B.C.FAN wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2020 9:58 pm
Braley is right. Costs are much higher in a hub city model and there are no local revenues. The challenge is getting health authority approval, especially in B.C.
Simple math says the hub city model is very costly, easily the most expensive model to return to action under. Braley's 8 game schedule idea under a hub city would equate to a 60 day road trip. Being able to play home games at home reduces that to 4 road trips of no more than 2 days given under an 8 game scenario they would likely only play within their own divisions. 60 days versus 8. More costs in terms of air charters for the latter but that would be reduced by the fact there would be fewer players and personnel travelling and needing meals and accommodations. In addition to the usual entourage of players, coaches and support staff who would travel for road games under normal circumstances a hub city model would require accommodations etc for PR players, injured players and perhaps a few more support staff. Teams would need to bear the cost of an additional 15+ people who would normally stay home for road games and do it for as long as the team would be in the hub city.
I totally agree with Braley's line of thinking. Hub city is much more expensive for each team than being able to operate from home.
Hub city for 60 days:
Approximate# of people: 80
Rooms: 40 assuming double occupancy x 60 = 2400 room nights x $200 = $480K
Meals: 80 x 3/day x 60 days = 14400 x (for arguments sake) $25/meal = $360K
Air charters: 1 return + additional sched flights throughout.
Bus charters: required every practice day + game day.
Rental of meeting room space for 60 days
Rental of large conference rooms and gym equipment or rent the existing hotel gym (if large enough) for the duration so only the players and no other guests can access it.
Stay at home travel:
Approximate# of people: 65
Rooms: 33 assuming double occupancy x 8 = 264 room nights x $200 = $52.8K
Meals: 65 x 3/day x 8 days = 1560 x $25/meal = $39K
Air charters: 4 return
Bus charters: 4 return to cover airport to hotel and stadium to airport after games + 1 for walkthrough and 1 for game.
No more meeting space required than under normal road trips.
No need for setting up team access only fitness room.
My numbers are purely spitballing but team losses could be reduced by a at least of $1M on an 8 game based at home model versus hub city. The possibility of having 5000 fans in the seats for home games at an arbitrary $50 average ticket generates another $1M in loss offsetting revenue. Obviously the Lions benefit from the overall BC Place capacity versus other clubs in any social distanced plan to have a small number. It seems from Braley's perspective the CFL may not survive to play another season if they don't play in 2020. Having said that he thinks being based at home becomes the least cost alternative for playing in 2020. Everybody knows all teams will lose money this year regardless of model meaning the priority becomes identifying ways to minimize the losses.
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