CFL to implement revenue-sharing model

The CFL’s haves are going to be helping the have-nots.

During his State of the League address Friday in Hamilton, commissioner Randy Ambrosie announced the CFL will be implementing a revenue-sharing model for the first time in almost 40 years.

Teams that need help will get assistance to get back on their feet, Ambrosie said, and best practices will be shared between the clubs. The goal is to create what the commissioner called “horizontal accountability.”

“This isn’t a question of one team giving to another,” Ambrosie told reporters in Hamilton to cover Sunday’s Grey Cup. “It’s not a question of somebody sacrificing something for somebody else. This was a question of, ‘How do we win together?’

“That was the way the governors, to their infinite credit, approached the issue: ‘How do we build a CFL together? How do we help each other? How do we create an ecosystem of mutual accountability — horizontal accountability?’

“The conversation actually was never negative. The conversation was positive because it was about building something together and doing what we needed to do to accomplish that. That was at the heart of the conversation to start and it’s how we got to a successful conclusion.”

Some of the CFL’s nine franchises were on solid footing before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, while others were unsteady.

COVID has forced the entire league to revamp its business model – and that includes the revenue-sharing idea.

That means fans in Saskatchewan will indirectly be helping the wealthy owners of teams like the Toronto Argonauts and other clubs that need assistance navigating financial troubles.

“The fans all across our league want our league to be successful and strong,” Ambrosie said when asked about sharing his message with Roughriders supporters. “The fans all across our league want us to have nine strong teams. Ultimately, they want us to have 10 strong teams (including a team in Atlantic Canada).

“I think the fans will respond well to the idea that we’re doing the things that we announced today — that we’re introducing a new partner, that we’re looking after each other, that we’re building a stronger community of teams — because in the end, this league’s history has always seen us have a team or two struggle and to some degree, we’ve left them to struggle on their own. This is a decision that those days are over.”

Ambrosie announced the league has entered into a partnership with Genius Sports, a move the CFL hopes will accelerate its growth and broaden its reach.

However, Ambrosie didn’t provide much in the way of details to explain how the partnership would operate.

He also didn’t have to much to share about the revenue-sharing model and the formula that will it entail.

What he did say was that he expected fans to welcome the moves after two years of dealing with COVID.

“We used this time productively to build something that’s going to set us up for the future,” Ambrosie said. “(There’s) lots of hard work in front of us, but our fans want us — and wanted us — to do the right things and they want us to build something special.

“I think we’ve taken the steps in the last several months and we’ve announced them today to do just that.”

— With files from The Canadian Press