PLAYERS MAKE REAL GAINS IN NEW CFL LABOUR DEAL

League makes jaw-dropping about-face, adding Grey Cup cash to revenue sharing

The list of collectively bargained items includes the boilerplate, the essential and the groundbreaking.

Package them up, there are about 20, and there is little doubt the Canadian Football League Players Association occupies a markedly different space than it did before a four-day strike provoked a new collective bargaining agreement with the league.

For starters, the PA now occupies a seat on the CFL Ventures board of directors. If the CFL’S business grows, and goodness knows that simply has to happen or there is no future for any of the stakeholders, the newly formed commercial arm of the league will hold the keys and the

PA’S board representative will be able to provide decision-making input in real time. Though one seat doesn’t make them a full business partner, the PA will literally be in the room, and that stands as a groundbreaking development.

But the real jaw-dropper was the league’s about-face on revenue sharing. As Wednesday’s marathon bargaining session began, the league was still loath to include Grey Cup revenue in the formula, the players were adamant, the issue looming as a deal-breaker. Sources suggest the PA was in fact getting ready to fly its members home on the weekend, such was their resolve on the financial issue.

The league eventually changed its stance to include Grey Cup revenue and audit rights for the PA, and so tumbled the final pillar on which the player strike was founded.

The formula’s baseline will be set as all revenue from 2022, a year in which the league is still emerging from a pandemic, and just figuring out the benefits of its partnership with Genius Sports, the company promising to unlock earning potential from betting and other digital and data opportunities. The revenue sharing deal will offer the players up to a 30-per-cent share of revenue growth above that threshold, to be added to the salary cap. The cap itself is to rise a minimum of $100,000 per season, not including the potential growth.

The other crucial items — the Canadian ratio, medical coverage, term and expiry date — had all been hashed out to the satisfaction of both sides, and a memorandum of agreement was at hand.

The tentative deal must still be ratified by the CFL’S board of directors and the PA membership. That seems a good bet, because we can only assume the CFL’S negotiators had the blessing of all nine franchises to offer as much as they did to get a deal done. And there is absolutely no chance players will reject this package once it is laid out for them by PA leadership.

Here then, are some of the other new developments in the CBA:

■ Long-term medical coverage for players increases to four years from three years in 2022 and five years in 2023 and for the remainder of the deal.

■ The CFLPA can reopen the CBA after five years, once the TSN broadcast deal expires. The term expires 30 days before the opening of training camp, rather than on the eve of camp.

■ The changes to the ratio are complex, but the deal preserves seven Canadian starters and 21 Canadians on the roster. Three of the four designated imports (DIS) can sub in for a starting Canadian, but only to a maximum of 49 per cent of playing time to preserve the Canadian starters’ playing time bonuses, and only if the DIS meet the requirements for a nationalized American. The league’s teams gain the flexibility of using a DI such as a kick returner in a wide receiver role, for example.

■ Global players will receive a raise to the league minimum, which is $65,000 this year, $70,000 next year and rises to $75,000 through the term of the deal.

■ The grievance and arbitration system has changed to allow the PA to speak directly to team general managers and/or presidents to try to resolve issues, rather than first having to go through the league office. Arbitrators have also been added to the roster.