Doesn't work for playoffs, doesn't work due to divisional alignments.
The 9th team will be out east(it seems)
so division:
west: BC/EDM/CAL
Central: SSK/WPG/HAM
East: TO/MTL/QBC
ya just ticked off Edmonton and Hamilton.
However Winnipeg is very happy, their biggest rivals are their divisional opponents.
Less playoff games = bad
1 less game + less sponsorship $$
Divisions should always be even.
2 then 4.
there is no need for more divisions unless the CFL gets to 12 teams, then 4 divisions of 3 works just fine.
HERE IS WHAT IMO THE CFL SHOULD DO!
Expand to 10 teams in 2009
1 team in QBC
Other team a road team(Full TC will be held in Halifax, possibly with an exhibition game)
This requires a location for this road team to play in 2010. Well there is the proposed 10K seat moncton stadium that could be bumped up to 20K+, Halifax could get off their butts and build a stadium or Ottawa can get a final shot at making the CFL successful.
this extra team would setup camp(for the season) in Kingston or Trois Rivieres or Sherbrooke or Guelph. and use their Uni stadium for practice and such.(providing it's allowed and blah blah blah)
The only expenses of a road team are travel(which should be low, they should be playing 12 games vs MTL/QBC/TO/HAM which are all within a short distance of their "home" city) costs which are lower then BC/SSK/WPG easily.
Player costs(which should be 3M, first season start at the league min, get lots of young talent in there)
Then GM + coaches + training staff.
Where will this team get it's money?
from the teams that get extra home games, 9 teams will get an extra home game or 2 and will then give 10% or 15% of their gate + gameday revenue to the Road team.
ALSO the league will get the same 10% of League sponsorship money as everyone else.
in the end that's over 1.6M from the league and should be 3-6M from shared team revenues + potential sponsorship money and Sales(Jerseys and such, people love an under-dog)
in the end the team would get 4.6-7.6M, more then enough to cover their expenses as they have no marketing or other non-football expense.(front office, Admin)
Going by Edmonton last year they spent ~8.2M on Football related expenses(this includes away game expenses). However they by no means were over the cap, the difference just in player salaries is something like 1-1.5M$ + I doubt a new team would spend 1.5M combined in
"Recruitment and training + equipment and other team costs??"
so a team like this should have expenses in the range of:
3-3.3M on players
1M on Recruiting + TC
1M on away games
1M on coaches + Training staff
total: 6.3M
This is actually looking like a more viable way to start up a CFL team. it's alot easier to tell an owner you may lose 500K in your first, but then you actually have a team you can market vs. you could lose alot in your first year and don't have anything to market to your fans.
This way when you setup shop in say Halifax in 2010 you can start running commercials with your players who have played for your team before, basicly your team is like a team relocating and not an expansion franchise.
Relocating teams are much easier sells then expansion franchises.
