Toronto mayor says he certainly can feel CFL’s financial pain
But Tory says league can survive crisis with a little ‘creativity’
Toronto Mayor John Tory has been in a similar spot to where Canadian Football League commissioner Randy Ambrosie finds himself today.
And, just like when he was board chair during troubling times before the turn of the century, Tory believes the CFL can survive its latest crisis.
On Tuesday, Ambrosie divulged the CFL is asking the federal government for up to $150 million in federal assistance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposal involves $30 million now to manage the current impact the novel coronavirus outbreak has had on league business, and up to another $120 million if the 2020 campaign is cancelled.
Ambrosie added the league’s long-term future would be in peril if the season was wiped out.
Tory served as a volunteer chair of the CFL’s board of governors from 1996 to 2000. During his first season, the league did not have enough cash to pay Edmonton Eskimos and Toronto Argonauts players in the Grey Cup game in Hamilton.
Fortunately, Tim Hortons provided the league with extra funds to ensure the players’ cheques would clear.
“I’ve seen it at that level of despair,” Tory said. “We came back from that to the point where the league was very strong over the last number of years.
“It’s just now this pandemic has (brought) many very wellrun organizations to their knees and the CFL has the same kind of problems many other businesses in Canada have.”
In 1997, the CFL faced another financial crisis that threatened its survival. But the league secured a muchneeded $3-million (U.S.) loan as part of a partnership with the National Football League that it ultimately repaid, with interest.
From 1993 to ’95, the CFL had teams in seven American markets — Las Vegas, Sacramento, Memphis, Baltimore, Birmingham, Ala., Shreveport, La., and San Antonio. The expansion fees paid by those clubs also helped keep the league afloat.
In 2003, the Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats met in the infamous Bankruptcy Bowl because neither franchise had an owner. The league did manage to secure new ownership for both clubs.
So Tory isn’t surprised to hear the CFL is having problems once again.
“I remember, and I know, even today with better TV contracts, the league is still very gate dependant,” Tory said. “If there’s a possibility or probability that fans in seats may not be possible at all this year or until much later, I’d understand that would cause serious financial problems.
“The fact they’ve turned to government, to me, would be part of what I think they should do.”
But Tory said that’s not all the CFL could be doing to help remedy the situation.
“To me, I think they should show a little, good old-fashioned CFL creativity,” he said. “Turn to the TV networks and say, ‘OK, what can you do,’ because the TV networks are the beneficiary of having this great Canadian game that attracts a lot of interest around the country.”
Then Tory would look to CFL owners.
“I’d say, ‘OK, what can you do,’ knowing some of them in places like Regina are community owners and they can’t do as much,” Tory said. “But there could be something, I think, the owners could do collectively.”
Tory would also get CFL fans involved.
“If you sort of do the math, I think I’m right in saying they’d have about 100,000 fans a week,” he said. “Maybe you could have a bit of a campaign among the fans with each buying sort of a membership into the CFL.”
With that all being done, Tory would then make the trek to Ottawa.