Riders Make Record Profit ($6.6 Million)

CFL Talk
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Roughriders profit doubles to $6.6 M

The Saskatchewan Roughriders are crediting fan support for a 2010 football season that has generated $6.6 million in profits for the community-owned club.

The team enjoyed record sales in all areas of its operation, from sell-out crowds in the stands to merchandise sales and sponsorship deals.

The club's annual general meeting is set for June 18.

The Roughriders' 2011 CFL pre-season begins with an exhibition game June 17 at home against the Edmonton Eskimos.

The first regular-season game is also at home, and also against Edmonton, on July 3.

The club has already sold out the Labour Day classic game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Last year, the team posted a profit of $3.1 million on gross revenues that exceeded $30 million, with about one-third of that generated through ticket sales.

According to last year's annual report, the club has set aside a portion of its profits in a stabilization fund to be used only with board approval. The team has also been saving money in a facility enhancement fund, which last year stood at $5.2 million.

The Roughriders have been participating in feasibility studies and plans for a possible new multi-purpose entertainment venue in downtown Regina.

The team plays at Mosaic Stadium, an outdoor facility owned by the city of Regina. The current lease requires the team to pay rent of 25 per cent of its annual net income, to a maximum of $200,000 per year

[url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2011/06/08/sk-roughriders-agm-profits-110608.html]http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatche ... 10608.html[/url]
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:o Amazing. Its scary to think how much they would make in a new stadium. :o
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It would be nice to see the Rider organization give back some of that profit into the community; maybe invest some of that money into after school programs for kids to help build Regina and Saskatoon's core, and other investments that will benefit the community as a whole. After all the Roughriders are a community owned team.

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They are obviously doing fine without a new stadium and making enough money that if they think it is a good business decision to build one certainly should not be with handouts from the Federal Government.

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remember that a new stadium will cost a pile more than 200K a year to play in. Any extra seating would basically pay for the increased rent. The Riders got huge discounts on stadium rentals back in the days when they were starving, and I believe are still benefiting from that agreement.

As for “giving back” the Riders are already very involved in the community. There are businesses in the province that make a lot more than that and give little to nothing back. Personally I would be happy if they took half of that for rainy day funds…remember the early to mid 80s…in 87 the Riders required a telethon to sell more tickets or fold as the heritage fund had run dry. Things SHOULD be good for at least a few more years, but if we hit a dry spell in a few years then having spare money would be nice.

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I know this isn't going to be the most popular post, given how many fans Sask has, but I wish the league would put in just a little bit of revenue sharing, and I don't say that as a Hamilton Tiger-Cat fan whose team has been dealing with hardship for a while (although things seem to be looking up).

Consider there were several times in the past where Sask and the Peg would have benefited greatly from this. Granted those times have since past, but I'm just saying it wouldn't have hurt back then. Also consider that we are about to put another team in the league, and it is going to initially struggle financially, so every little bit helps. Some revenue sharing is the sort of thing that may attract another owner to consider Halifax of Quebec City for possible expansion.

Anyways, good for the Riders. Anyone complaining about the team not giving back, well I don't know what to say. It's a community owned team! All the profits go back into the city of Regina. That is apart from all of the different charitable events and contributions that every CFL team makes.

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I would support the idea of revenue sharing. Teams go through ups and downs. The Riders had a lot of trouble financially a decade or two ago as far as I understand. Right now it seems like the ti-cats and argos are struggling a bit. This league isn’t going to survive with only 7 teams, so to ensure the league’s survival, I think revenue sharing would be a good idea.

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I am not sure about revenue sharing but I'd like to see a percentage of revenues go to the league so the league office can grow. Imagine for example if EA wanted I don't know 6 million to develope a first edition of a CFL game for consoles. If the league had a pot of money they could have after a few years purchased that. Nothing would do more to attract young fans then reaching their consoles. There is so much the league could do to grow itself if it had a little money but they operate it as a shell pretty much. The Grey cup money should stay with the league office as well.

And like Esks says it could even act as a bank when teams hit hard times.

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Is there not already some form of Revenue sharing going on with Merchandise? Or at least CFL sanctioned merchandise. I am pretty sure that the Riders do not get all of the profits from selling jerseys and such. I may be wrong though.

I would be ok with a small amount of revenue sharing, but there would have to be strict regulations on this, as quite frankly I don't want the Riders Profits going straght into the pockets of one of the private owners. There would have to be some kind of regulations/oversight on how that money is spent.
This also could cause problems with some teams just not trying to be profitable because they think the rest of the league will bump them up. Trying to get every team to be profitable on their own is a much better plan then revenue sharing.

