CFL appears determined to misread situations

When the CFLPA turned down the offer, CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie released the offer publicly, trying to rally public support behind the league instead of the players. The result was a ham handed operation, much like the Russian PR operation trying to justify their war.

Why the league would revert to such a heavy handed approach is a bit mystifying. The Riders lost $210 million last year, a figure which might be among the better in the league although I suspect Winnipeg had better numbers with their second Grey Cup win in three years.

The league is poised to cash in on the establishment of legalized betting in Ontario, which in theory would then spread across the country, but once again it appears the CFL board of governors is content to miss the boat, perhaps to appease the faceless corporate overlords of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, celebrating yet another choke by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

MLSE is probably looking south at the NFL where Denver is poised to be the first team to be sold for $4.5 billion. Compare that to roughly the BC Lions who were sold for a reported $10 million, perhaps not in the neighborhood David Braley would have liked if he was still alive.

MLSE is involved in the questionable scheme known as Major League Soccer where franchise values go up, even though the ratings and attendance don’t appear to justify that. MLSE would love to get a piece of the NFL action, probably because it would help shareholders of MLSE get bigger dividends, but the CFL is, for better or worse, keeping them from these aims.

Toronto does not have a stadium which would work for NFL games, maybe the Skydome, but that would be amongst the smallest in the league with the least amenities. Maybe MLSE would like taxpayers to pay for a new stadium, but in this current economic and political climate would be an iffy proposition.

So to gin up the bottom line and increase the financial value of the Argonauts for a potential sale, cutting operating costs in terms of reducing Canadian roster spots to reduce salary costs; not allowing a transparent audit of revenues, and getting a 10-year contract locking the players in into everything but revenue sharing seems to be the game plan.

However, the league failed to recognize that in 2020, when the CFL became the only North American league not to play, even in a bubble format, players moved on to other things. Being a football player now is not the same as it was in the 1960s, where players came to training camp to get into shape.

These day’s players have to train year round. With the advent of spring football, the expansion of NFL practice rosters and money for those players, what the CFL is putting forward is not as lucrative as what players could make elsewhere.

Consider the case of Mattland Riley of the Riders who retired prior to training camp. Riley was a first round draft pick in 2020 who has a degree in engineering and decided to go work in his profession which pays better and hurts less than football.

There was a mass of CFL retirements after the cancelled 2020 season as many players moved on to other jobs, including Michael Reilly who retired from the BC Lions to become a firefighter, which hurts a lot less than playing behind the BC offensive line.

The CFL and CFLPA apparently have no plans to meet again this week, which means the first game of the exhibition season, the God Less Winnipeg Blue Bombers coming back to infest Mosaic Stadium on May 23 will likely be postponed. If this lasts long enough, the CFL may pushing back training camp, or eliminating exhibition games or shortening the season.

Most fans have a relatively low opinion of training camp, but fans got a taste of how necessary this is to the football process by how sluggish the defenses were coming out of the gate. Training camp and exhibition games help teams develop timing, and with nothing on the table, the league’s best efforts to increase offense and entertainment are like their contract offer to the players, nothing but noise.

The Riders did make some additions to their roster, signing Charleston Hughes to a contract. Hughes left when the Riders would not make an offer he was happy with and joined the Argonauts where either age caught up with him or he was woefully misused in the Argo defensive system.

At his age (38 years old) Hughes had a healthy streak of leading the CFL in sacks until last year. Hughes was released by Toronto by the end of the year and ideally, if there is still some tread on Hughes’ tires, it would seem he might work in a rotational system playing first downs or second and long when pressure on a quarterback is needed.

Hughes was joined in Toronto by linebacker Cameron Judge who was probably one of the better draft picks by Chris Jones, but Judge was also released and signed with Calgary and having an underwhelming season, so in my mind the jury is out on whether Hughes can contribute at a high level.

The other signing was former Rider draft pick Bruno LaBelle, who was drafted in the third round of the 2021 draft. LaBelle chose to sign as an undrafted free agent with the Arizona Cardinals, spent most of his time on the practice roster.

LaBelle is known mostly as a blocker which will be helpful for QB Cody Fajardo. The Riders also signed long snapper Zach Zynomirski who was a starter at the University of Western Ontario, which means Jorgen Hus may get some competition.

The CFL and Ambrosie have a credibility problem with me, dating from two years ago when Ambrosie made a disastrous presentation to the House of Commons asking the government to essentially give the CFL money to play a season in a bubble.

The lack of preparation and the attitude conveyed that the CFL should be entitled to public money without accountability is something that has seeped into the collective bargaining agreement negotiations.

Then let’s look at the CFL Global idea which seems cribbed from Premier League soccer which of course is a revenue stream that MLSE seems most enamoured of. Expanding the CFL player pool to include Globe players might work if the countries the players come from also televised or even paid to have CFL games televised.

The CFL has been selective in its promotion of the idea of the Global players, but when you see the Edmonton Elks cut all their Global players from last season and all the teams seem to do is select punters who fit the Global tag at a lower cost than Canadian punters, well, the purpose now seems to use Global players to reduce player salaries while moving higher priced Canadian players like Jon Ryan into early retirement.

I think most CFL fans would be happy with the players and league working together to maximize the experience of the game and the revenues which may accompany that.

However, the CFL seems determined to totally misread situations much like Putin has in Ukraine. People like me who bought season tickets and Grey Cup tickets are now wondering if, never mind when, the players might actually see the field.

This is not how things were supposed to unfold.

by Greg Urbanoski

CFL appears determined to misread situations

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