The CFL is trying to work out of the financial hole mostly caused by the pandemic, commissioner Randy Ambrosie and the owners hope revenue sharing can help lead to prosperity around the league in the future.
“We used the crisis to really reexamine: how do we approach the business of the game? Because the game is great but the business has to punch at its weight in order to have a really good league,” Ambrosie said.
There are many financial questions facing the CFL and fans around the country are curious if the three-down league can progress onward and upward amid the crisis the virus has created.
“We found a way to restructure our business in a way that’s going to give us a much stronger foundation, a much, much stronger financial foundation,” Ambrosie said.
Behind the scenes, the board of governors agreed to a revenue sharing model between the franchises for the first time in almost 40 years.
“At the heart of the philosophy is that we want all teams to be able to break even, if they do some, most, if not all of the right things. And we’re going to hold each other accountable to that standard,” Ambrosie said.
The CFL lost between $60 and $80 million due to the cancelled 2020 season. Despite further financial losses for the league this year, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers except to post a “meaningful” profit.
“I’m not trying to suggest in any way, shape or form that we don’t have work to do, we do, we have lots of work to do in the days to come,” Ambrosie said.
“We’ll have to work tirelessly, [the Grey Cup] game will end at roughly 9:30 p.m. on Sunday night — we’ll take 12 hours off. And yes, we have challenges to face.”