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Your right on the button with some teams not trying when profit sharing is brought in. look at the NFL and you see teams like carolina, tampa bay, buffalo and even detroit taking advantage of the profit sharing provided by Dallas, greenbay, washington. very good point billy.

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That's why it should go to the league. A private owner wants to be as close to break even as possible, so would never show a six million dollar profit and you don't want teams sponging either.

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I recall reading this too, but I don’t remember where I read it or what the sharing formula was.

I would be ok with a small amount of revenue sharing, but there would have to be strict regulations on this, as quite frankly I don't want the Riders Profits going straght into the pockets of one of the private owners. There would have to be some kind of regulations/oversight on how that money is spent.
And conversely, should the TiCats ever have a profitable season, I wouldn't want their profits going straight into the coffers of the Regina city council (or whatever political entity it is that owns the Riders).
This also could cause problems with some teams just not trying to be profitable because they think the rest of the league will bump them up. Trying to get every team to be profitable on their own is a much better plan then revenue sharing.
This is one reason I'm skeptical about revenue sharing, at least for the time being. The Cats have not been profitable for some 4 decades now. Revenue sharing would certainly help mitigate that, but until it can be shown that the team can support itself at least some of the time and thus won't be a perpetual drain on the profitable teams, I'm not in favour of it. I'm in favour of my team being profitable of course, but not if the only way for that to happen in the long term is by siphoning off money from other teams.

One possible advantage, other than financial stability, is that revenue sharing could allow for higher salary floor and cap, which might lead to an increase in the quality of the players.

In conclusion, congrats to the Riders on being compu-global-hyper-mega-profitable.

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Furthermore, TV revenues are split evenly between teams, despite the fact some teams draw much larger numbers than others. Indirectly, this is revenue sharing, since the value of the TV product is determined by the number of viewers.

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I would be for some form of revenue sharing... once the Riders move into their new digs. Winnipeg has been turning profits or breaking even for some time now and they ended up paying for a large portion of their new stadium. If the Riders take this approach as well, they'd be better off not giving away that money until they started turning profits in the new stadium.

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I don’t know how it works, but I know that merchandising is a league policy. The team names and logos are franchises of the league so if the team sells it logo it would have to send the league its cut. Also, the fact that Reebok makes almost all the gear means that the league has centralized merchandising policy. I’m sure the league gets it’s fair cut, whatever that may be.

There is also (or at least was and I have not heard otherwise) gate sharing. Back in the 80s a certain percentage of the gate attendance went to the road team. I think the system may have changed more into a pool type system (a certain percentage into a pool and distributed) and I’m not sure if it is still used but it definitely existed well into the 90s.

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One positive of revenue sharing would be the 2 Southern Ontario teams would be able to afford a higher Salary Cap which would go a long way to attracting/retaining players. Irregardless, the impressive stat here is that the Riders could have made money even with a $10 million+ Salary Cap. WOW! :o (this is before a new stadium and massive increase in TV money; hopefully). If the league could get anywhere close to a $10 million cap the "CFL players make peanuts" jokes would cease forever!

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Profit sharing could be set up as 50% of gate revenue goes to the league, and the league pays all player salaries. Nothing would go into an owner’s pockets, it would go straight into the players’ pockets.

I suspect that all CFL owners are in it for the love of the game and to give back to their communities. They aren’t in it to make a profit, although I’m sure Bob Young would love to make back some of his losses. I’d like to think that if there were 9 profitable CFL teams we’d see all 9 teams getting more involved in minor, high school and university football programs.

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I also suspect that the owners we do have aren’t really profit driven, I just thought it was a point to be made.

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…well, I know the stampeders and their recently retired co-owner Ted Hellard put their money where their hearts laid, about a year ago the high-school/junior/community football programs in Calgary benefitted from an expensive make-over and expansion to the fields at Shouldice park, thanks in large to financial contributions from the team and Hellard…

…the Forzanis (current owners) are also deeply into providing support to local programs, probably more so in the near future after selling their sports retail empire to Canadian Tire recently…

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i was not aware they sold to Canadian tire. i hope they got a good price! I remember an article on the Stampeders after the season was done, or ner the end of the season about the success of the stampeders. I think it might have been more focussed on hellard. I think he mentioned how the Als are the most profitable team in the CFL. I found that a little hard to swallow with the rider nation success. Great for the Riders. let no team ever have to resort to telathon ticket drives again. i would love to see all teams make a profit. Especially hamilton and Toronto. they need some good years money wise.

Locally... I think the argos put some extra money into re-starting some high school programs last year. sorry, i cant find the link. Im checking CFL.ca though. i find the stamps to be more in the community then the flames, but maybe im not looking hard enough.

I think the ceiling has yet to be reached for the riders. i suspect more then 8 million next year.