Players want bigger piece of CFL pie

[u]Players look for bigger piece of CFL's growing pie[/u] Toronto Sun

REGINA - The CFL is arguably as prosperous as it’s ever been right now, and that’s the reason why this off-season could be a particularly interesting one.

The league’s current collective bargaining agreement will expire the day before 2014 training camps open, and the members of the Canadian Football League Players’ Association are slowly but surely letting it be known that they want more of the bigger money that is pouring into league coffers.

There is even talk, believe it or not, that they could take job action this time around, although it’s way too early to think about that.

“We definitely don’t want to strike and we definitely don’t want to throw the threat out there, but as long as both sides are fair and compromising I don’t foresee a strike occurring,” Roughriders middle linebacker Mike McCullough said, one of his team’s two CFLPA representatives.
“But with the kind of influx of money we’re going to have we want to make sure we get our share. We don’t want it all to go to one side. We gave up our revenue sharing or whatever a few years ago, so it’s definitely something we’re looking at.”

The league’s new broadcast agreement with TSN and RDS, which was announced in March, is the game changer. Teams are expected to more than double their annual TV income, from $2 million now to approximately $4.3 million starting next season. The players want to make sure they get what they deserve, so the big question is how much the salary cap will go up from the $4.4 million it was in 2013.

[url=http://www.torontosun.com/2013/11/21/players-look-for-bigger-piece-of-cfls-growing-pie]http://www.torontosun.com/2013/11/21/pl ... rowing-pie[/url]

The CFL should give the players the lions share of the new TV revenues, but then lock them in at for the full five years at the same rate. then the cfl can increase its profit by finding additional revenues through sponsorship.
Sponsors do not pay the CfL nearly enough and the time is here for the CFL to get what it deserves. The players would recieve none of these revenues because they would be locked in.
Furthermore, the players should push for a coaches salary cap. It should be frozen for five years at the current level. Since the sms was implemented the coaches have doubled their salary. On most teams the highest paid employee is someone in management. This has to change.
I say the players should get a six and a half million dollar salary cap. The coaches and other administration should be locked in at current levels, and the CFL should confidently go into the future knowing it will generate more corporate sponsorships to generate profits for its teams.... A video game should be demanded by the players association as well. The players should contribute 50% of the costs and recieve 50% of any profits(doubtful, or their would already be one)

Why should the B.C. Lions have to give up their share of TV revenues. They are as good a team as any other!!

As I wrote before, I expect that the max. cap will increase by no less than $500,000 and as much as $600,000 in 2014; in the next 5 years,the increase should not be less than $1.0 million and as much as $1.2 millions.

I do hope that the players won't be too greedy and ask for most of revenue increases in 2014. Should the players decide to strike,let's hope that the teams will play with rookies and veterans that won't strike. In the upcoming off-season, I would hope that teams can be allowed to sign as many as 90 players,excluding draft choices, compared with 78,excluding draft choices,presently.

Richard

They are getting a 2.3 million dollar increase and you want to give the players 600k...lMAO....
If you did that all that would happen is all he money would go to coaches... Kent Austin would be getting over a mllion a year...
When the SMS came into effect all it did was make the coaches rich. the bombers have been paying two coaches every year sinc e the sms came into effect.
The coaches now get the money the players used to get under the table. Coaches have gotten huge increases since the sms came into effect.
The CFL players should demand a coaches salary cap... same goes for management. The Argos bring in Chris Rudge? Im sure he's making huge coin.
The players are out there knockin themselves out and Kent Austin makes more the 6 of them combined? WTF

While I do think that the max. cap will not increase by more than $600,000. in 2014, in the next five years they will receive no less than 50% of the revenue increases; furthermore, as I wrote before, I do hope that the rosters will increase by 1 or 2 players, in 2014, that the playoffs bonuses/monies will also increase; with these player and playoff increases, as much as $800,000 of TV increases would go to players.

I don't have problems with top coaches being paid good salaries; if teams want quality, they will have to pay accordingly.

In the past 3 to 4 years, many teams have lost millions of dollars; unfortunately, there is only 1 team named the Saskatchewan Riders and only this team has made substantial profits during these 3 to 4 years; happy for them, but situation is different elsewhere.

Hoping that the Owners and Players will reach an agreement that will benefit both sides. We don't need confrontation that will hurt both Owners and Players and also the fans.

Richard

The new TV deal is certainly going to help, although keep in mind that pie is going to be divided 9 ways instead of 8, but moving on.

The cap has to go up, there's no question of that. However, Hamilton likely isn't making money and took a big hit this season playing in Guelph, Winnipeg has a boatload of debt with the new stadium build, the Argos are trying to build a war-chest to get out of the dome, Edmonton's performance is likely going to cause a revenue hit there, Ottawa has to have bills to pay, just because they are a new franchise and the if the Al's look like they might suffer on the field, and thus with the numbers.

I mean, sure Sask making tons of money is great, BC pretty much being perpetually middle of the road and I haven't heard much bad news out of Calgary (other then MacMahon is getting old, but that's part of stadium charm) the league isn't hunky dory quite yet.

What's fair is fair, give a third of the revenue increase to the players in a mixture of bonus programs, raising the cap, raising the minimum salary and please raise the practice roster salary. These guys are barely making just enough to survive and can be cut at any time.

Give another third direct to the teams to deal with costs and start makin' money and paying down debts.

Then use the last third to build the infrastructure of the league jointly. Better CIS programs, grassroots programs, advertising, improving the hall of fame and just bettering both sides of the coin.

They should get more, but I don't want to see this go down the other pro sports route where they make absurd amounts of money, and there are lots of lockouts/strikes

what I want to know is, if the league or some teams actually lose money again in the future, will the players then give up salary and take their "fair share" of the loss.

after all the money that cfl teams have lost over the years and still gave paying jobs to people who otherwise wouldn't have even had a football career, it is time the owners finally started to recap some of that money.

