Avg CFL team profits $8 million

Was told that the avg CFL team profits $8 million - BC Lions profits are very high and they only get at times 22k - was told Lions are on the block and asking price is in the high $60m's.

Which seems about right if they are making $8-9m a season.

[i]There is no wucking fay teams are making an average profit of 8 million. Maybe the Eskimos make a 30 million profit, and 3 teams lose a combined 6 million. Be careful with averages.

Also, profits can diverge strongly from net profit. Who is peddling these numbers?

Oh, so Access_Media “was told”… Sounds like Trump when he says “I am hearing” and then implies it is a fact… :roll: [/i]

Saskatchewan profited something like over $15m 2 times in last 15 yrs. Blue Bombers profited $9 million or $12m before stadium payment.

BC is profiting due to large sponsorship deals. Was told concession deals are great for team. Redblacks profit close to $12 million last season per ottawa sun reporter. Deal includes playoffs and merchandise sales post-season.

also CFLPA last neg'n were bothered with deal cause they didn't fight for a larger cap. Some suggested $8.5m-$12.5 would have been more suitable for the cap which I agree. Teams are making $5m off tv deal minus other sponsorship and CFL side deals. No doubt CFL teams are hiding #'s profits in books. Too much sense. Hamilton gotta be making lots of $$ off merch/concess/sponsors. Young said they 5x it after 1 yr at Tim Hortons.

[i]Saskatchewan was over 15m twice in the last 15 years. One of those years was surely when they won the Cup in 2013. Ok, what about the years they really sucked? There are 13 other years to offset those numbers.

The Blue Bomberinos make healthy profits BEFORE stadium payments. How much are the stadium payments? It sounds like a guy who wants more credit. He says, I make 3000$ a week… Before payments. Ok, so how much are your payments buddy boy?

Maybe CFL teams are rolling in bacon fat and money. But, just throwing out cherry picked numbers tells you nothing. [/i]

Teams are averaging 20 to 25 million in revenues a year so an 8 million gross profit is not out of the question. Still don't have a clue how that makes 12.5 million dollar payroll even remotely possible. CFL teams should be allowed to make 4 to 5 million dollar profit a year.

Access Media, who is telling you this
I went to google, typed in BC Lions Lease and voila! Here is the Lions lease agreement with BC Place,

The Lions get zero concessions, nada, zilch

[url=http://thetyee.ca/News/2015/04/23/BC-Lions-Rent-Contract/]http://thetyee.ca/News/2015/04/23/BC-Li ... -Contract/[/url]

[b][i]Under the contract, PavCo retains food and beverage revenue. On game days, the Lions can sell merchandise at their concourse souvenir stands and advertising within the inner bowl. PavCo charges each game-goer a $3 per ticket facility fee, while Ticketmaster levies $6 in fees and service charges per ticket.

“We’re not thrilled about that, because that’s our customer and they make buying decisions on the total price,” Skulsky said.[/i][/b]

That seems very conservative to me. The Lions are worth much more than $60M, especially with the Whitecaps valued at US$115M according to Forbes. The CFL is the most profitable sports league in the world!

doubt its that high. I would say Riders make $6m in EBITDA (they depreciated a lot of Taylor field additions to make there net income worse last year). Winnipeg makes lot too but has to pay $4m a year on their stadium. Rest are $2-4million. Argos breakeven even with their pathetic attendance.

Ok, here goes using some info I can find online.

Average BC Lions Ticket Price : $52.15 minus Ticket Master and Pavco charges = $43.15

Average attendance so far this year : 20377

Equals cash in per game : $879,267.55

Extrapolated over 9 games: $7,913,407.95 total Cash

Present League TV Contract : 200 Million over 5 years

TV Contract Per season : 40 Million

TV Contract per Team : 4 million (assuming the league takes an operations cut)

So....

$7,913,407.95 total Cash + $4,000,000.00 = $11,913,407.95 total cash income

Minus $5,100,000.00 salary cap = $6,813,407.95

Minus 1,000,000.00 for Rent = 5,813,407.95 Total remaining cash

None of this includes profit from merchandise, and now they do a killing in that department.

So depending on other operational costs which I'm sure there are, flights, hotels coaching staff which I don't believe is covered by the salary cap, I'd guesstimate the Lions profit some where between 4 - 5 million per year, depending on stadium attendance. And by using these figures if the Lions sold out each game (27500) they would profit approx 8 million.

Just food for thought.

Well there are 10 games so add another 900k to start.

The pre-season game doesn't bring in many but yes you are correct.

just google “edmonton eskimos financial statements” or “winnipeg blue bomber annual report”

[url=http://d3ham790trbkqy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/05/2015-Eskimos-Report-to-Shareholders.pdf]http://d3ham790trbkqy.cloudfront.net/wp ... olders.pdf[/url]

There are a lot more revenues sources and costs than you have not included

For instance, despite the cap being $5.1M most teams spend over $7m on player salaries (primarily due to loopholes in the cap … the main on being the the 6 game list).
On top of that your front office and back office staff. Another $3-4million

On revenue side

  • sponsorship revenue
  • suite revenue
  • sponsorship revenue from league
  • apparel
  • concessions
  • parking

I'm sure there are, but it was just to give everyone a quick overview is all.

Sorry. I was commenting about Ottawa’s deal not BC. I apologize for the confusion.

CFL does things differently I believe smiilar to NHL teams due to Canadian partners. Hotel/Air are very affordable. They basically do a scratch out back we scratch your agreement. Costs are not high at all. This does not include Grey Cups. but i think playoffs.

Also sponsorship deals for some teams in the CFL are very high. And also some are not sponsor agreements per $$/yr but partnership agreement similar to hotel/air. drinks, signage, security costs, field maintenance, personal travel, heck I know Winnipeg used to get players free summer cottages for 4 weeks. I also know the Jets players in 1.0 had the same deal. Hamilton players used to get free boat rentals as many times a year they want and I believe same deal with vehicles. So its a partnership not so much advertising sponsorship deals in the traditional sense.

its interesting that eskimos are sitting on $17M of cash and Riders are sitting on $29M ... i guess thats what happens when your a non-profit.

Maybe the eskimos should start a roof fund

eskimos spend 800k on away travel … 80k per game

Great read Shipyard. Thanks for the link.

Correct but you are not including the real costs. Sask will report a profit of $2 million of coarse they have two teams.
Most will make small profit as year end reports will show, If anyone bought a CFL team for 32- 50 million and could
turn a 8 million profit per year, investors would be lining up including me. Only if. Poor Halifax free franchise no investors.