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Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 9:39 am
by Hambone

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:24 am
by Murdoch
Merciful decision. They were flying by the seat of their pants all along.

So everyone on a one year is headed for free agency and the collective agreement is intact? Believe there are bonuses outstanding to be resolved and will likely hear more on that soon.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:26 am
by B.C.FAN
It's disappointing in a lot of ways, especially since the league expected to lose more money by not playing. And many of us had offered to have teams keep our 2020 season ticket money to help fund a shortened season. I hope the CFL can come back on a more solid foundation in 2021 and re-establish its connection to sports fans.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:34 am
by maxlion
Good article by Justin Dunk here:

https://3downnation.com/2020/08/17/the- ... n-citizen/

I think that one of the CFL's big challenges was getting their owners aligned. The community owned teams needed a loan to operate. Paying it back might have been a challenge. The private owners didn't need a loan, especially not on the terms that the lenders were offering. And they might not even have wanted to play this year anyways. The federal government probably made the right decision to take a step back on this.

Now on to next year. Lots of uncertainty. Lots of contingencies. No end in sight to the pandemic or economic meltdown.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:00 pm
by cromartie
Murdoch wrote:
Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:24 am
Merciful decision. They were flying by the seat of their pants all along.
This is either a failure of PR, a failure of leadership, or both. Either way, someone who is employed today should not be as a result.

A league with a plan lays out to the public the costs and challenges of doing a reduced hub city season. They have a plan for this and an anticipated cost for that plan.

A league without leadership asks for money first and maybe comes out with a plan later.

Every North American sports league realized in April that COVID was going to negatively impact operations for their upcoming or current seasons. The NHL and NBA have found ways not only to finish their seasons, without fans in a hub city concept but they have plans in place for the next one. That's indicative of leadership, and believe me that's not a word I associate with Gary Bettman that often.

Even MLS, whose margins as a sports league are on par with the CFL most of the time (ponzi scheme expansion fees notwithstanding), found a way to execute the hub city concept after a delayed start. For the Commissioner to say "we didn't see this coming" is unacceptable.

There are ways to go about this, and still come to the conclusion that the season isn't viable, but this was the worst possible way to do it, and it is a clear failure in leadership at the league level, and a fundamental failure in the Commissioner's Office.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:19 pm
by Sir Purrcival
I can agree with some of that. The cardinal rule when you are asking for money is to be completely prepared with the details of what is needed, where the money is going and in the case of the CFL, I think to really play up the cultural aspects of this particular league. Ambrosie didn't seem to be prepared on all of those fronts. The CFLPA didn't help much either with some of their public statements and in the end they just looked disorganized and dysfunctional.

On the other hand, there has been nothing like this in our lifetimes to contend with. One might be forgiven somewhat for not appreciating the true scope of the issue right away and getting it right from the get go. We have whole nations right now in chaos, other sports leagues are making it up somewhat as they go along as well. The NHL and NBA are just finishing up their seasons, MLB hasn't done all that well IMO in handling this so far and the NFL still hasn't had to try yet. We'll see how all of these leagues fair when it comes to starting a whole season under these kinds of conditions should they still exist.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 7:24 pm
by cms22
yes.......... inevitable... CFL never seemed to have much reasonable hope for this season taking place in any form.

a bit disappointed in the government.......... i understand being against government handouts, but they certainly give out many of those to other organizations.

i do think the CFL should have had player salary cap in addition to a team salary cap........ players would still make the same but split up amongst more players........$750k per season american players can't sit well with the govt and i don't blame them.

so would a player with a multi-year contract simply have lost a year off the contract?...... not sure if this is a generic legal question or specific to cfl contracts, but it surprises me that all players can't become free agents if they want. if i signed a 3 year contract, the team hasn't honored the terms of that contract. i understand it was outside CFL's control. but i haven't heard anything (maybe once or twice at most) about "force majeur" and the Covid virus regarding any activity (sports or non-sports)

are top CFL players free to play in the NFL this fall?.......... how would that work with their CFL contract?

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 7:25 pm
by cms22
i'm wondering if all these questions about CFL contracts and cancelled season are just a gigantic abyss... i.e. no one knows the answers right now

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:43 pm
by TheLionKing
Not a surprise. Said there won't be a season back in May. I think the NFL is making a mistake in trying to play this season. Covid is rampant in the States and trying to play in the pandemic is foolhardy

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2020 7:09 am
by SammyGreene
This has been a huge reality check for me about the CFL and its future.
I was naive enough to the think the CFL had a solid business model with three problem markets that happened to be in Canada's largest cities. When the league said it had taken over the Alouettes franchise in 2019 I actually believed it had a contingency fund for such an emergency. That's until Ambrosie went to Ottawa with his initial ask back in April and stated the $21 million debt in 2019 and each club chipping in $5-7 million to run the Alouettes.

