New boss’s fundraising chops can’t fix bad deal
There are probably at least two big problems with asking Kevin Blue if he truly grasps how bad things really are in his new job. One, it’s Canada Soccer, and the situation can get worse in unexpected ways at any moment. We’re two years into that process, minimum.
And two, there is no way Blue can grasp the whole picture because this is one of the country’s defining sports messes with tendrils that reach back over years, and Canada Soccer’s new general secretary and CEO is arriving at a moment of genuine uncertainty. The federation is getting sued by the women’s national team. The men’s team has neither a permanent head coach nor a collective agreement. The budgets are bleeding badly with no end in sight, weighed down by a contract that handcuffs the federation until 2037. The golden age of Canadian soccer, both men’s and women’s, may not last.
And Blue only has this job because the previous choice, former MLSE executive Alyson Walker, backed out at the very last minute, citing an unexpected personal matter. How your job affects your life could be described as personal, right?
So here comes Blue, a former chief sport officer for Golf Canada and former athletic director at the University of California, Davis. He’s billed as a fundraiser, among other things. And Canada Soccer does need funds.
“We need to be at a situation where the climate is such that donors and corporate partners are eager to support the sport and aren’t concerned about instability, and we have some work to do to get there,” Blue said Monday. “There are several financial misalignments that need to be addressed.”
Well, sure, but even that answer raises a fundamental problem in Canadian soccer right now: the national teams are locked into that 20-year deal with Canadian Soccer Business, after Canada Soccer signed away the sponsorship and broadcasting rights in 2018 for an annual flat fee, which is currently $3.5 million per year. The actual revenues are far greater, of course. CSB sold the broadcasting and a few other rights to its assets to a company called MediaPro for $8.7 million per year over 10 years. The real total revenue number is clearly much higher.
That is the essential problem here, beyond any incompetence, beyond anything else. More corporate sponsors for Canada Soccer doesn’t actually benefit Canada Soccer. That’s why the women’s team is suing the 15 people responsible for signing the deal, citing wilful neglect of their obligations. If Canada Soccer just kept all its revenue, men’s coach John Herdman
wouldn’t be running Toronto FC, and everyone at the federation would be laughing their way toward the 2026 men’s World Cup and those very expensive 15 games in Canada.
And since CSB has shown no inclination to materially alter the terms of the deal — because CSB, which runs the Canadian Premier League and the broadcasting arm, OneSoccer, doesn’t have to — Blue would have to be truly transformative to change that.
So what’s left? The men’s team’s contract demands remain unreasonable. As TSN reported, Canada Soccer’s deficit this year was $4 million, and that was the number after they made sweeping cuts up and down the organization; the original deficit is believed to have been at least double that number. The cash reserves are believed to be on pace to run out some time within the next two years.
As a result, Canada Soccer will ask its members to approve a player registration fee increase from $9 to $15 at the May annual general meeting, though it’s far from clear that will be approved.
“If I was in the membership shoes, I wouldn’t approve the fee increase that they’ve been asked for,” said one source familiar with Canada Soccer. “And that fee increase is really important.”
Blue did emphasize philanthropy, though.
“A significant growth area that comes from my background will be in developing the right type of philanthropic structure to help connect major gift support with the priorities that the donors want to support,” said Blue. “I know we’ve had some of this activity happen in the past.”
And the present, if you count pri- vate financial support for the national teams over the past few years from people such as Vancouver Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot. But even if membership approves the fee change, it can’t be collected until 2025. And, even if charity can be a fiscal Band-Aid for the organization, who is lining up to donate money to a federation that is being sued by its women’s team for mismanaging its financial assets?
“Would you give money to Canada Soccer?” said one source familiar with Canada Soccer’s charitable operations.
Canadian soccer is approaching a truly desperate moment. Blue was asked if the federation could go bankrupt next year and said, with confidence: “I know that the word bankruptcy is a word that gets people’s attention, and I can state that it is not a possibility in the next year.”
And he’s right, if only because, the way FIFA works, Canada Soccer can’t really go bankrupt. It can make budget cuts, it can fire staff, and eventually what happens is FIFA takes over the federation. It’s not bankruptcy so much as insolvency.
Meanwhile, there will likely be a new president in May, and who knows how that affects the organization. A cynic might ask just how crazy someone would have to be to take this job; a realist would simply note that Blue is walking into a minefield while wearing comically oversized shoes, because they come with the gig. Welcome to Canada Soccer.
“There is this unique combination of challenge and opportunity,” said Blue. “I think it’s a critical time for the sport.”
Well, he’s right about that last part. Best of luck.