We already have them in March and for the whole season . . . unless someone better comes available in Sept/Oct and replaces the March guys.
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Most of the good NFL cuts wouldn't want to sign in March currently because they would rather try the NFL season again. We don't really get the good ones.
In the NFL: Practice squad players make $11,500 per week ($15K+ Canadian dollars) or $207,000 ($280K+) for 18 weeks. Veteran players with over two years of experience will make a minimum of $15,400 ($20K+) per week or $277,200 ($375K+) for 18 weeks, and a maximum of $19,900 ($27K+) per week or $358,200 ($475K+) for 18 weeks.
How many players in the CFL even make $200K Canadian per season?
Let alone $375-475K.
Section 17.02 of the 2019 CBA sets minimum practice roster agreement compensation at $750/week ($15,750 over twenty-one weeks of regular season) plus housing or housing allowance.(FAQ about Compensation on CFLdb
Couldn't find anything about the 2022 CBA increasing it ... quadrupling the practice roster pay (to almost CFL minimum) would make little difference.
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But weren't you saying that having the March cuts for the whole season would give a better level of talent? Isn't that what we already have with a few Sept/Oct cuts to boot?
Pretty sure they don't have any.
Pretty sure they do. The public teams are forced to expose more and they are all have money to spend.
That would mean GC in August. No more Labour Day games.
And the private teams like Ottawa, Montreal, BC and Toronto are requiring handouts from the other teams because they lose millions.
Even if the CFL doubles salaries, which they certainly cannot do, the disparity is still huge. Currently a PR spot in the states pays more than a premier starting position like QB does in Canada. Token increases won't draw many more players.
Most veteran guys will only be held on a practice roster if a team actually has plans for them. The first group you identified; not so much. And remember lots of players get signed and released multiple times during a season. You don’t get paid when you are released. You wait by the phone and hope for the next opportunity which may or may not come. There are players that literally make $0 just waiting for that phone call which may never come.
And I never said to match the pay I said get closer to the pay. An even 20% increase to the current compensation situation would make a big difference in luring guys up here. Would it get everyone? Not a chance. Would some still prefer to sit by a phone and play for 2-3 teams in one season to get 6 pay checks? Absolutely. But the CFL can put itself into the best position possible to snag all those that don’t find being released multiple times a year appealing
And as soon as a player signs on in Canada, he forfeits the possibility of those much larger paychecks, plus dramatically increases the possibility of his own injury.
The risk/reward assessment, even with a substantial increase to PR payments in Canada, is still highly unfavourable.
At this level, people are in it for the money, not the love of the game.
Cool board. Reading this makes it even more unlikely (imo) that a player would risk one of those three years for a much lower wage.
For sure. But like I said not everyone wants to stick around under that scenario for a “maybe” opportunity. Some guys come north for a guaranteed paycheque and some stability. Adam Bighill had a practice roster spot offered by the Colts and he declined and came north. Jason Tucker did the exact same thing when he first came up here and so did plenty of others. So like I said not everyone wants to flounder on the “Hope the phone rings crew” but some definitely have in the past and will again. The problem now is the monetary disparity has gotten even worse and there’s other leagues for players to play on while keeping their NFL dreams alive,
so it’s the best of both worlds for players. The CFL needs to react to that new reality and get competitive and use their strengths to their advantage
Unfortunately, the players you listed are by and large the exceptions. If the answers were easy, someone would have implemented them already. If I had them, I'd be running the league.
I used to think the league would hang on because the on-field product was exciting and more fun to watch than the NFL, glitz aside. I'm sad to say I no longer think that.
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You have receipts for that?
The league and teams are claiming losses.
Can you prove they're lying?
I never said you said to make practice roster pays equal ... but you did say "in the ballpark" ... a 20% increase makes it $900 per week and less than $20K if a player spends the entire season on the practice roster ... that is not even in the same area code, let alone the same ballpark ... a 20% bump might bring a few more players but IMO not many, and not many with the slightest chance of getting onto a practice roster ... ONE WEEK on a NFL practice roster would equal a season on a CFL practice roster ... four NFL-PR weeks equals what most players would get for a full CFL season on the roster.
And whatever we think of the XFL and USFL and their futures, they offer opportunities that don't involve moving to a foreign country and for around the same pay or better.
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Not even taking into account the exchange rate...
i really don’t get why some of you can’t conceive the massive disparity in pay between the two leagues. all the posturing about increasing CFL pay here and there is ridiculous because the increase would have to be exponential and beyond what the league and its franchises can afford. you might think so and so team owner has millions of hidden dollars somewhere, but that is pennies compared to the pockets of NFL team owners and the league itself.
trying to convince good players to stay in CFL and ignore NFL opportunities is like telling your kid to stay living at home and deliver papers because you prefer it instead of them taking an opportunity on a full paid scholarship to an ivy league doctorate program with a guaranteed career with 6 figure yearly income.
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i mean if you dudes have the answers then why are you not working in a CFL league or team front office?
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