He has taken a lot of heat over the last few months and most of it is justified. However, pretty sure he inherited this financial mess that includes inflated player and operating caps, and even his $750,000 annual salary. All blessed by the BOG that is a weird mix of mostly affluent private owners and three community owned teams that currently enjoy the most financial success within the league. Yet none were willing to reach really deep into their pockets to make a shortened "bubble" season a reality, without government help. Simply there is no long term payoff for doing that as a CFL owner.

I don't know where this goes from here. I guess Ambrosie needs to make sure none of the 6 private owners abandon their teams over the next 6-8 months. Then I would think some really hard financial decisions that has to result in the teams shedding signifiant operating costs. And reality is there is no guarantee COVID is completely behind us for a 2021 season.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2020 7:38 am
by cms22
ironic that the community-owned teams might have been the weak link in the COVID-season chain.

not sure i completely believe other than the suggestion that technically their finances become a huge problem. i'm thinking 2 or 3 of the privately owned teams might have been major issues too.

if there are 3 community-owned teams, who are they?....... i know sask, wpg.. but which of edmonton/calgary is community-owned? i assume edmonton because i can remember calgary having private owners at different points in past.

honestly, bring back the community-owner model in vancouver/montreal and perhaps tie into immigration investment plans.

canadian players should have been the ones pitching the government initially on financial assistancer

lastly, i think canadian starters should be mandated by the league to be spread amongst the different offensive/defensive units...... their being predominately interior OL and secondary WR's screams that they aren't very important........ have big incentives for teams to play canadians at QB/TB and leading WR. things like that ......... amp up the canadian aspect to game. i thought this pre-covid to some degree. but now it's absolutely paramount.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2020 12:02 pm
by BC 1988
TheLionKing wrote:
Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:43 pm
Not a surprise. Said there won't be a season back in May. I think the NFL is making a mistake in trying to play this season. Covid is rampant in the States and trying to play in the pandemic is foolhardy
I tend to agree. It's remarkable how the NFL machine is lumbering along. Each team is approaching socially distanced fans/no fans differently (due in large part of course to differing State/City rulings). Most are also affixing the "subject to change" label on their current policies.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/295 ... lar-season

One thing that may give them a better chance of success:
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/the-nba-and-y ... 35566.html
but the fact remains with no controlled environment, there is much higher chance of games being postponed than in a bubble.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2020 7:23 pm
by cms22
it blows me away the negative reaction to the Big 10 cancelling football season........... are any conferences going ahead with non-football sports? i believe the answer is "no". so this is largely about revenue, not doing the right thing for the players (you can argue nfl-bound players need to play)

i have no doubt half the parents who signed that "big 10 is screwing our kids" petition would be supporting a class action suit in 10 years screaming "the big 10 didn't protect our kids.... they put revenue ahead of safety".......... yes, there are alot of hypocrites in this world.

personally, i think the reaction to CV has constituted pretty major overkill...... but i am certainly happy to defer to actual experts on this. and disregarding those experts advice doesn't help anything........ young kids going back to school is so much more important than NCAA football......... and if major universities don't have full in-person class schedules, i see no reason why football should be played.

maybe i'm a hypocrite as i'm sad for the CFL..... of course, the only reason i wanted CFL to play is because it may cease to exist if it doesn't play this season.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2020 3:09 pm
by David
cromartie wrote:
Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:00 pm
This is either a failure of PR, a failure of leadership, or both. Either way, someone who is employed today should not be as a result.

A league with a plan lays out to the public the costs and challenges of doing a reduced hub city season. They have a plan for this and an anticipated cost for that plan.

A league without leadership asks for money first and maybe comes out with a plan later.

Every North American sports league realized in April that COVID was going to negatively impact operations for their upcoming or current seasons. The NHL and NBA have found ways not only to finish their seasons, without fans in a hub city concept but they have plans in place for the next one. That's indicative of leadership, and believe me that's not a word I associate with Gary Bettman that often.

Even MLS, whose margins as a sports league are on par with the CFL most of the time (ponzi scheme expansion fees notwithstanding), found a way to execute the hub city concept after a delayed start. For the Commissioner to say "we didn't see this coming" is unacceptable.

There are ways to go about this, and still come to the conclusion that the season isn't viable, but this was the worst possible way to do it, and it is a clear failure in leadership at the league level, and a fundamental failure in the Commissioner's Office.
^^ This. ^^ Word for word. :daman:

:whs: :rockin:


DH :cool:

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2020 3:48 pm
by cms22
was it only a $30MM interest free loan that held this back?

govt should have granted it...... how much has it dumped into the CBC over the last 50 years? or even in the last year?

i vaguely read that there were problems with some teams privately owned and others community... i wonder if this and many players being highly padi americans was a problem.

$30M is a relatively small number..... and interest rates are really low these days? couldn't the CFL get it commercially? or is it way too complex? i.e. who is on hook for money is things don't work out.

i hope the teams come up with something for the fans...... i think we need some CFL content this year. skills competition, flag football. who knows?

can the league disappear and reinvent itself? or just reinvent the vancouver franchise if needed?

cfl made huge mistake going so quickly to govt without players and pitching such a huge number.