Blue get what they pay for

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Bombers defensive line coach Will Plemons shows his frustration after the club's 25-24 loss to the Roughriders in the Sept. 9 Banjo Bowl at Canad Inns Stadium. (TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

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The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are getting beat off the field as well as on it. Or more to the point, they're getting beat before they even get on the field.

A major part of what is wrong with the Blue Bombers today stems from a lack of money spent on football operations. The Bombers are a blatant example of "you get what you pay for," and as we've witnessed this summer, the lack of investment has resulted in the poorest of returns.

The Bombers, in their current makeup, are not an elite CFL franchise. They lag behind in football operations spending and come up short in key areas such as scouting, where they don't employ a full-time Canadian evaluator.

The good news is the Bombers have recognized their shortcomings and have made allowances for advances in the business plan going forward. Following through and achieving success is the final step, but the organization appears to understand it needs to make the first step and that's coughing up the cash. Cash they will have when they have the tool of a new stadium to use.

Money is not the answer to all the Bombers' problems, but it is an area they can control and improve upon.

The Bombers can and need to change many things to become a first-class CFL operation. Moving into the new stadium will offer increased revenue streams and the loan structure negotiated with the province allows for football operations to benefit.

"We are in a position today, and will be with the new stadium, to fund football to the degree required to be competitive and to build a strong, winning organization. The new stadium will increase significantly our revenue base," Bombers CEO Garth Buchko said in an email exchange Wednesday.

Buchko says the organization plans on using those new revenues to improve its football operations.

"Under the new stadium deal, we get to establish and maintain at all times our working capital position and a $5-million operating reserve, which we will replenish in 2013 (no loan payments are due that year)," Buchko explained. "Starting in 2014, we are committed to repay the province $ 4.5 million annually.

"We are confident in our long-range business plan as we move to a full sports and entertainment business model that with all revenues, including football, concerts, off-field such as lottery and hospitality, we can not only repay the loan annually, but build a sustainable/profitable business for many years to come. This, of course, includes building our football operations to be the "best in class" in Canada. We are committed long-term to winning on the field, being financially sound and supporting the community."

Many Bombers fans have written me to ask if the club's debt burden at the new stadium will suffocate the franchise and prevent it from thriving.

The simple answer is no, that won't happen.

The devil is in the details, however, and Bombers board of directors chairman Bill Watchorn has an extensive background in finance. Watchorn did excellent work for the club in negotiations with the province to protect the team from drowning in debt. Some taxpayers might argue he did too good a job, but for football fans, his strategy will be key going forward.

The football club gets paid first. The province gets paid second.

Buchko knows the business plan inside and out and the improvements in football operations are not only possible but needed if disasters such as this season's 2-9 record are to be avoided in the future.

Watching the Bombers get thumped by the Calgary Stampeders last weekend, it became painfully obvious the Winnipeg side was outgunned in many ways other than on the field. Just looking at the sidelines and seeing Calgary's experienced and pedigreed coaching staff that includes Jon Hufnagel, Dave Dickenson and Rick Campbell puts a light on Winnipeg's shortcomings on the football side.

The Stamps have a highly paid GM/coach in Hufnagel and the successful track record and leadership that comes with such an investment.

Hufnagel is supported by a fulltime coaching staff of 10 (including himself), two assistant GMs and a Canadian scout.

The Bombers, by comparison, have GM Joe Mack, a total of seven coaches, one assistant GM and a U.S.-based scout.

That's 13 to 10 in football men and no Canadian scout for the Bombers. It's a huge disadvantage. Like playing a man short on game day. No one should expect success under those conditions.

One can argue the Bombers opened the season with eight coaches and are still paying head coach Paul LaPolice. That's true, but does nothing to improve the team at this point. In fact, it has hindered the coaching staff and once again calls into question the logic and judgment behind the decision to fire LaPolice mid-season. Getting rid of LaPolice not only didn't give the team a kick-start, it has damaged the club's opportunity to prepare for and win games. It has been a terrible and expensive decision with absolutely no merit.

The salary cap for the 2012 season is $4.35 million and Buchko said Wednesday "the team has always spent to the cap."

In 2011, the Bombers, according to their annual report, spent $8,831,722 on football operations. The other publicly owned franchises in the CFL outspent the Bombers, with the Saskatchewan Roughriders reporting football operations expenditures of $9.9 million and the Edmonton Eskimos released a number of $9.4 million.

A league executive said Wednesday the five privately owned teams all spend in the range of $10 million on football operations. The Bombers are last in the league and by a half-million dollars. That can go a long way in improving a football team.

Running an organization on the cheap not only hurts in tangible areas such as coaching and scouting, it also damages a franchise's reputation and diminishes player and coach recruitment.

"Simple things like getting you Gatorades after practice and getting you food every single morning, getting you food every single day after practice. Those little things go a long way for the players," current Stamps lineman and former Bomber Obby Khan said last week. "It's that overall atmosphere. When you're winning, things are great, so you blow things up and things look that much better when you're winning as opposed to when you're losing."

Khan said Calgary's medical and training facilities are better than Winnipeg's.

"There's two different ways of running a business," said Khan. "They run the business very differently here than the Bombers ran it there. That's the way the Bombers choose to do it, and this is the way the Stamps choose to do it. I like the way the Stamps do it."

Regardless of what Khan likes, the proof is in black and white as the Stampeders are a perennial contender and have won four Grey Cups since the Bombers last turned the trick.

Moving to the new stadium should provide the Bombers with some more green. Hopefully they spend it and it results in some Grey.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @garylawless

Gary Lawless, Winnipeg Free Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 20, 2012 C1