The Riders to report a $14 Million profit for last year?

CFL Talk
1

You may of heard Bob McCowan on his Toronto radio show saying he has information that the Riders will report up to $14 million in profits for the 2007 season.

Former CFL commissioner Tom Wright was on his show yesterday and said that he would be delighted if they did, but doubts the profits were that high.

McCowan apparantly has some reliable sources which are close to the CFL braintrust, so there must be something to this.

It was rumoured towards the end of last seaosn that the Riders were looking at $20 million in revenues, and that was before the won the Grey Cup. It is also rumoured that their merchandise sales have exceeded the totals of the other seven CFL teams combined. The Riders had multiple sellouts during the season and also hosted a soldout semi-final playoff game.

The current Rider revenue estimate is now $22 million, but I doubt their expenses total only $8 million, as McCowan had suggested.

Last year, the publically-owned Riders reported revenues of $15.3M, and expenditures of only $445 less than that, which prompted national media reports that the Riders were only one season ticket cancellation from losing money.

Being a not-for-profit community-run club, it is really not in there best interests to announce a massive profit like has been suggested. As we have seen with the Eskimos, who have built up a reported $15 million in their bank account, there are creative ways to structure your accounting so the team does not show a large profit, or loss, for any one season.

I would suggest that if the Riders did indeed generate $22 million in revenues, they could easily find ways to spend $18 million of that. These could include increased Grey Cup costs, such as rings, parades, GC promotional costs, ect. Like the Esks, they could salt away a few million into bonds or rainy day funds, or perhaps start bursuries and endowments for local schools and minor football.

All that being said, I would project the Riders could easily announce a $3 million profit for last season.

This is great news for the Riders and the CFL. The league's model is not broken, as was suggested by the media last summer when a leading Ottawa investor became ill and pulled out of the running for the new franchise. There are many, many positives about the league with attendance, TV revenues and sponorships at near record levels across the CFL.

So perhaps all this negative talk about the CFL's imminent demise, have been greatly exaggerated.

2

When talk of the cost of bringing a football team back to Ottawa was more prominent, I read that it cost about 12M to operate a team for a year. Obviously very rough, but a guideline.

3

i think they should use the money to upgrade Mosaic.

4

Obviously the Riders are THE model CFL organization. Nice, very nice there!

5

...I agree Earl, quite the turn around from the cash-strapped woe-is-us team of the 90s....congrats riders...

...of course fortune does carry it's own burdens, if these kind of profits are true and can be expected for years to come the riders should prepare to be treated like the eskimos of the new century, reviled and hated for no good reason....lol...

6

Well R&W, I've always sort of hated the Eskimos, part of my Huey tradition I can't get over. I think they are the only CFL team I really hate, well the Als are a close second have to admit and maybe a couple others not far down the list. :wink:

7

First, I heard that broacast and it remains a mystery to this very day how and why the CFL BOG could be so stupid as to fire Tom Wright.
Class, smart, competant.
Oh...right..I keep forgetting...The BOG doesn't like that type of guy....

Anyway, McCowan clearly was "somewhat" out to lunch with his numbers.
I personally think the Riders will make in excess of 2.5 million this year. Maybe as high as 4.
It is tough to see how our revenues could exceed those of 2006 by a whopping 7 million, but almost certainly our costs have not gone down from the 15+ million from that year.
Revenues were through the roof in merchandising, but the cost of going to and winning the Grey Cup are substantial.
Costs involved in rings, rooms, parties, etc. That will offset some of the revenues.
The play-off game may have generated somewhere in the area of 1.5 million. But there are increased costs as well. I forget what we paid then league for the game.
An additional 3000 fans per game is likely an extra 1.5-2.
So revenues are definately up, but so are costs.
It will be interesting to see the final tally.
Won't be long now.

And by the way, being a not for profit organization does not mean there are any issues in actually having a profit. In fact making a profit is still the objective.

Being a not for profit organization simply means any profits cannot be distributed to the shareholders , members or directors.

8

I suspect the numbers are skewed a little. $14M meant they would likely need in the neighbour of $30 million in Revenue or cut expenses by $7 or $8M. I don't think they did either.

I would not be surprised with a profit of $4 to 5M. Based on increased attendance, jersey and hat sales, and buying the playoff home game.

But in terms of cost reductions, we know based on what Tillman said they only cut $800K from the salary cap money. That doesn't count the non salary cap money, which would be as high or if not higher then last season.

Add to that coaches, front office costs, travel, etc....I don't see any of those costs going down. In fact they likely went up significantly....I believe riders took all of their direct employees and spouses to the Grey Cup game, I believe that number was in the area of 200 people.

So no, I don't believe the $14M figure.

9

I don't think that figure is correct either. I'm pretty confident they did turn a decent profit this year, but 14M sees a tad high.

10

Echoing some of the previous posters, Its good to see a Community owned team (or any CFL Team for that matter) turn a profit. (Profit is not a nasty word!) It would be good to do some Improvements to Taylor field as suggested, but remember, things go in cycles, so "stashing" some money away for those "lean" season(s) is also a good idea as well.

11

If it is true this is great news for the riders and their fans.

12

if it's true, they can put numerous upgrades in the stadium, maybe modernize the seating and put an actual grand stand in the end zone, get a good score board or something.

13

the reason teams like Sask are lucky is because they don't have an owner to take commission, not saying having an owner is a bad ting.

14

We have a good score board...

15

Eric was laughing about this on Gormley (radio program) today. The amount of profit is NOT that high.

16

Now that the Riders are on top, both the Grey Cup and whatever record profit is announced, I keep saying while the going is good start the groundswell and people of Regina please build a new stadium.
It is badly needed and surely a new 35,000 seater with shops and convention center will fill the joint.
It will also revitalize the entire city.

17

Seems to be a little more talk of that type of thing these days. Seems to be a good time to at least start thinking about that since the province is booming right now and the Riders are doing well also.

18

I think you're right. Now is the time to push such a venture. Building a stadium/facility with year round use for the public would be amazing. Hopefully we'll see a number of new stadiums proposed or built during the next few seasons.

19

that would be awesome, i love Ivor Wynne, but i have finally come to terms that change is good. We could use new stadiums in Hamilton, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg and Montreal, and eventually Ottawa when they come back. After each team gets a solid stadium then we can focus on expansion. I think the lottery idea is a good one. Maybe do a lottery every 5 years for partial government funding.

20

Yes ticat you guys are in dire need of a new stadium.
This despite the fact there is no better vantage point to watch a game.
As for sitting comfort and the other stadium experience, it is brutal.