I mean, if owners were so greedy, there would be no cfl long time ago.

wouldn't you know it, as soon as things finally seem to be going in the right direction, the damn players have to rock the boat.

The riders make 10 million a year.. The rest make between 3 million and break even except for the argos and cats.
It is a simple solution.. its called revenue sharing...
The Players make less then the coaches.. The last 10 years the coaches have doubled their salaries... The teams simply outspend each other on coaches now instead of players... The Players are getting screwed.
Id tellthe CFL 7 million with my eye on 6.5. Anything under 6 and there is no season.

:thup: :thup: :thup:

I agree, I’ve been saying we could see a strike and people laughed… That essentially is what has happened in the CFL since the SMS has been implemented. Football operations and HC/GM have seen their salaries double to triple over the last few years, while min. salary has gone from 38 to 46 thousand dollars. The only way the SMS makes sense is if it extends to the operational budgets of the teams. Thank god for the American dollar melting otherwise player salaries would not have even have covered cost of living increases.

Max salary for a GM should be 350k
Head Coach 250k
Coordinators 125k
Position coaches 75k
Standard 2 year contracts max.
Pension Plan should be put in place for all employees (Coaches included)
Max operational budgets including a min value for rent at between 13 and 15 million depending on the salary cap.

Yeap.. freeze their wages but give them a pension.
Teams like the bombers are still spending their way into insolvency. They are doing it on coaches and management salaries though.. Next year the will be paying two head coaches(again) ,two gms, and two presidents.
No, i don't want to see assistant coaches sleeping on sofas again like they were before the SMS came into effect. That is why i say take an average around the league of management expenses, then set a cap at that level and freeze it for the nextfive years. that way only the players will benifit from the new money.

Let me get this straight
Because each team is getting an extra 200K per year(2 million/9teams)
The players should be getting an extra 2-3 million in sal cap?

Sorry no!
I say to the CFL players the same thing I say to NHL and NFL and all other pro athletes
Dont like it…go flip burgers

Its the owners who put THIER money on the line…not the players and as FYB said…if not for the owners there would be no CFL
If the team sucks…the owner loses money not the players

Coaches cap?
Why?
First of all we have no idea what the coaches make…only what the media assumes they make.
We dont know that their salaries have doubled over the last 10 years
Go tell your boss’ boss that your boss makes too much money…see where that gets you

Cap thier salary and we will have a league of Dan Hawkins and Bart Andrus leading the way

Dont forget the coaches put in far mor hours than the players do…
Players have a 4 hour practise limit 3-4 times a week…the coaches dont

Actually, each team is getting an extra $2.3 million a year. The number in the article is per team, not league wide.

Sorry no! I say to the CFL players the same thing I say to NHL and NFL and all other pro athletes Dont like it...go flip burgers
You know what the beauty of having an in-demand skill is? You get to ask for more money and usually get it, because you *are* the product.
Its the owners who put THIER money on the line...not the players and as FYB said....if not for the owners there would be no CFL If the team sucks....the owner loses money not the players
Yeah, it's not like the players put anything on the line, because nobody ever suffers life-altering injuries playing Football. :roll:
Coaches cap? Why? First of all we have no idea what the coaches make...only what the media assumes they make. We dont know that their salaries have doubled over the last 10 years Go tell your boss' boss that your boss makes too much money...see where that gets you

Cap thier salary and we will have a league of Dan Hawkins and Bart Andrus leading the way


So we can cap the players salarys at “burger flipping levels” and not wind up with a bunch of Ryan Dimwiddie’s leading the way, but it would be a disaster if coach salaries weren’t inflating at an incredible rate? I guess you’re one of those folks who also thinks that a CEO is really worth 1000x more salary than a worker?

Dont forget the coaches put in far mor hours than the players do... Players have a 4 hour practise limit 3-4 times a week...the coaches dont
Because players don't stay late to study film, practice on their own, and otherwise do game prep outside of those practice times, right?

There is a lot more money going around now, and the people who in fact are the product being sold and making the money deserve a piece of that.

The salary cap applies only to the 46 man roster, the Tiger Cats had 22 players on the injured list this season. Not sure what other teams had on their IR list but these guys get their full salary. Any raise in salaries is not just going to effect the 46 man roster but also the IR players. Also most teams have 10 coaches and the trainers, physios, Doctor, managers, presidents, director of player personnel, scouts, marketers, sales staff, accountants. It's not just the 46 man roster that will want a share of the pie but the other 100 or so staff too.
Just because teams will get an additional $2.3 million a year doesn't mean it's all handed over to the players. It's no different than teams getting an increase in attendance - $2.3 Million is the equivalent of around 5,000 fans a game. Does the players union demand more money when attendance goes up by the equivalent of the TV revenue?
If a team gets the increase in TV revenue next year but their attendance falls by 5,000 a game then there is no increase in revenue!!

The TV revenue will help but it's still about selling tickets and "bums in seats"

First off…your math is terrible. the CFL is getting about 23 million more in tv revenues next season then they did this season.
Secondly… Bring in Canadian coaches… why do we call it the CFl if only 10% of our coaches are Canadian. of course a pension would be required to lure the bestCanadian coaches from the CIS. The fact that Kavis Reed and Bart Andrus and Cory Chamberlain are hired over Canadians with 20 years of Cis experience is a complete condemnation of the CFL

To mikem:

The salary cap applies to all players on the 46 man rosters + players on 1 game injured lists + players on practice rosters. The only players not counted against the salary cap are players on 9 game injured lists. It's still a major costs to teams,but no impact on salary cap.

Richard

LOL