Well this is my first time here. First thing I wanted to check out was player salaries, which I know are a fraction of those in the NFL. However, the only info. I could find was under fantasies, and it had players of the calibre of Mike Reilly making just over
$10,000. So I thought, okay, something’s wrong here, or I’m looking in the wrong place. I mean, maybe like $10,000 per week would make sense. Could someone please direct me to the right part of the CFL website for getting this info, if in fact it exists here? It would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Prof.Wolfie
It’s really none of our business, to tell you the truth. The amount players make in the cfl is not worthy of common knowledge.
Minimum is just under 60,000 per season, and starting QB’s make 200-400K. Starting OL/DL, LB’s, RB etc make 100-200K.
Salary cap is somewhere around 5.5 million (Canadian dollars). 46 man roster, or for easiness of math round up to 50. So 50 into 5 million is 100k average, although most teams have a QB making 300-500k (apparently Reilly is getting an unprecedented 700k in BC this year) and a handful of guys in the 160-220 range, so an average vet is probably making 85-100k. As said above, league minimum is somewhere under 60k.
Most players have off season jobs. Ryan Phillips was (still is?) a teacher in the Seattle area while playing for BC all those years. Rob Lazeo taught as well. Lin-J Shell worked on cars. Real estate is popular (Jason Clermont, Rob Murphy). Adriano Belli worked in the family butcher/meat packing business. The Riders used to entice FAs by lining them up an insurance job at SGI. Kevin Glenn opened up a Tim Horton’s franchise in his hometown of Detroit while he was playing not too far away in Hamilton. Not sure if he still runs it.
Well, since we’re the ones PAYING those salaries with our tickets, our merch purchases, our eyeballs on the commercials between plays…I would disagree. It is COMPLETELY our business.
Want an example of what happens when nobody watches games, nobody buys tickets, nobody purchases tickets, nobody plunks down cash for hats and t-shirts, nobody signs up for the fantasy football? Try watching an AAF game this weekend.
Attending a lot of CFL games in MO are you?
Nope! But I’ve watched a LOT of TV commercials watching CFL games on ESPN+/TSN, and have bought a couple hundred dollars worth of CFL merchandise in the last 3 years.
Does that in any way invalidate my point?
I have always maintained this stance. If the league claims to have a salary cap to give the fans parity, then it needs to have transparency of all the numbers for the fans to see. I am all for publishing salaries in this regard and always have been. Otherwise the league can just lie to us about who is and isn’t complying with the rules, and don’t think that this league has never lied about that before.
The auditor means nothing if only conclusions are published with no math. The auditor is paid by the league and therefore has a conflict of interest in publishing any results. It’s meaningless.
Well said!
Ouch ... I make more than some cfl player .... not many but some starters
I suspect you're like Babe Ruth...when asked about making more than President Hoover in 1930, Ruth replied "why not...I had a better year." 
I still remember the time Jon Cornish was notified of winning the Lou Marsh (Canadian athlete of the year) award while he was working at a TD Canada Trust bank.
Winnipeg got Bighill a job as a financial analyst, plus made him the highest paid defensive player in the league (3 years, $750,000).
Thank you all for your enlightening and at times very interesting responses.
Professor Wolfie
I believe the minimum salary is 51,000 per year, and I don’t think there is a max. I think Reilly is the highest paid player at 700,000 per year.
I believe that the league minimum salary is 1% of the cap. The last that I remember the cap in 2016 was 5.2 or 5.3 million. In the CBA (unless it has been changed recently) it automatically increases by 50k per year. So the cap should be 5.4ish million and the league minimum approx 54k.
It feels weird to make more than a bunch of CFL players. That said, they make that over the course of half a year, so pro rated they probably make more than me.
Exactly Dust especially some are playing special teams and are not starters play limited action over 18 games .
If you added some guys time it might be 30 minutes over the year .
So if a guy is making 70 to 80 k Canadian he is well over the average salary in Canada to play 6 months have limited practice and time off during that stretch to play 30 minutes of football .
I am sure there are plenty of guys who would like the money minus the concussions .
For the most part it appears the guys are having fun playing football and are enjoying the moment . They can get second jobs or go back to school their choice and enjoy the game for the limited time it lasts .
Mike and Bo just signed new deals and both are in the range of 2.8 Million for 4 years