as some anti-CFL pundits have been suggesting. The reason why I’m optimistic about a team in Halifax is after this crisis is over, the economy is going to need some projects to jumpstart some employment and a stadium in Halifax may just be in the works. It might not be pure infrastructure, but it will put people to work and provide a home for the team.

For the Riders, news that Derrick Moncrief got cut loose by the Las Vegas Raiders. It was kind of a surprise considering the Raiders paid a signing bonus, but after the Raiders made a few draft picks, it seems Moncrief was the victim of Covid-19 where teams that sign undrafted free agents will cut them before they cut draft picks.

It’s a question of teams working with what they know and that is something CFL fans should keep in mind if there is a 2020 season. Considering the likely shortened schedule and the 14 day quarantine, the teams who have been together for awhile will have a greater advantage over those teams who have not really played before.

Moncrief will likely look for another NFL landing spot, but if he does come back to Canada and the Riders, its another piece of the puzzle to be worked out. There is not really a dull moment to be found in this offseason for the CFL.

by Greg Urbanoski

CFL Fans Deserve Better than What the League Gives Them

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