CFL looking at way more trouble than it can handle

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/05/2020 (1985 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the first time since taking over as commissioner of the Canadian Football League in July of 2017, Randy Ambrosie was finally forced to publicly reveal the financial truth about his three-down game. It’s not a pretty picture.

On Thursday, Ambrosie delivered a five-minute speech to a House of Commons committee, followed by a series of follow-up questions from a panel of MPs.

It was the latest step in the CFL’s ongoing bid to get the government to commit $150 million to the league in the event of a lost 2020 season owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ambrosie also finally confessed a wiped-out campaign is now the most likely outcome.

But as he pleads for government aid during a time all industries are struggling to stay afloat, what was revealed is the CFL was already on extremely shaky ground. In a normal year, Ambrosie said the CFL loses anywhere between $10 and $20 million per season, with $20 million lost in 2019.

We’ve always known the league has financial difficulties, but that’s a number most would not have expected.

Another damning part of Ambrosie’s on-screen time — the meeting was conducted through online video — was his admission that the league is operating without any revenue coming in, meaning it’s keeping the lights on and paying salaries for full-time employees by using money paid in advance of the upcoming season from ticket sales, broadcasters and corporate sponsorships.

In the event of a cancelled season, that cash will need to be returned, further complicating the league’s shaky financial footing.

“The day is fast approaching when we will have to cancel several games and perhaps the season,” Ambrosie said.

“And then our fans and partners will have every right to demand their money back. At that moment, our financial crisis will become very real and very big.”

So in truth, the league’s money issues were already very real and very big — the coronavirus only further exposed those problems.

Needless to say, some difficult decisions will need to be made, with those decisions potentially determining whether a professional football league can continue to exist in Canada.

So, what to do?

The first item should be to face the unfortunate reality that the CFL is not equipped to play a shortened season — especially with few or, more likely, no fans in the stands — and therefore make the decision to cancel the season immediately. It’s only going to benefit the bottom line.

The fact is, even if through some miracle thousands of fans will be able to spill into stadiums across the country come September, the CFL clearly doesn’t have the wherewithal to fund the safety protocols that will be required to resume action.

There are major costs that come with testing, which would have to happen regularly, and with some teams already losing millions of dollars over an 18-game season, the idea that the CFL could combat such restrictions is nonsense.

And that’s not even taking into consideration such obstacles as flight restrictions, mandated quarantines upon arrival to Canada and the possibility of a second wave of the virus to hit this fall.

Ambrosie noted, too, that with COVID-19, as relentless and unpredictable as it is, even the 2021 season isn’t guaranteed.

If the 2020 season is lost, Ambrosie said the league’s already outrageous annual losses would be “quadruple or more.” But he provided no evidence to back up this claim, and upon further review, the suggestion is at the very least misleading.

Not long ago, I wrote a story predicting the Winnipeg Blue Bombers could lose up to $10 million if the season is lost. But that total figure included the hefty salaries of front office staff, and dozens of others collecting a paycheque for a season that most likely won’t come to fruition.

When asked how he planned to use the $150 million for this season and into 2021, Ambrosie, among other things, said he hoped to keep as many people employed as possible. But with players already out of the equation — minus whatever off-season bonuses have been paid out — should taxpayers really be expected to foot the bill of sizeable salaries for CFL team presidents, general managers and head coaches when the season is predictably doomed?

Whether or not the CFL is deserving of public money is up for debate. I, for one, do believe the league should get financial help and it would be a sad day if the CFL were no longer a part of this country’s sports fabric. The league does bring people together, as well as create jobs and economic activity.

The problem, of course, is that they’re a failing business at the best of times. Though the CFL has hired a high-profile public affairs agency, Crestview Strategy, to lobby on their behalf, it’s an extremely tough sell any time you’re asking taxpayers to throw good money at bad investments. And in the case of the CFL, while there are positives to its presence, a healthy bank account isn’t one of them.

Then there was MP Kevin Waugh, who represents the riding of Saskatoon-Grasswood and is a former TV sports journalist, who questioned the league’s financials. Waugh noted that the league’s three publicly owned teams — in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Saskatchewan — all turn a modest to sizeable profit, while the rest were privately owned by corporations or owners with some of the deepest pockets in the country.

Ambrosie said these owners, who Ambrosie referred to as “sports philanthropists,” invest in the CFL not for a great return but to invest in “Canada and Canadian culture and Canadian sport.” But after years of spending millions bailing out the league, the wells of those owners, some of whom are worth billions, appears to have run dry.

“There’s a limit to the amount of support they’re prepared to give, that their families are prepared to give,” he said.

The CFL’s fight for funds appears to have just gotten a lot harder.

Liberal MP Pam Damoff told Sportnet’s Arash Madani in Friday that any financial assistance “would be contingent on an agreement with the players.” She added, “Nobody can fund anything until the league knows that the players are going to be paid. We wouldn’t consider anything without the players being involved.”

The fact is the CFL, at least to this point, has not once invited the CFLPA to be part of the process. That mistake blew up in Ambrosie’s face Thursday when various MPs questioned why players hadn’t been invited to speak on the league’s behalf.

After weeks of mostly silence, the two sides finally met again on Friday, with the plan of getting on the same page. It’s only then they can begin to form a plan worth selling.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton