CFL Week is coming to Ottawa, but when?
Contract talks might delay next year’s spring celebration of all things football
Here’s a scoop for you — Ottawa will host the next CFL Week. But before you get too excited about what’s quickly become an amazing public celebration of many of the CFL’s best players, it may not happen until 2020. The CFL will soon make a decision about whether to skip having the event — which has previously been held in Regina and Winnipeg — in 2019. It’s all about timing. The league’s collective bargaining agreement expires after this season, so getting a new deal in place with the CFL Players Association is a primary focus. Neither side wants any kind of work stoppage. “We’re looking at CFL Week, we have to make a decision,” said CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie. “(For 2019), it’s too early to say; I don’t know what the answer is yet. Some really good people are sitting at a table and talking it through. We’re talking about it among ourselves, then at some point we’ll have a conversation with the PA as well. “The most important thing we can do this coming off-season is successfully negotiate a new CBA with our players. At the forefront of our mind is let’s drive all of our energy around getting that deal done. The real issue is where should we focus our time and attention. More often than not, we’re just saying, ‘Let’s focus on getting this CBA negotiated.’” After the first CFL Week was held in 2017 in Regina, it shifted to Winnipeg this year and was held March 22-25. It was a smorgasbord of CFL superstars with more than 50 of them there, including Ottawa Redblacks Trevor Harris, Greg Ellingson, Brad Sinopoli, Diontae Spencer, William Powell and Kyries Hebert. Among the other CFLers on hand: Mike Reilly, Zach Collaros, Brandon Banks, Larry Dean, Simoni Lawrence, Jeremiah Masoli, Willie Jefferson, Charleston Hughes, Bear Woods, James Wilder, Andrew Harris, Alex Singleton, Bryan Burnham, Solomon Elimimian, Darvin Adams and Ricky Ray. There are several components to the event, including fan fests (with autograph and questionand-answer sessions), tailgating and the CFL Combine, which offers a glimpse at some of the future stars. “CFL Week is a massive undertaking,” said Ambrosie. “It requires an enormity of our resources to pull it off the way we want to do it. We want to constantly make it bigger and better. Our next host — Ottawa — wants to make sure it outdoes the amazing successes we had in Regina and Winnipeg.” The event, sponsored by the clothing retail company Mark’s its first two years, is a celebration of the players, the ones who are selling the product. But it’s the same players who they need to come to terms with on a new bargaining agreement. Having a CFL Week in the middle of a contract negotiation is also probably a bit awkward. “We have a great relationship with our players,” said Ambrosie. “I think we can be proud to say we like our players and our players like us. More often than not, we’ve found a way to work together and good things happen. In the past year and a bit, we were able to successfully negotiate a 21-week schedule (with three byes), no-padded practices. Now we’re looking at injury data seeing that injuries are down significantly. Having been a player, fewer injuries are good for my career. I’m so proud of all of that. “I’m looking at this (CFL Week decision) with optimism. I’m not thinking about the negative side. But this is a question of how are we going to spend our time? If (CFL Week) wasn’t to happen (in 2019), it’s because we want to focus on the CBA.”