National Post (National Edition)
CFLPA says 2021 season key condition
Commissioner hedges his bets at virtual gala
It could be a short season in a hub city. It could be 18 games apiece, all of them played in empty or half-full stadiums.
Or it could be back to regular operations.
“That's the variable part,” said Brian Ramsay, executive director of the Canadian Football League Players Association. “We understand the variables that the pandemic has put forward.
“Playing the game in 2021 can't be a variable. It has to be a certainty.”
This is not a shocking stance, nor is it remotely unreasonable. When CFL governors voted Aug. 17 to kill the prospect of a six-game season in a Winnipeg hub, plunging the league into at least temporary irrelevance, Ramsay made it clear that he and the rest of the CFLPA brain trust thought the league did the wrong thing.
The right thing now, in their estimation, is to declare the 2021 season a certainty, then find a way to make it happen.
There are hundreds of players and thousands of fans who feel the same way, especially after watching the American Hockey League, National Lacrosse League and other sporting entities put firm dates on plans to restart.
Instead, CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie hedged his bets during a Thursday round of media interviews held in conjunction with the league launch of Grey Cup Unite, a virtual celebration of a championship game that will not be played.
Ambrosie did not identify an opening date for 2021 training camps or a regular season. Instead, he trod some pretty familiar territory.
“It is the intention of our league to be back on the field. Do we have absolute certainty how this is going to play out? Well, no, none of us knows exactly what path COVID will take. But there is an enormous effort being undertaken by this league to get back on the field in 2021 and I'm going to share that message with our fans.”
The league and the players went down a long and winding road together last summer — hammering out a new collective bargaining agreement that would make it possible to play a short season in a Winnipeg hub — before the league unilaterally grabbed the wheel and drove the entire enterprise into the ditch.
Governors pulled the plug because, in the absence of federal funding, the hubcity plan was not financially viable. Heck, the league itself was not viable. In fact, it had rarely seemed more vulnerable.
This realization actually entered public view in May when Ambrosie announced during a Zoom call with members of a Parliamentary finance committee that the league as a whole routinely suffered annual losses of
$10 million to $20 million. The pandemic, he said, could quadruple those losses.
The CFL's business model, which relies so heavily on gate revenue and in-stadium spending, was suddenly under the microscope. Something has to be done, everyone agreed. Months hence, something still has to be done.
Grey Cup Unite, while seen as a positive and worthwhile initiative, does not distract from the larger picture of a league with an uncertain near-term future. Players will happily engage fans and stakeholders later this month, because that free and easy interaction is practically baked into their DNA and that of the CFL. There will be a CFLPA state of the union address, select players will participate in a racial diversity roundtable and media availabilities, and they will make as many connections with fans as time and technology allows.
What those players and fans want most from that league now is a commitment to being back in business, a commitment that football will be played in 2021.
For that to happen, the league has to be able to operate in a variety of lessthan-optimal scenarios and without federal funding, because there is no guarantee the federal government will have reason to act differently in 2021 than it did in August. Changing the way the CFL does business, therefore, is imperative if it is to be in business.
“When the commissioner speaks on points like (addressing the business model), and I talk about viability, I think those go hand-inhand,” said Ramsay. “Speaking on behalf of the players, we wanted to play football in 2020. If those conversations are going to increase the viability of that happening so we don't end up in the position we're in right now, then yes, those are conversations that need to happen.
“I think what the membership desires is to see a viable CFL. We want to know as we continue to prepare, that there is viability to the industry.”
NONE OF US KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT PATH COVID WILL TAKE.