CFL Players’ Association record ‘wins’ through 2027 Grey Cup playoff expansion

Photo: Reuben Polansky/3DownNation. All rights reserved.

The CFL Players’ Association benefitted from the league’s desire to expand the Grey Cup playoffs starting in 2027.

Led by CFLPA president Solomon Elimimian, who has helped the union make major strides during his tenure, the board of directors went through a long but thorough process with commissioner Stewart Johnston and his colleagues.

“We wanted to make sure we got things right on our end. There’s a lot of wins for the membership in there from pre-season to post-season compensation, still having the revenue sharing. Extra games of consequence with the playoff games — revenue for both sides, so a lot of wins in there, including the NFRS (non-football related services) money, and a few other things with the reserve roster and expanded practice roster,” Brett Lauther, the union’s first vice-president, told 3DownNation on Tuesday.

“From the player safety aspect to growing revenues and putting more money in players’ pockets, not only now but in the future, those were the main things we were concerned about. After a lot of back and forth, it wasn’t an overnight discussion. It was ongoing for quite a bit, to get it to where we were comfortable and bring it to the player reps at our annual meetings. They voted unanimously to pass this and go forward. We got it to a very comfortable and great place that it’s not only beneficial for the league but beneficial for all the players.”

For the 2026 CFL season, both sides agreed $50,000 will be added back to the salary cap, totalling $6,330,514 per team. The salary cap cannot decrease while the current collective bargaining agreement is in place and all revenue sharing growth will continue to get added to the cap. Meanwhile, the players received permanent increases to weekly training camp compensation — first-year veterans will earn $725, second-year veterans $825, and three-year plus veterans $925.

Starting immediately, each franchise will have the ability to designate up to two players on a reserve roster each week with no changes to the ratio or roster composition, creating 18 additional fully-paid jobs. Practice roster sizes have been increased by two, with a Canadian filling one of those new spots. Also, language has been cleaned up when it comes to the injured lists, marketing money, and Nationalized Americans.

“From my own experience, not ever seeing any postseason or preseason money go up over 10 years, even though inflation is what it is, that’s tough over time — the only gross was $50,000 of salary cap every year. Playoff money is almost doubling. The preseason money is almost doubled from when I came in. The revenue sharing will still have 30 percent of any new revenue from TV deals or extra playoff money or anything like that will be going on the cap,” Lauther said.

“Truly the future of this league is bright. I was joking before saying I wish I wasn’t on the back-nine of my career and wish I was coming into the league right now. But I really care about this league a lot, where it’s going to be, especially even after I’m done playing and trying to leave it in a better spot than what it was when I came in. There’s a lot of indications, not only monetary ones, but off-the-field ones to show that over the last couple years being the vice president of the Players’ Association.”

When the CFL adds four postseason games in 2027, the playoff compensation will also rise. For first and second-round games, dressed roster players will earn $4,000. The money will increase to $4,200 in the third round, then Grey Cup losers will collect $10,000, and Grey Cup winners will be paid $20,000.

It’s an increase from $3,400, $3,600, $8,000, and $16,000 pay levels in recent years. That equates to roughly $6 million in additional postseason compensation over the length of the current collective bargaining agreement, which expires prior to the 2029 season unless the opt-out clause comes in to play.

“Winning the Grey Cup, you now have the potential to make $32,200, which is close to half minimum base salary. As a traditionalist, I had similar thoughts, but then over time and thinking about things, especially the role I’m in isn’t about my own opinion — it’s about what’s best for the players in general as an association. That’s to grow revenue and players’ safety and it doesn’t hurt either of those aspects,” Lauther said.

“But as much as eight of nine getting in, I think there’s potentially some foreshadowing where hopefully there is expansion someday, whether it’s on the East Coast, which I’ve been a big advocate of, or somewhere else. I think that would help with how many teams are getting in. Not only that, toward the end of the season where you see a lot of teams resting guys, it makes the games more important.”

The 35-year-old kicker knows home playoff games can be game-changers for franchises across Canada from a revenue perspective. If more teams have a chance to boost income, that could benefit all parties involved. Lauther understands fans who are concerned about the regular-season meaning less with eight teams — 88.9 percent — in a nine-team league qualifying for the postseason, but believes people will become used to it after time to adjust.

“I guess we’ll see how it plays out from my personal opinion. But for the most part my role is to grow revenues and players’ safety. I feel like we’ve handled all the issues on that end and definitely got a few other things cleaned up that we needed to as well,” he said.

“Stewart’s not scared of change. There’s been quite a bit of change and probably even more coming forward. He’s definitely been trying to put the players first in a lot of aspects of what he’s shown. There’s a lot of things that he’s potentially doing that could lead this league and set up for the future for a long time.”

Johnston drove himself to the union’s annual general meeting in Niagara-on-the-Lake in late March to attend in-person. Randy Ambrosie never went to one in-person during his tenure.

That along with other good-faith gestures has helped the sides build a professional relationship outside negotiation rooms, which bodes well for the league office, board of governors, and Players’ Association working more effectively together in the future.